Runners took over the streets of downtown Ann Arbor yesterday during the Firecracker 5K. I got a 5K PR woo hoo! My time was 20:11.3, a 6:30/mile pace, which put me first in my age group and fifth overall for women.
The top 5 neurochemicals released during exercise, taken from the book The Athlete’s Way -
1. Endocannabinoid: The bliss molecule. Directly linked to pleasure and has anti-inflammatory properties.
2. Dopamine: The reward molecule. Drives people to set goals and achieve them.
3. Epinephrine (Adrenaline): The energy molecule. Allows people to perform superhuman feats and improves mood.
4. Serotonin: The confidence molecule. One of the least understood neurotransmitters. Good for mental health.
5. Endorphin: The painkiller molecule. Gram for gram, three times more powerful than morphine.
No wonder it feels good to get out there and break a sweat!
First race of the year! This race took place downtown Ann Arbor with 1,500+ people. It’s great that all sorts of runners showed up, but with so many people I wish they had lined by speed. Slower people in front makes for some tricky maneuvering. There were lots of great hats and headbands in the crowd. I saw a Vibram FiveFingers runner, too!
Results: 22:39.5, 7:18 split. 12/954 women, 85/1597 overall. Third place in my age group woo hoo!
Edgeworth checks out Edgeworth.
Check out my new Tumblr blog, Loafy Guinea Piggy!
I wish I had kept updates when I was first getting into Vibram FiveFingers. It was an adventure in learning how to run again; it would have been nice to look back and see myself progressing through the changes. As I’ve been rock climbing, I’m going to jot my experiences on this here personal blog for posterity. I’m not sure if I’m ready to fully commit to climbing up walls, but I’m getting a kick out of it so far.
Two Fridays ago, a bunch of us at work went over to Planet Rock to try out rock climbing. Among the group were two pros, the rest of us were noobies. I didn’t make it up to the top, but every time I came down, I wanted to try again. During this first trip, I couldn’t get used to sitting back in the harness and relaxing. Not to mention looking down was rather nerve racking! I knew I wasn’t supposed to pull myself up by my arms – you’re supposed to use your legs to push off and up – but I was doing it anyway. It was very hard to ignore what my nerves were saying. Kirsti and Jerome, the two pros, were amazingly helpful with advice and encouragement.
This last trip I made it up to the top – twice! Looking down still makes me a little woozy. I tend to climb up until I can’t figure out where to go, then I freeze, and then I want to come down. I’m getting a little more confident, and don’t feel like I will fall when relaxing back into the harness. That part is still a little odd feeling, but I can relax and shake out my arms without having a death grip on the rope. I did belay for the first time, and would like to get a little more work on that next time.
Some pictures from the first trip -
This morning I realized my snackordie.com site had been down since yesterday, which lead to a bit of panic of my part. I’d forgotten to renew my domain, which expired a few days ago. Now all is well.
This past weekend I moved the old computer system into the living room, which is the piggy domain. I hooked up a webcam and violà! Streaming PeegyCam!
Check out the UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/peegies! You might see small, fat mammals or a pigloo being motored around. I’m planning on having it run while I’m at work so I can keep an eye on the little squeakers.
A couple of days ago, we had a good snow and snowmen popped up all over the neighborhood. I took my camera on one of my runs and snapped a few shots. The weather was -3F, but I’m lucky and the camera was okay, except for a little water on the lens.
At the start of my run, I was little bummed to see that the last snowman – my favorite with the pipe – was knocked over from the wind. On the loop back, he was put together again! Hooray!
Not since 2006 has my system gone through an upgrade. My brother, parents, and Jason put together parts for a new system for my birthday. Very exciting! Here’s the old and the shiny new parts:
Old system
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor
Motherboard Asus M2N4-SLI AM2 NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP ATX AMD
Hard Drives Western Digital Raptor, Seagate 160GB (it’s either Seagate or Western Digital.)
RAM 2 x Crucial 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
Video Card GeForce 7600 GT (overclocked to 7800).
Case Antec Black Sonata
New system!
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9400
Motherboard Asus P5N-D
Hard Drives Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB, Seagate Barracuda 300GB
RAM 4 x G.Skill 1 GB (aggressive timings!)
Video Card GeForce 260
Power Supply Corsair 650 Watts (came in a cloth baggie, very fancy.)
Case Antec P180
Because I wanted to keep the P180 as my main case, I moved the old parts from the P180 into the Sonata (which was empty). The new video card is a beast! It’s so big it has to take up a hard drive slot. Right now I have XP on the old system, and XP 64 on this new one until Windows 7 shows up. I’m very happy with the new system!
Now to go play some Crysis!
The piggy secret santa gifts came from the piggies Lily, Isabel, Luke, with some help from Janet. So many gifts for the piggies!
The candle house comes from Janet, and the lip glosses come from the piggies. Thank you piggies and Janet!
