200,000 miles

The week before Christmas I rolled over to 200,000 miles in the Jeep! I'm super excited at this milestone. I took a picture with my phone while driving to work and that isn't an easy feat while driving 70mph. I plan on taking it into the shop in the next few weeks to repair a few odds and ends that I can't do myself. Then I'll buy all new fluids and replace those myself in the driveway. I'll probably limit the fluid replacement to coolant, transmission fluid, and oil. I'll just check the levels of the other stuff.

For Christmas my parents got me a new set of foglights for the Jeep. Once all the repair work is complete, I'll install those as well.

I guess that's it. 200,000 miles and counting!

Frozen In

If anyone has been listening to the news, our county got the brunt of the ice storm that rolled through Atlanta. I was working a little late and tried to head home around 5:30. Wrong choice. I didn't even make it to the interstate when I just turned around and headed back to the office to work in hopes that the traffic would die down. I worked alone until about 7 or so and tried it again. This time traffic was lighter but still backed up like crazy trying to get on the interstate. WSB was great in getting me up to date information. That is when I found out that 575 was closed do to accidents and ice. They said that from 4:30pm to 6pm, in those 90 minutes, our county recorded 90 accidents! I turned around again and tried another direction.

I knew of a bunch of back roads to get home and I thought I'd try one route that takes me by April's school. This proved to be the perfect route with no accidents or traffic but the roads were very windy and rural. 20 mph all the way home and didn't get to the neighborhood until about 8pm. I saw about 20 cars parked in yards at the entrance of the neighborhood and after talking with some people milling about, I found out that the roads in the neighborhood were frozen. So I parked the Jeep and walked the half mile home.

School is canceled tomorrow but I think work will be "canceled" in the morning at least.

I'm Still Around

Just over a month and I'm finally getting back to posting. I've been a little busy at work lately and at home so I just haven't thought about posting to be honest. To catch ya'll up:

On Oct. 30th I ran my first half marathon. It's probably going to be my first and last. I had trained before the race somewhat running 7 miles two weeks before and 10 miles a week before the race. I thought I was ready...and boy was I wrong. It started out easy enough, I was following my plan and my legs and breathing were in sync. I wanted to run the entire 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours. That equates to just over 9 minute miles. It also makes the math easy in your head while you are running. I don't have a fancy dancy GPS watch so I just had to do the multiplication in my head. So I started at around 8:30 miles. It sounds slow but a brisk pace for me for this distance. I was able to hold that pace for about 6 or 7 miles and then I started noticing the slow down. My ankle started hurting around mile 8 or 9 and caused a further slow down. By mile 10 I had run the farthest I ever had and my knees started talking to me a bit. My pace by mile 11 was about 9:30 miles and was starting to be in real pain. I was able to mentally block some of it out but I REALLY wanted to finish! The last mile I was in trouble and my legs were in the most pain I've ever felt. I tried to sprint it out at the end but my legs couldn't go any faster. I finished at the limits of my ability at about 10 minute on the last mile. My final time was 1hr 56:01 minutes. Not too bad! Another mile and I would have seriously been crying. It was the most painful event I've ever been in. I wasn't exhausted at the end, my breathing was fine, I was just in physical pain in my knees, ankles, and hips. It took about 3 weeks after the race to recover enough where I could run again.

In other news, our property is moving along nicely. I've been working on the barn quite a bit and another 3-4 weekends and it should be finished. We staked out our future house last weekend too. So now I just need to finish up the foundation plan for the house and hire an architect to finish the plans for us. Before we move, we need to sell this house and I think that is going to be our only sticking point. The economy sucks for housing now that I think we are slightly upside down on the house. We plan on putting it up for sale in late spring sometime.

Well, that gives ya'll some of the news. Hopefully I'll be a little better at this in the future.

Triathlon Results

This past weekend I ran my first Triathlon!...and I finished! This Tri was organized by Tri2remember for Alzheimer's. Clever name. The was a nice 1.25 hours away in north Gainesville and we had to be there by about 6:15am. I got there and met up with two other guys from work that were running the race with me. We set up our bikes and equipment in the transition area and walked to the starting area. Walking around in just tri-shorts, goggles and a swim cap is a little embarrassing but there are 400 other people dressed similarly so that helps a bit. What really helps is noticing someone weighing 300 pounds with the same outfit.

This race was a time trail start in the water which means they start two racers every 2-3 seconds. My race number was 354 so the first people started about 15 minutes before I did. The swim was just chaos! There are always people around you and goggle really don't help in the lake water. I couldn't get into a rhythm because I had to constantly check the buoys to make sure I was on course. I was also keeping an eye on the people around me so I can swim around them. The open water swim is much different that pool swimming because you know you can touch and rest so you just have to muscle through and finish. I did the swim in 11 minutes.

I ran up the boat ramp to the transition area and put on a shirt, socks, shoes and helmet and headed off on the 12 mile bike. During the ride I passed people going up hills and held my own on the down hill for the most part. I was being passed all the time but I felt like I did the passing more than getting passed. I finished the bike section in 44 minutes.

I came in from the bike feeling spent. I pushed myself pretty hard and the bike and didn't have much left for the run. In starting the run I was getting passed at the beginning. I got into another rhythm and kept the pace slow and steady. I finished the run in about 27 minutes which makes for a 9 minute mile. Not too bad but I'd like to do better.

I finished the whole thing in 1:27.34 and finished 11th out of 26 in my age group. Now I'm hooked! I'm thinking of ways to make my times faster and how to change up my transition area to shave off a minute or so. I'm definitely doing this again and anyone that wants to go, just let me know and I'm there.

Tybee Island

This past weekend was a much needed break from the mundane. Lately we've been in this funk of doing the same thing over and over again. Go to work, come home and relax, go to bed, startover. Work has been pretty busy for both April and I so we've been doing more of that recently and it's been taking up most of our time. Lately, I've been getting home and then just logging into my computer at work and doing some work from home for an hour or so. That is starting to get pretty old let me tell you!

This past weekend our Sunday School class went on a beach retreat. We rented a house about a block from the beach and spent the weekend there. We had 5 couples in the house for the weekend. I was able to get off work a little early on Friday and start the long drive to Tybee. We dropped off the dogs with April's parents in Claxton and then continued down to the island. We had no plans, just relax on the beach and that is exactly what we did. We spent about 8 hours a day on the beach on Saturday and Sunday. Monday we turned around and came back home. I love weekends like that, no plans just do what you want. Having Monday off really helped out the work load this week. While it was busy, there was only 4 work days!

I need a weekend like that every weekend!

Couple of Races

I've again been peer pressured into running a few races with the guys from work. This time we've signed up for a Sprint Triathlon in September and a Half-Marathon in October. We've been training for the Spring Tri at a co-workers neighborhood. We swim, then bike, then run through his neighborhood.

This Sprint Triathlon is in Gainesville off Lake Lanier and it's going to be my first and I'm very nervous. This race is a 0.25mi swim, 14mi bike, and 5K run. At first I thought it wouldn't be too bad until I did the first 0.25mi swim training. I thought I was a good swimmer, I've been in the ocean, I've swam in pools, etc. What I didn't realize was that type of swimming was extremely different than straight out swimming 0.25mi. My first several training sessions I was sucking wind only two laps into it. It's been about a month of training and now I can go the entire distance without resting at the walls of the pool. I know swimming in open water in Lake Lanier without walls to hold onto every 25meters. Hopefully I don't drown!

The bike section should be the easiest for me. I usually go riding about 2-3 times a week and I think this section is what I'm strongest in. The only part I'm nervous about at this section is the transition points, from swimming to biking and from biking to running.

The race is 9/18 and I'll post my times once I find out. Pray that I don't drown!

Results

I know it's been over a week since the race has finished but I haven't been able to sit down and work on the site since my last post.

Our two man team was able to finish within the 6 hour allotted time but we were only able to get 1 checkpoint during the whole race! The course was too big and the checkpoints were too far apart for a 6 hour race. The 12 and 24 hour racers had plenty of time to get the checkpoints they needed. For the 6 hour people, we set up our bikes about 7-8 miles away and from the starting line, run to the bikes. There were four checkpoints before the bikes that were off the main trail a good ways. The first checkpoint we decided to go after was CP-11 and after 2 hours of searching down old trails and bushwhacking through the woods, we just couldn't find it. As we were passing other teams they told us that they couldn't find it either. So we wasted all kinds of time at that checkpoint. Then we started to the next CP and by the time we got that one, it was 3 hours into the race. On our way to the third checkpoint we got lost in a maze of trails and after about 4.5 hours in the race, we ran out of water and decided to head back to the finish so we didn't go over time.

This race was good in that you really had to know your navigation skills, most trails weren't labeled so you had to use a compass and look at hill tops and valleys and match them with your map. I just wish it wasn't so hot and the checkpoints were closer together so it keeps the moral up. I'll definitely do one again just maybe not this one.

Gold Rush Adventure Race

Well for the past several weeks I've been training for another adventure race. This one is located just down the street in Woodstock, GA, whereas the last race I went to was in Toccoa. That makes for not such an early morning of race day. This race has the same layout and general characteristics of the first one I did in that it's a combination of mountain biking and running with a little bit of orienteering involved. We chose to do the 6 hour race which has now been lengthened to an 8 hour race. There are 12 hour and 24 hour versions as well but they are a little too much for our team. The 8 hour race would be more than enough.

I've been mountain biking and running to get the stamina for this race but I think I'm a little short on the running training currently. I wish I got a sooner start to train. Instead of running some days, I've been heading down to the Silver Comet after work with some guys from work to ride on that trail about 20 to 30 miles or so. On August 15th we have planned to ride the entire length, 100 miles in one day! I think my legs can propel me that far, I'm just worried about my butt on that little bike seat for about 6-7 hours!

Well after this weekend I'll post our time and ranking in the Gold Rush race. Pray that we do well and don't kill ourselves!

Also, check out this funny anti-Obama video

"Even works on a Prius!"

NASA's new mission

Is it just me or is NASA's new mission to "reach out to Muslim nations to help them feel good about their contributions to math and science and engineering" a HUGE waste of time and money! Not only that, I think it's very condescending of NASA to even have this initiative. To me it come across and NASA begin like a big brother and saying "don't cry Muslim nations, see look at all the cool stuff you've accomplished, like inventing number and stuff, see you're cool, I swear." To go along with that, what accomplishments have "Muslim nations" brought to math, science and engineering in the last say 1000 years? It seems to me, and I could be wrong, most advancements in those fields comes from Europe, America, Japan, etc. How many Noble Prizes in Physics has someone from a "Muslim nation" won? No idea.

Not only is it condescending but why the heck is this NASA's role? So we go from the shuttle missions to NO MISSIONS AT ALL, because the Constellation rockets are scrapped, to diplomatic roles across the world. Wouldn't it be more diplomatic if NASA BUILT SOMETHING that the world could get behind? Just saying. I'm no genius but not having a shuttle replacement was extremely stupid in my opinion. Having more and more private exploration is looking better and better and getting all of this government bureaucracy out of the way so we can actually do something.

Here's the article

Summer Harvest

The carrots are in! This year in the early Spring I decided to grow a few carrots which I had never done before. I planted a row of seed about 3 feet long (I have a small garden!) and waited a few weeks for any growth. I was going to thin them out once the seeds germinated but nature did that for me I guess. Only 3 plants made it and rooted.

I kept them watered and such until yesterday when I decided to pick the last two carrots. The first one I picked last week and we added to a vegetable stir-fry. I picked one, washed it and ate it right away. Man was it good! It was a good feeling trying to grow something for the first time and have them survive! These carrots were pretty easy to take care of, just make sure they have water and since the roots go down deep, they can resist some drought conditions (or if we go on vacation for 5 days). The only down side is you have to really get down and get your hands dirty just to check when they are ready. I waited for the foliage to get nice and big and then I dug a test hole to see the carrots and noticed they look like the size of the carrots at the store, so I decided to pick them.

This year we planted:
Tomatoes - 2 plants
Cherry Tomatoes - 1 plant
Green Peppers - 1 plant
Chili Peppers - 2 plants
Lettuce - 2 plants
Carrots - 3 plants
Garlic - 1 plant

I think I'm going to try something new again this year and replant the lettuce, carrots and garlic in August and have a fall crop to harvest in October sometime.

Should be fun!

Cannondale Road Bike

I've got a road bike! Happy Anniversary to myself!

This year was our 6 year anniversary and "April's" gift to me this year was a road bike. I've been looking at bikes online for a little while as a solution to riding when the trails are closed. Remember all that rain we received back in the Spring? The powers that be kept the trails closed over and over again and we were getting frustrated. Some of my friends already had road bikes and would ride in the afternoons. Since I didn't want to be left in the dust, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a road bike. I found this one on craigslist and bought it from a guy in Alpharetta for $260. It needed some work but the bones were good and the bike fit me well. I bought new tires and a handlebar wrap and that dressed up the bike very well. There are still a few more things that I want to get for it (bike seat, new pedals, etc.)

Lately, once a week several guys from work and I have been taking to the Silver Comet trail and riding out about 15 miles and then heading back. It takes us about 1.5 hours to complete the 30 miles. We've learned to draft during these rides which helps more than you'd think. We are trying to get our endurance up because August 15th is the big day, we are heading from Smyrna all the way into Alabama! We plan on riding out 100 miles in one day and having our wives show up in Alabama to take us home. It's a pretty daunting task but I think we can do it!

New Beginnings

Seeing as how the rayd site went down for a while, and now I'm having a little bit more of free time, I've decided to setup my own blog. I didn't go all out and order an actual domain, we'll just see how this blogspot one works out first. Hopefully I can stick with this one on a regular basis. I'm sure since I haven't had a post in a while, I'll have a flurry of posts right here at the beginning.

The news going on in the Barr Family life is the planning of our new house. I've pretty much got the floor plan to the way we want it. We've also determined the locations of the lights and ceiling fans (can't have too many ceiling fans in the south!) Now all I have to do is draw up a foundation design for the house and get an architect to finish it. I hope that doesn't cost too much, I'm guess 2-3k, what do you think? Know any good ones?

Since April has been out of the school, she's been on craigslist and going to yardsales. She's found some amazing deals and as a consequence, gave me a bunch of wood work to do! We plan on making all our vanities in the house out of pieces of furniture. For the guest bathroom she found an old dresser for $30. Now all I have to do is remove the drawers and add doors, then get a counter and sink made for it. I've also got to raise it up about 4" or so which shouldn't be bad. She also found two end tables for the living room for $2.50 each! Yesterday we went to The Dump and found a great painted finish of a piece of furniture and we're going to do that for these end tables. We went to Lowe's yesterday to get the paint. Once we're done with these projects, we'll post all the pictures.

Other furniture that we are going to build/buy in the near future.
Build from scratch: Master bath vanity, kitchen table (from an old door on our property), hall bathroom vanity, various benches and porch swings.
Buy: Living room sofa, chairs, and chaise lounge.

Hope you like the new site! I'll be updating and configuring regularly for a while.