Greg's Blog

Sweat

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:12:00 +0000

It has been stiflingly hot this week in central Illinois. After my noon run on Monday finishing with completely soaked shoes after an easy 7 miles, I decided to try to beat the heat by doing my speed work early Tuesday morning. It turned out to be miserable as well (although I did get to chat briefly with the NCAA 5k Champion, Angela Bizzarri who was also at the track at 7am to do her workout in preparation for her race tonight in the USATF national championships).

Yesterday, I decided to do a sweat test to figure out my sweat rate in these conditions. I lost nearly 5% of my body weight on a 7min/mile paced 10 miler. Here's the "scientific" report that I sent my running group after the run:

Abstract:

I did a sweat test on today's run and thought you all would be interested in the results.

Methodology:

Prior to the run, I weighed myself nude at on the digital scale at the ARC. During the run, I wore a fuel belt and drank measured amounts of water. After the run, I dried off and then weighed myself nude again using the same scale.

Results:

Pre-run weight: 155.9 lbs

Water consumed: 40 ozs (2.5 lbs)

Post-run weight: 151.2 lbs

Run time: 1:10:00

Distance: ~10 mi

Weather: 90 F, 54% humidity, 12.7mph W wind, mostly clear with a few clouds

Total weight lost during run = 155.9 lbs - 151.2 lbs + 2.5 lbs = 7.2 lbs

Discussion:

During the course of the run, I lost 115.2 ozs, which we can attribute mostly to fluid loss and possibly the liquification and sweating out of a significant quantity of brain matter. This is a sweat rate of 98.7 ozs / hour or 1.65 ozs / min. If I were drinking water from a shot glass during the run, I would have to take a shot every 55 seconds to maintain my weight.

Conclusion:

Running is dumb.

Many alternate conclusions were propsed like "running in today's conditions is dumb" or "summer in the midwest is dumb." Regardless, I'm sure I'll keep on doing it.

Illinois Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:26:00 +0000

It's been quite some time since I've posted anything here, so I'll come back to it with a race report from the first annual Illinois Marathon.

2008 was a disastrous marathon year for me. I felt like I was in really good shape heading into both Boston and Chicago. In both races, I had severe stomach pains starting somewhere past mile 15 and had a miserable experience in finishing both races. I finished 45 and 35 minutes behind my expected finish time in both races and was extremely displeased. After Chicago last year, I was so fed up that I decided I would take at least one marathon cycle off and maybe just quit running them entirely.

Fortunately, the Illinois Marathon came to town. The race was to be a smaller marathon in the town where I live with most of my running group participating. With everyone in the group training for the marathon, I was almost training for it by default, so I went ahead and put in the long runs and signed up for the race. I decided two important things in advance.

1) I would train at lower volume than I have for my previous marathons. I still wanted a bit of a break from the training. I put in a lot of weeks around 50 miles and I peaked at just 60.5, the only week I went over 60 miles.

2) I would run a conservative pace. Despite the fact that I'd finished 4 marathons, my PR was still a 2:58:17 from my first marathon, which I ran in Austin. I'd been looking to run 2:45 in the past few where I'd blown up. I still think I'm capable of running at least that fast (I did a 24 miler at a pace that would have put me at 2:41 training for one of my disasters last year...and felt great after the run), but I couldn't risk blowing up again or the prospects of continuing to marathon would slim considerably. I needed to "get the monkey off of my back" as my training partner liked to say. I decided I'd look to run just under 3 hours and there were a bunch of guys in my running group who I could run with at that pace. The plan was to run a nice, relaxed pace and have fun doing it.

Things went according to plan.

I got out of my own bed on the morning of the marathon, well rested and tapered down from my moderate training mileage. I picked up a few of my running buddies and we convened with the rest of the running group in one of their offices which was right near the start line. The weather was better than we could have asked for. It was around 40 degrees at the start, sunny, and low wind (10 mph, which is low for here in Champaign-Urbana).

We ran nice, even splits right on pace as we opened up the marathon. Pictured here (photo courtesy of Kate Torrey) is a bunch of my running group in the early miles along with my PhD advisor, who was running the half. It was fun seeing lots of people we knew along the course. Before the race, I decided that no matter how good I felt, I wouldn't pick up the pace until at least mile 18. I felt great, but I waited patiently. Still feeling good at mile 18.5, I told the group I was going to pick up the pace and I dropped down from ~6:47/mile to under 6:30's where I stayed through the last 10k to the finish line, coming across in 2:55:30. My splits for the entire race are recorded here (I forgot to hit the button at 15).

I was really pleased with the way the marathon went. I ran it according to plan, I felt great, and I had fun. Normally, I don't look to "have fun" while I'm running a race, although I'm looking to have enjoyed it afterwards. This was a win-win because I got the monkey off my back while also having fun (admittedly, the last couple of miles still hurt and I'm not smiling so much in the picture from the last mile). I also recovered incredibly fast. It was a Saturday race and by Wednesday, my legs already felt really good, although I gave it a full week before I started running again. And I'm re-motivated about the marathon. I'm already planning to run Columbus this fall with a bunch of guys from the running group.

As far as the organization of the marathon goes, I thought it was an incredibly well-done first year event. When the plans were first announced and I heard they wanted 4,000 people, I laughed. Amazingly, there were around 9,000 people across the three events with nearly 2,000 in the marathon. Almost everything along the course was well-done too. My biggest complaint was the places where the marathon and half-marathon courses merged. Around mile 23 in the marathon we merged with mile 11 or 12 of the half-marathon for about half a mile and had to cross paths. This meant that while I was coming through under 6:30 pace, I was moving across a lane of people walk/jogging. I nearly got run into the pillar of the viaduct as somebody slowed to a walk and moved off to her left as I came through. And while it was nice to finish in the stadium, the common start + common finish for the full and the half led to a similar problem. My training partner (who ran ~2:41) nearly got caught in the tunnel entering the stadium amongst a mob of half marathoners jogging their way in. And the winners of the marathon finished amidst a wash of slow half-marathoners. Despite these complaints, I think it was a great marathon. I'll definitely do it again...unless I'm running in Boston.

Surviving the Cold

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Last week, we had some very cold weather come through. The first photo here shows a screenshot (yes, that's a preview of the Windows 7 Beta running on my home computer) from last Friday morning before I headed into the lab. -17 degrees F with a wind chill of -31 F. I ran outside later that afternoon, although it had warmed up considerably. We started our run at 0 degrees and it warmed to 4 degrees by the end of our 7 mile run. The second picture shows the gear I wore for the run. We earned 5 points on this run.

5 points, you ask? How do you earn points on a run? My running group has a system wherein you earn points for runs on extremely hot or cold days. The formulas are as follows:

Winter points = Miles - Average Run Temperature in Fahrenheit
Summer points = Miles + Average Run Temperature in F - 100

Anything left that is positive earns you points. Since the average temperature on our run was 2 degrees F, the points we earned were 7 miles - 2 degrees = 5 points. Everyone diligently logs their points and then at the end of the year, we add them up and trade them in for absolutely nothing. My record for a single run is 12 points (18 miles in 6 degrees), which pales in comparison to some of the guys I run with. I could have racked up some serious points if I'd run when I got up on Friday morning! Some people say the run must be a minimum of 3 consecutive miles to earn points.

The last picture here shows my biking outfit for a cold winter commute in to work. I may complain a lot about how cold it is here, but it sure doesn't keep me inside!

Utah

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:31:00 +0000

My sister didn't have Christmas off this year, so the family headed out to her place in Salt Lake City once the airfare had dropped a week after the new year. We're just now finishing up our five day trip.

Our first full day here, we went skiing at Alta, which is where I have done the majority of my skiing in Utah. 12 inches had fallen in the 24 hours before we hit the slopes, but it was a very warm day (it hit 34 F at the Alta base) and the powder was really heavy. It was not the champagne powder Alta is known for and it made the skiing a lot of work. It was a gorgeous day, though, and still a lot of fun. The first picture here shows my dad trying to get up aided by my sister after taking an awesome face-first plant in the snow. I fell 3 times before lunch myself and the thick powder was lots of fun to tumble in. The second picture shows my brother and at I at the top of the Collins lift and the last picture is the mountains across the street from the Alta base in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
The next day was even warmer, so we skipped the skiing and went to one of the last days of the Body Worlds 3 exhibit in SLC, which was really cool. It was also helpful having Dr. Dad along to explain more than what the exhibits pointed out. I have no pictures to post since they don't allow photos, but it's definitely worth checking out if you get the chance. We spent two hours there and could have easily stayed longer. It was 54 degrees, so I was able to take a rare winter short-sleeve run back home after the museum.

The third day sent us to Solitude for skiing, where I'd never been. It was colder and we had 7 inches of fresh powder and the skiing was awesome. I really liked skiing there a lot and the crowds were very thin. It was a most excellent day of skiing.

Today I abandoned the skiing and went for a long run up City Creek Canyon, a run I discovered using the USATF Routes tool. It was a simply fabulous run. Unfortunately, I started 5 miles from the canyon. I'd only planned to run 12 miles, but once I got into the Canyon, I had to tack on some more because it was so incredible and I ended up doing a bit over 14 miles. It's a gradual climb up the Canyon, reasonable even for this Illinois flat-lander. The road was plowed, but is closed to traffic during the winter (and it's closed to traffic every other day in the warm seasons!). It was low-30's and sunny, which was perfect weather for the run and while the road was clear, there were banks of snow on the sides, with City Creek babbling a few feet away and snow-laden trees forming a canopy overhead. I really must find some mountains to live in when I finish my PhD.

Blizzard

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:27:00 +0000

On Monday, December 22, Claire and I headed out from Chicago toward Detroit. It was below zero as we scraped the car in Chicago, but the roads were fine as we headed out of Illinois. As soon as we hit the Michigan border, we were greeted with gusting winds that made visibility very poor as depicted in the first photo. At first it wasn't evening snowing, but was blowing the champagne poweder from the median onto the road. We planned to pull off for lunch, but just before our exit got stuck in stand-still traffic for close to an hour. Shortly thereafter, everyone was shuttled off the interstate. It turned out it was a nearly 100 car accident that caused the highway to be shut down for several miles. We took side roads for several miles before we were able to get back onto the highway, but the snow blew so badly that we were stuck in total white-outs, with Claire watching the rumble strip out the passenger window to make sure I was creeping along in the lane. We knew it was only going to get worse, and dark was about to set in, so we pulled off at the first exit we could and holed up for the night in a very strange place.

The tiny town of Watervliet (sic) had a new Ramada, which had a waterpark inside. The place was called Safari Joe's and there seemed to be no reason to have a hotel like this in such a small place. We came to realize that the place was basically a trophy room for the owner Joe, who liked to go on safari in Africa and kill exotic animals with a variety of weapons. The most unfortunate part of the event was that the hotel cost more than the room we'd shared with my brother the night before in Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. The place was completely filled, though, because it was nearly impossible to travel. The roads weren't great starting out the next day, as shown in the last photo, but once we made it past Kalamazoo, it was smooth sailing to Detroit.

Oath

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:38:00 +0000

A friend of ours was just elected to the city council of my dear small hometown in Kentucky. It was through this that the amazingness of the oath of office for city councilmen in Kentucky was brought to my attention.

Oath of Office:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Kentucky so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of City Councilman according to law; and I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that since the adoption of the present Constitution, I, being a citizen of this State, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus offending, so help me God.

Reference: Section 228 of the Constitution of Kentucky, as Ratified & Revised in 1891

Evolution of basketball tickets

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:14:00 +0000

This is my third year buying student tickets for Illinois basketball with some of my friends. Student ticket seats are based on a point system, a big chunk of which comes from years of ticket purchases. Based on that, your seats will improve every year. Assembly Hall has 3 rings. Our first year, we sat in the third row from the top of section C. Last year, we were in the 8th row of section C and now we're in the first two rows of section B. Our seats this year are excellent. The photos here are pictures I took without any zoom each of the 3 years from our seats.

Aside from having good seats this year, the good news is that the Illini appear to be much better than I had expected them to be. Hopefully, that continues to be true as we start to play in the Big 10.

Prelim

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:19:00 +0000

The blog has gotten neglected over the past couple of months because I was preparing for my preliminary exam, which I took on Monday. For those of you unfamiliar with the PhD process, the prelim is the oral exam that qualifies you as a candidate for a PhD. Where this happens in the process varies from discipline to discipline, but in chemistry at Illinois, we generally take the prelim in the first semester of the 3rd year. If you pass, you continue your research for the next 2ish years to complete your PhD and if you fail, you're typically asked to leave with a masters. We submit a preliminary report, then give a presentation to our committee of four who are free to ask us anything they want.

The short story is that I passed my prelim on Monday, which is quite nice to have out of the way. I still have plenty that I want to get done in the lab, but hopefully I'll get back up to speed here as well.

Stop Wining

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:27:00 +0000

My labmate sent me this great article on wines from all 50 states. It's a pretty hilarious read. I was glad to see that the Kentucky wine they tasted ranked as Excellent. I've enjoyed the wines I've had from our friend's vineyard in KY as well, CCC Trail Vineyard.

50 American Wines

Illinois Readers: Alert!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:53:00 +0000

This is seriously bad news.

I use several of these parks on a fairly regular basis. I plan to call my legislators tomorrow. You should too. Or write a letter. Or both.

If you live in Urbana, here's the contact info.

Senator Michael W. Frerichs
Springfield Office:
Senator 52nd District
118 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 782-2507

District Office:
45 E. University Ave.
Suite 206
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 355-5252

Representative Naomi D. Jakobsson
Springfield Office:
257-S Stratton Office Building
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 558-1009
(217) 557-7680 FAX

District Office:
206 N. Randolph
Suite 120
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 373-5000
(217) 373-8679 FAX

If you live somewhere else:
http://www.ilga.gov/

EDIT:
Here's the Governor's Office. They suck in comparison. They try to get you off the phone as quickly as possible.

Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone: 217-782-0244 or 312-814-2121

Teaching Award

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:55:00 +0000

I just got contacted yesterday and it turns out that I won a teaching award for the 2006-2007 academic year at the University of Illinois. I was kind of surprised to hear about it so late, but late is definitely better than never!

The award is currently listed here.

I can't help but reflect on how much my Teach For America experience has benefited me. I didn't join TFA because I thought it would help me. In fact, I was worried that taking time off before graduate school would hurt me. I joined TFA because of the injustice that exists in America's public school system. Now--definitely not just because of this award--I'd argue that time spent has helped me immensely in graduate school. The impact on my year as a Teaching Assistant is obvious given my top 10% of instructors on campus rating for both Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 (the two semesters I was a TA) and culminating in this teaching award. I think I have my thorough TFA training as well as two years in the classroom to thank for that.

In addition to equipping me with a skillset for effective instruction--on which I can still improve drastically--TFA helped give me clarity on what I want to do. Long term, I know that I want to teach. I'm not regularly in the classroom right now because I'm currently working on my research, but I love opportunities that I get to spend in the classroom. Also, when I heard about the local school-based mentoring program, CU1to1, it was a no-brainer that I should apply to join the program because I know how valuable this kind of thing can be for students. My mentee is going to be in the 7th grade this coming year and the hour that I spend with him each week during the school year is one of the best hours of my week. Getting other graduate students to even think about taking an hour a week to be involved in our local public schools is like pulling teeth.

So I'm honored to receive this teaching award. The fact that I'm getting it when I'm not actively in the classroom reminds me that I'm not in the classroom and that I'm not doing a lot for education right now. I guess a reminder of why we're doing what we're doing is always in order.

Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:36:00 +0000

On the 4th of July, my friends Mark and Amber went with me to the small town of Paxton to race the 5k held in conjuction with their Old Fashioned 4th of July Festival. Last year, we all raced in Champaign's Freedom 5k, but it's not actually 5k. The course has been notoriously short for years after someone moved the turnaround cone because the parade had lined up a block early; the problem has apparently never been fixed. I emailed back and forth with the race directors a bit and got no satisfactory information that the race would be a properly measured distance. It turns out it was again short, so I'm glad we bailed on it. Instead, we went to Paxton and had a fabulous time.

It was bound to be a good day when we found out that instead of t-shirts we would get visors, which Mark and I call our Freedom Visors. For some crazy reason, Amber declined this piece of American heritage. Mark and I took a ton of pictures in our Freedom Visors, the whole set of which can be found here.

The race course was an out-and-back with a bit of a rise on the way back. Some high school kids went out with us from the start and I went through the mile at 5:14. The guy next to me looked like he was hurting, so I decided I'd wait until the turn-around and then drop the hammer. I came out of the turn strong (my second mile was still significantly slower) and dropped him off my shoulder, but he never really dropped off hard like I expected him to. I picked the 3rd mile up and still never shook him more than about 20 seconds. I came through in 16:49, a result which I was happy enough with considering I hadn't taken the race too seriously leading up to it and considering that I definitely could have run harder. The kid who'd run stronger than I expected hung second while Mark took 3rd. Amber was the first female finishers.

The race gave $75 gift certificates to our local running store, Body N' Sole, to the top three male and female finishers, so we all finished in the money. The second picture here shows Mark relishing his entry into the ranks of professional runners (as you'll remember, loyal reader, I became a professional last year). We goofed around kissing our wares and the final picture shows the two race champions.

If you're interested in my email exchange with the race directors of the Freedom 5k, it's detailed below; the last email was so unintelligible, that I just gave up trying to understand it and scheduled the trip to Paxton instead. (I think maybe he was trying to say he walked it with a wheel...except everybody who ran it this year said it was short; and nobody likes to admit their time was too fast.)

Hi,

Will the 5K course be accurately measured to five kilometers this year? The course last year was most definitely not 5 kilometers and I have been told that the race distance has not been accurate for many years. Will the course be properly measured this year? I plan to run the 5k, but only if the distance will be accurate.

Thank you,
Greg Scott

---------------

Hi Greg,
The Freedom Celebration Committee is unaware of any error in the distance of the 5K run. The distance was originally measured by a licensed land surveyor and has not changed. What is the source of your information?
[Race Director 1]

---------------

Greg, The Freedom 5 K course is a true 5k, done by a couple of offical surveyor's. One year on course setup, the turnaround was incorrectly
moved 1 block forward, which made the course a little short. I'm not exactly sure which year. or if this happened more than once. Thanks, [Race Director 2]
Second Wind Race Director.

---------------

Hi [Race Director 1 and Race Director 2],

Thanks for your responses. The story that I have heard from lots of local runners is that of the turnaround being moved a block forward, but that it has never been returned to normal, being setup every year as "that's where the cone goes." All of the guys in my running group are in agreement that the race has been short for several years and everyone who magically got a 5k PR during a hot 11am race over the past few years has recorded the race as ~3 miles in their running logs. I would be simply amazed if I ran a 15:57 last year as the results indicate (and Scott Krapf...name mispelled in the results) was quoted in the News Gazette talking about how surprised he was that he ran that fast so early in the training cycle. I went through the mile in 5:06 last year and hit the 2-mile mark at 4:38 after making a conscious decision to let the lead pack go because I realized I wouldn't be able to hold the pace without falling apart. Perhaps the 2 mile marker was just in the wrong place, but it would be consistent with an early turnaround and the miraculously fast times that seasoned, consistent runners post at the race.

When was the last time the course was measured? It sounds like it was when the surveyors did the original measurement (it's interesting to note that the original method used is not acceptable for USATF course certification). I know you make no claim that the course is USATF certifcation, but I think the axiom used in the introduction to that manual still holds true that 'If an entry fee is charged for a road race, runners have a right to a properly measured course." I obviously don't expect you to go out and buy the special bike setup for measuring this course, but considering the inconsistency between "the course has never changed" and "it may have happened more the once," I think it would be nice to know that somebody went out and walked the tangents with a measuring wheel.

Thanks,
Greg

---------------

Greg, That's good because the last couple of weeks I used a wheel (ChampaignCentennial's) to make sure the turnaround as at proper stop. There were pins instreet, but those where covered up when Lincoln Ave. was changed to 3 lanes.I should have remarked at that time. Pins are still at Start and Finish, [Race Director 2]

Flowers!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:45:00 +0000

These are some pictures that I recently took of flowers in my landscaping. The first and third are daylillies that I planted and the second picture is of Echinacea (Purple Coneflower) that were planted before I bought the house. I love all of these flowers because they're super-cool and require pretty much zero maintenance. I'm hoping to get a few more daylillies this year to add to my collection out front (I still have one more daylilly that hasn't bloomed at all yet, but it has sent up stalks and started to bud).

Ride Across the Country

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:08:00 +0000

No, I didn't ride my bike across the country. But I did tag along with a self-supported ride across the country a few weeks ago. My dad's boss, Phil, contacted me about his brother-in-law, Royce, who was riding across the country and that his route would take him near me through Illinois. Royce, pictured on the left, is riding east to west across the country and Phil, pictured on the right was riding five days with him. I rode part of one day.

The leg I joined was from Danville to Decatur, so I rode down to meet them at the Casey's (ubiqitous gas stations in all the small towns in Illinois) in Sidney and then rode across part way to Monticello with them (basically riding along the same roads I always ride). It was a lot of fun to join them for a short jaunt on a beautiful day. Royce insisted on taking a picture of me for which he had already planned the caption. His ride journal, which he updates every few days whenever he has access, is a lot of fun to read. It's available here.

Some Recent Deliciousness

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Here are some pictures of some food that I've made recently that I felt like photographing and that are delicious.

Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Mustard BBQ Sauce This one was simply amazing. I got the recipe from Cooking Light and made the suggested tangy mustard coleslaw to go with it. My roommate, who also likes to take pictures of the food he cooks, helped man the grilling operation and we did grilled corn as well. We did it Mexican style with a chile on the grilled corn (no mayo on the corn as you might find it on "elote" in Mexico).

Here's another Cooking Light recipe, Tuna Steaks with Wasabi Ginger Glaze. The glaze was amazing and could be put on just about anything (and was super-simple).

I love to make Chiles Rellenos. I don't have a recipe to point to for these because I just kind of do them. First you have to roast the poblano pepper. Hold it in the flame of a gas burner or just throw it in the toaster oven and repeatedly hit toast rotating the pepper until the whole thing is blistered are the easiest ways that I've found. Then I throw it in a plastic bag and let it sweat before slipping off the skin. Then I cut a seam in the side to de-seed and de-vein the pepper. Stuff with whatever you want (I like to use a white cheese like mozarella and sauteed onions), dredge in egg and flour, then fry in a pan of hot oil.

Black Bean Quesadilla. Here's another one without a recipe for me to point to, but if you don't know how to make a quesadilla, I can't help you. I just thought it was colorful and fun. I sautee the peppers and onions first.

Iris

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:28:00 +0000

The iris that I planted last year bloomed at the beginning of this month and I managed to get a really nice picture of one of the blooms on a sunny morning. I got the iris as well as several daylilies from Newbury Daylilies. If you're in central Illinois, you should definitely check out their property. They have SO many daylilies. One of my daylilies has already sent up lots of stalks with buds on it.

http://www.newburydaylilies.com/

Race Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:44:00 +0000

I've participated in a few races the last couple of months. The first was the Mattoon Beach Multisport sprint triathlon. I had only been in the water once and on my bike once this year after coming off of marathon training, but I went ahead and raced anyway. I finished the race in 9th place overall (results here), and as is fairly common, I had the fastest run split in the race. It was the first time that I had worn my new Fighting Illini Triathlon gear, which you can see in the picture at left with two other FIT members, Kevin and Jimmy. My PhD advisor, Martin Gruebele, beat me in the race after completely destroying me on the race and the swim. Notice his larger trophy in the second picture.

The second race was the Buffalo Trace trail race in Mahomet. I took second overall in a somewhat disappointing 29:12 for the 5-mile race (results here). It was a fun race, though, and it was pretty sloppy on the trails after a decent amount of rain. I wore my cross country spikes and my calves paid the price for the next week.

Recently, I raced the Wolf Creek sprint ~~triathlon~~ dualthon. The weather was really nasty as Martin and I drove down for the race and with the rain storms, the Army Corps of Engineers wouldn't let us swim in the lake. As a consequence, they changed the 400 m swim into a 1-mile run, which played heavily in my favor. Instead of falling way behind on the swim as I usually do since I'm a slow fish, I got to get in the bike with a decent lead. As expected, Martin blew by me on the bike (as did two other guys), but the 10-mile ride wasn't enough for anybody to put me out of striking distance. I was able to ease up after I retook the lead about halfway through the 3-mile run to take my second victory at Wolf Creek (results here).

Jen and Ben's Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:55:00 +0000

Over Memorial Day weekend, my sister, Jen, got married at Mill Creek Inn in Salt Lake City. It was a beautiful day and the whole affair, wedding and reception, took place on the outdoor pavilion pictured here. I officiated the ceremony, which was a great honor and was a lot of fun. The second picture here shows my brother's girlfriend standing in for my sister during the dry run a couple of hours before the ceremony, since we were unable to rehearse at the site before. The third picture of Jen and Ben with me in the background was taken during the ceremony, which I stole from Darcie's website where there are lots of nice photos. My album, which has lots from the weekend, but little from the actual wedding events, is here. The last photo is of my brother and I with the bride after the ceremony.

There was a ton of family there and everything was so much fun and the reception was a blast as well.

Backpacking in the San Rafael Swell

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:33:00 +0000

When I went out to Utah for my sister's wedding (more on that in another post), I got in a little backpacking trip. My brother, his girlfriend, my cousin, and my aunt went for a two-night expedition in the San Rafael Swell in Central Utah. We had a really great time hiking in the area near Mexican Mountain. It ended up raining on us off and on every day (in the desert!), but the advantage was that the entire desert was in bloom! There are a few pictures of some of the flowers in the post here, and a whole lot more here.

The last picture in this post shows a snake eating a lizard (click on it to see more clearly). Brian saw something fall out of a tree near our campsite and it turned out it was a snake that had just caught a lizard. We got to watch the whole eating process up close, which was incredible. There's a series in the photo album that documents most of the eating and I've got a video of part of it if you really want to see it.

How to Sew Your Own Bowties

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:34:00 +0000

UPDATES (11/19/08): Note that I realized I wrote down the wrong seam allowance (although it doesn't matter much what you use) and it's now corrected in the text. Also, see the comments section for a printable pattern you can download!

I've been wearing bowties for years now and the majority of my collection are homemade ties. I started making my own bowties for multiple reasons:

Bowties are hard to find in stores
Bowties in stores are expensive
I don't have enough hobbies (yeah, right...)

Here is my brief tutorial on how to sew your own.

Pattern Sure, you can probably buy a pattern somewhere probably. But if you've got one bow-tie handy, you can just make a pattern. You'll just have to do this for your first project anyway. Set your presumably adjustable bowtie to the length designed for your neck size and trace one half of the length of the bowtie onto a piece of paper. At the middle of the tie, cut the paper at a 45 degree angle (not perpendicular to the bowtie) since you're going to want to cut your material on the bias. Then add whatever seam allowance you want as a border; I use a ~~1/8"~~ 1/4" seam allowance.

Material Bowties should ideally be made of silk, but you can make them out of whatever material strikes your fancy. I've made some ties that I like quite nicely out of cotton as well. Truly anything works. The key to a tie that will tie up well is good stiff interfacing. The worst bowtie I have is a storebought one that has terribly thin interfacing (or maybe none at all?) and it won't hold a good shape at all. I usually buy half a yard of material, which gives me plenty of room to cut on the bias and I have lots of leftover if I want to make more ties or a pocket square to go along with the tie.

If you have no idea about sewing (like I did when I started this a few years ago), when you cut out the material, the material should be folded in half (so you'll get two things for every one you cut out). When you cut on the bias, that means to lay your pattern on the material at a 45 degree angle from the grain of the material.

Cut out 2 (you get four pieces) of your material from the pattern and 1 (you get two pieces) of your pattern from the interfacing.

Cut your material:
Cut your interfacing:

Ready your sewing machine You'll need a sweet sewing machine like mine. This was my grandmother's machine and it is fabulous. It doesn't really matter what color thread you use because your seams will be hidden if you follow my directions below. I like to be in the ballpark in case some of the thread peaks out.

Connect the Pieces You'll now have 6 pieces, each of which are half of the bowtie. You'll want to sew them into 3 pieces, each of which is the shape of a bowtie. Two will be your material and one will be your interfacing. To do this, pin your pieces together as shown below and sew a seam ~~1/8"~~ 1/4" in.

When you unfold the pieces, they should look like this, with the "right" sides facing the same direction and the seam on the "wrong sides".
Next, flatten out the seam by ironing it down. You can trim off the corners that stick out of the edges at this point as well.

Sew in the Interfacing Pin the "wrong" side of one of your pieces of material together with the interfacing. Sew the material and the interfacing together. I like to stay further to the outside than my seam allowance because it prevents this seam from showing when I do the final seam that will be the actual border when the tie gets inverted.

Sew on the Final Piece of Material Pin the "right sides" of the tie material together and sew the whole thing together. You'll have the "wrong" side out on one side and the interfacing on the other side, with your other piece of material sandwiched in between. Halfway through the neck portion, leave a gap of a few inches because you'll need to invert your tie through that space. Here, you'll want to make sure your entire seam is inside the previous seam that you sewed or you'll end up with that seam showing on your finished tie.

Trim Trim away excess material, particularly around the corners. This will prevent you from having lumps in your tie when you invert it.

Invert Pull your tie inside-out through the gap where you didn't sew on the neck so that the interfacing goes inside and the right sides of your tie are now out. This part can be tediously difficult because you have to pull the "bow" parts out through that narrow little neck opening and it can be hard to do. Have patience, though, because you're almost done! I use a chopstick to help me push the tie through.

Hand-stitch the opening Now you need to sew up the opening that you just pulled everything through. It's okay if you're terrible at this part (I am!) because this is going to hide inside the collar of your shirt anyway. This is the last step. You'll just need to iron it to flatten the whole thing out.

Tie! The last step is to tie your tie. Hopefully if you're up to sewing a bowtie, you already know how to tie one. I'm sure you can find a video tutorial somewhere (perhaps I can make my own?). I found that it's easier to practice on your leg than on your neck while you're first learning. I also like to throw in a pocket square. You don't actually have to sew this; just fold up a scrap of your material!

Finally some updates

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:37:00 +0000

It has been pointed out to me by several people that I haven't posted in a long time. I guess I got into a posting slump since my next post was to be the results of the Boston Marathon. Boston was a huge bust, so I didn't really want to write about it. I finished, but I was really incredibly disappointed. In short, I had a stomach pain that hit me like a ton of bricks at about mile 14. Eek, what a horrible race.I have lots of goodies to post, so I'll try to put a few up here and there and I'll just go through some of the folders of my pictures and put up a few things. I think there's a scientific post or two coming in the future (tons of people use google to hit my blog on my UHV posts looking for information...I guess I should include more technical details--note to the many people who find my blog looking for "UHV bakeout temperature" : read your manuals to find out what temperature each part of your system can be baked!).

On the 3rd of May, we had "Derby de Mayo, a Mustachio Bashio" at my house. Four of us grew two-week mustaches for the ocassion. You can see how pathetic our two week efforts were in the picture here. A much nicer picture is that of a mint julep. I put the nice julep cup that I got as a high school graduation gift years ago (thanks Bob and Judy!) to good use for the Derby.

2008 Boston Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:23:00 +0000

I've got lots of exciting things to post about at some point including my trip to watch Davidson in the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8, but right now I'm in Boston for tomorrow's marathon! I'll be wearing bib # 2874 tomorrow.

Headed to the Sweet 16!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:03:00 +0000

Davidson College is in the Sweet 16!

And I'm going to watch!!

Yesterday, my good buddy and former teammate Jonathan, who's working on his masters at Purdue, and I bought tickets for the NCAA Div-1 Men's Basketball Midwest Regional tournament at Ford Field in Detroit. We tried to get tickets through Davidson, but because we both had to talk with our advisors to make sure we were clear to take off early on Friday, we weren't able to call the ticket office first thing when it opened. We found out which section Davidson fans were spilling into and called Ticketmaster to buy tickets in that section.

The excitement around Davidson making it to the Sweet 16 has been awesome. Normally when I tell people that I went to Davidson, I get confused looks and have to explain that it's a small liberal-arts school in North Carolina. Last night, I spoke at a Teach For America matriculation dinner and when I mentioned Davidson, lots of smiles, nods of recognition, and comments about how Davidson screwed up their brackets.

My sister pointed me toward an awesome blog that has a compilation of much of the press that Davidson has been getting recently. It's definitely worth looking at: davidsonbasketball.blogspot.com

It's a great day to be a Wildcat!

It's a great day to be a Wildcat!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:28:00 +0000

Two nights ago I colored a Davidson Wildcats easter egg in honor of my alma mater's presence in the NCAA basketball tournament. I just took a slightly extended lunch to watch the 'Cats come back from an 11 point deficit to beat Gonzaga in the first round of the tournament 82-76, our first tournament win since 1969. Davidson also just extended its winning streak to 23 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the country. Stephen Curry posted 40 points in the game, 30 of them coming in the second half.

O' Davidson!

Running: Delavan Half Marathon and a fun workout

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:09:00 +0000

Last Sunday I ran the Delavan Frostbite Classic in a time of 1:17:05 to finish 4th overall and 1st in my age group. I went to the race with several guys that I run with and then ran through 10 miles with my training partner Harley. You can see the two of us together in a classic picture here. We ran the first 6 miles right on 6:00 pace and then dropped down into the 5:40's. I stayed there through the end while Harley dropped into the 5:30's for the last few miles. We trained through the race doing a high volume week and warming up 3 and cooling down 5 to get in 21 miles for the day, so I was quite pleased with the run.

On Tuesday this week, we wanted to get in some kind of speed work, but also wanted to recover adequately from the half marathon. So the group of 7 guys went out to the outdoor track (the first Tuesday in 2 months with suitable enough weather to do speedwork outside!) to do 12 quarters with a 200 meter jog in between (Harley and I tacked on an extra four intervals to make it 16). To spice things up, we added the following workout:

Before the interval, you had to call your split (Harley and I called 74 every time). Then you had to run the interval without looking at your watch at all. After you stopped your watch, if you hit your split exactly to the 1/100th of a second (eg 1:14.00), everybody had to buy you a beer (meaning you'd get a 6-pack). Everybody was all over the place on the first couple, but then we settled into the groove and Harley and I were hitting within a tenth almost every time. On one of mine, I ran 1:13.99! It was so funny because the odds are incredibly slim, but you'd get SO close and everybody would freak out. It was really fun. We decided early on that if nobody hit the pot by the 12th one, we'd do sudden death. We had a big gust of wind on the 12th one so it was really hard to judge the pace, so Pat ended up winning a 6-pack by only running within 0.3 of his called split because everybody else had one of their worst efforts.