Week Two Done... Prepping for Week Three... Jog On!

Posting a update on my progression of getting back into jogging.  How out of shape do I get when not running at all?  It is bad!  I did not think I would be able to motivate myself to get out and run each three days a week.  So far, I have been able to do two days a week.  Hoping to start a three day week kicking it off on Sunday.  I have felt alright when running the past two weeks, but not great!

The first week was brutal.  As I mentioned, I have started up the Couch to 5K again.  The first day I could barely keep up with the routine.  I was breathing heavy and possibly wheezing, but I was able to get through it without too much trouble.  Keep in mind that day one of C25K is the following:

• Warmup 5 minutes
• Repeat 5 times
• Jog 45 seconds
• Walk 90 seconds
• Jog 45 seconds
• Walk 60 seconds
• Cooldown 5 minutes

Yes, I was about done at the end of the first day.  That night, my legs hurt, and the next day, it was difficult to go up or down stairs.  My legs were yelling at me for not running for so many weeks.... or months.

Moving on to the start of week two where I found that it did not hurt as bad, but still it was not great! The only good part with starting week two was that I was not completely sore that evening nor the next day.  The progression of C25K was doing the job and progressing me slowly toward week three. I ran the end of week two last night.  A week consists in C25K terms of three segments, or days, before it moves to the next week.  Still a long way to go in my training and I hope to be ready for the Washburn Alumni Association 5K in the Fall.

I still need to get motivated and back to spin class.  I love it so much, but I have been lazy.  That is the plain and simple about it that I have been lazy.  I enjoy sleeping until about 7 or 7:15, rolling out of bed, shower, and at work by 8.  It also does not help that work has been happening where I work out (SRWC) which I have been using as an excuse.  Granted, I could still be working out at the SRWC as they are still open, have showers, and classes are in session.  I am looking for excuses not to get up in the morning.  That has to end!

The only race I have planned for now is the Washburn Alumni Association Fun Run in the Fall.  That has not helped my motivation by not having a target race for training.  Now it is all mental and relying on my motivation to get out and run.  

Tonight though, I sit back, sip a cold beer, and cheer on the Kansas City Royals.  Everyone have a great week!

Exerice Again... Gave it up for a while... back now.

Yes it is true. I gave up running for a few months. I finally started running again last week. I ran two days last week. I had intended to run three days last week, but only got in two. The first day was Tuesday and it was rough. I started the couch to 5K again from the beginning. I was sore Wednesday and Thursday. I ran again Thursday night for day two week one and felt much better. Tomorrow night will be the end of the first week and hopefully get on a three time a week running routine this week.

I figured what better way to get back into running than to start blogging about it again. It helps to motivate me into exercise. I know I need to do something with my eating too. I have not been making the best selection of snacks or desserts. A few weeks ago with I had three nights where I had ice cream each of those three nights. It was great, but yeah, that needs to stop.

So, this is hopefully one of many updates that I am back to running. I am going to try and post progress over the next few weeks with my progress. Instead of posting tweets or FaceBook updates when I finish a week, I plan to post on here with how my progress is going and how my jogging is progressing. Right now, I know I could not run a 5K without stopping. Hoepfully in about eight weeks, I will be able to run a 5K without any problem and post about it too.

Happy jogging and have a great summer!

Enjoying My First MOOC from Duke University

A MOOC was recommended to me by a fellow Washburn Leadership alum and since I had not taken a MOOC, I decided to try it out.  After all, the class was free, and it was about higher education.  The name of the class is "History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education".  We are more than halfway done with the course, but I am finding it very interesting.  We only have two weeks left of the class.

So far, I have done fairly well on the quizzes.  Along with quizzes we also are to watch videos from the instructor Cathy N. Davidson and I have enjoyed watching the videos.  The videos are split up into smaller videos so you can watch at your leisure, on your mobile device, etc when you have time. The course is put on by Duke University and they have done a very nice job with the delivery and class content.

The other interesting piece of the class is peer assessments.  For this assignment, which so far we have had two, we are assigned the task of writing 500 words about a topic.  We write up our comments or views on that topic and then we evaluate up to five other authors from the class.  Essentially, we are giving a grade based on our review of their writing.  This is done by at least five people for every essay that is written.  The average of the peer assessments is then used to assign the grade.  A interesting process to review the 1,000's of students taking the class where it would be impossible for a instructor to review all of the assignments.

The other important piece of this class is of course the discussions in the forums.  It took me a little bit to get into the forum posting on the site, but I have the hang of it now and I have been participating in the discussions.  The other area of interest is discussion outside of the course.  Using the #FutureEd Twitter hash tag, I have been discussing with others in the class about topics from the class.  For me, discussing using Twitter instead of the forums is easier as I am almost always on Twitter or have it close by most of the time.  I created a saved search for #FutureEd so I can jump into any discussion.

This course while being done through Duke University is presented on Coursera web site.  I have already started reviewing the Coursera site to find additional classes that I can take after this one is finished.

If you are interested in taking this class, watch their web site (https://www.coursera.org/course/highered) for future classes.

2014 Started and Snuck up on Me!

The previous year was a good year! It flew by, but it was a fun year. It does seem as though 2014 snuck up on me. It seems like only yesterday that we had just returned from our Washburn Alumni cruise (November 2012) and here we are headed into the start of the spring 2014 semester. Wow!

The end of 2013 turned into my not working out at all. Well, this started with my last spin class at the SRWC. I had great intentions of getting back to working out once January 1, 2014 rolled around, but the amount of cold and snow we have had thus far as taken away from my workout motivation. Spin class will be starting again as we get close to the start of the spring semester, so I plan to start getting up early and working out. As it proceeds into Spring and warmer weather, I plan to increase my workouts to at least fives days a week. My plan includes doing a five day workout through the summer. For me, if I put it on my calendar and plan on it, that is half the battle of getting to the gym.

I will be meeting with Ben at the SRWC during the month of January. This will be my health assessment and should give me solid goals to strive for through the rest of the semester and into the summer.

My iPhone woes continue. I have a little less than a year for my warranty on my iPhone 5. I am still not convinced that it is my battery that is failing which is causing my phone to die. Based on when it started and the "testing" that I have done, I believe it is a iOS 7.x.x problem. I read recently that 7.0.5 is supposed to be out later in January and then 7.1 is scheduled to be out in the next two - three months. Nothing confirmed, but I am hoping that either of these fixes will resolve my battery problems. If not, then I will be forced to get a new iPhone before my warranty expires. Crazy for my phone to die with 15-25% of the battery remaining and it happens on a regular basis. To the point where if my phone is under 50%, I do not feel it is reliable to use it until I get my charger. Frustrating!

I am sure there are other items I could comment about, but that is all for now. I just finished shoveling snow for the third of forth time this year. I am all warmed up and ready to relax. Have a great 2014 and I will post more later...

iPhone 5 Shutting Down Problems

I started noticing it after I went to iOS 7.0.2 and now that I am at 7.0.3 I definitely notice it.  I have gone through the suggested fixes too with no luck.  Posting this to see if others are having issues.  I know I have read plenty of forum posts with people having the issue, but figured I would post something on my blog about it too.

My iPhone 5 with iOS 7.0.3 will shut down anywhere from 23% down.  I did not have this problem prior to just a few weeks ago.  My iPhone 5 is exactly a year old.  No problems with battery at all until recently.  I did notice that when it shuts down early I can usually turn it back on by pressing the top button a few times.  In fact, if I go through a sequence of pressing the top button ten times and then pressing and holding it would turn on almost every time.  Odd!  When the phone would turn back on, the battery level would be at whatever it left off at (i.e. 23% on down).

If after going through the power on sequence it would turn back on, I did try running out the battery by going through this until there was nothing left.  Went through batter recalibration and still the same problem.  I did notice that if after it powered down if I put the phone in airplane mode, it would not shut down on its own.  I could run it all the way down to 1% without any problems.  I did close out all programs, turn off wifi, etc, but if it was not in airplane mode it would continue to shut down.

Personally, I believe this is a iOS 7.x.x issue and not a problem with my phone.  Especially considering the number of people reporting this problem in Apple discussions and other forums.  I sent a tweet to @9to5mac to see if they had these problems reported to them or if they knew anything about the iOS issue causing the problem.  So far, nothing back from them, but I am sure thinking it is a issue with the iOS.

I am curious to know if those still running iOS 7.0 are experiencing this problem.  What about those running 7.0.2 and then finally 7.0.3?  Granted, some of the results might be varied by those having battery issues, but I do not believe the issues I and others are experiencing are batter problems.

After Google Reader Left... My Recommendations

I admit that I was one of those that was upset that Google Reader was terminated by Google. I had used Google Reader since it was first introduced. I used it from any web browser and I had even purchased iOS apps to be able to view the feeds without advertisements.  So, of course I was disappointed when Google announced earlier this year that it would discontinue Google Reader as of July 2013.

As it approached the date to discontinue Google Reader, I started looking for other options.  I did the usual of doing searches to find out what others recommended.  I tried out a few and finally settled on two that I would import my feeds to and begin using.  Both of which were web based and could also be accessed via a app on my iPhone.

The first site I tried was Feedly (http://www.feedly.com/). This was one of those sites that was recommended from other sites.  Feedly was preparing for the influx of Google Reader users that would have to find another option to read their feeds.  The other site I tried was the Digg Reader (http://www.digg.com/).  Unlike Feedly that had been around for a while, Digg had not been in the feed game before Google Reader announced they would discontinue their service.  Digg has been around for years as a way to recommend articles, web sites, etc. to others via a social medium.  When Google announced they would discontinue their service, Digg stepped up to build a rss news feed from scratch.

So, I tried both of these for a few weeks.  Both allowed access from a web site and both did have iOS apps (as well as other phone types) for accessing the news.  In the end, I ended up using Feedly as my daily source for news.  It is fast and I can easily share news via Twitter or Facebook.

A friend and I had a discussion about this and he decided to go with one where he pays for the service.  I went the free route simply because it was there and I do not see a need to pay for something that is free.  As he indicated, it is only a matter of time before Feedly, Digg, and others start introducing advertising on their sites.  Google did advertising on their site when accessing through a web browser, but that did not deter me from accessing their site to view the feeds.

If you are looking for a easy to use service for reading your daily news, I recommend checking out Feedly. Happy news reading....

BolderBoulder in Denver, CO

Headed to the finish line.

What a great event! We had such a great time running in this race. Seems like just yesterday, but it is already almost two months ago. The summer is winding down and I am in a slump with running. We will get to more of that later.

First of all, I would like to say I cannot believe it has been about two months since my last post. The last time I posted was about a week before we left for Colorado for this race. I had plans of posting on a regular basis through the summer months on my status with running, races, and of course summer. You can see how far I got with the posting part of that, but I have been happy with my running and races ... for the most part!

The last race I ran was the BolderBoulder in Colorado. Up until about July 3, I was running and exercising on a regular basis. I was running a minimum of three times a week and sometimes four times. I was doing a spin class three times a week. Since July 3, that came to a halt. Having holidays in the mix tend to cause issues with my exercise routine. Then, once the holiday is over, I lose the energy to keep it going. I did manage to get back to spin class twice this past week. No running since July 3. I do intend to start running again tomorrow. I am not planning on doing anything crazy, but just a nice easy two or three mile run.

Back to information about the race.... It was a beautiful Memorial Day weekend in Denver, Colorado. Brenda, Carrie, and I drove out to Colorado for the race. We met our friend, Javier, in Colorado. Javier and I ran the race while Brenda and Carrie walked. I did not have problems with race at all. I felt good throughout the run and it was exciting finishing the race running into Bolder football stadium.

Javier and I broke apart from one another about the two mile marker. I did manage to find him again at the finish line. I ran the race in 1:11:48.74. While I had only run a 10K one other time leading up to this race, I was hoping for a little bit faster. I trained using a Couch to 10K app which worked great... Taking a few breaks through the months leading up to the race, I did not account for enough time to finish the app and race time. So, I only had the one real 10K run leading up to race day. That first 10K I ran in about 1:09 and it was in my neighborhood. So, I was only a little disappointed with 1:11 for the race. I think a lot of that had to do with the number of people running. There were water stations at each mile marker which was great, but the number of people stopping to get water made it so that I had to walk into those areas to get water. Not that I was complaining though as I was winded and thirsty at those times, but it did slow me down a bit.

Overall, I was happy with the results and it was a race that I would definitely run again. We are talking about doing it again next year, but so far, we have not made reservations for hotels or gone beyond the talking point. If we are going to do it again next year, we need to book our hotel as they filled up fast!

Javi and I enjoying beer after the race.

The festivities following the race were a lot of fun too! Of course there was beer and there were all kinds of vendors. We picked up all kinds of swag and sampled all kinds of sports foods as well as delicious beer. One of the things we tried was a PowerBar. I had tried PowerBar years ago and did not care for it at all. Well, let me tell you they have come a long way in the R&D on nutrional bars. It was actually gummy type of things that PowerBar was providing as samples and they were so good! Much better than the "chocolate" bars I had so many years ago.

Being in Colorado is always fun! It is so beautiful out there and the weather is always great too. It was rather a quick trip as we went out on a Saturday and went back home on a Tuesday. Definitely worth the trip! I did manage to take some pictures while we were out there, but not a lot. We managed to get around to sample wine and beers while we were out there. A brewery that we went to two years ago when we were out there too was Upslope and we went back there again this year too. Good beer and I love their bar/brewery.

I am sorry it has been so long since my last post. I have been thinking about making posts on some technology type of issues, but I am still pondering exactly what to post about those ideas. There are the Royals that I could post about too, so I might do that as a way to keep my site at least some what active.

Until my next post, have a great rest of the summer...