All right, so I admit it. I am old enough to have listened to The Police. That was even before Sting became an actor and starred in a version of Dune.
So I think I am well qualified to say that there are songs on Maroon 5′s latest album “It won’t be soon before long” that sound like they could have come from The Police.
The songs I am thinking about are: Won’t go home without you and Not falling apart.
Perhaps that’s why this album is such a good seller on iTunes: all those middle-aged dudes who were Police fans.
I usually try to separate personal blog and work. But I felt that I had to blow this trumpet.
I’m the guy on the far right. We’re all wearing some kind of Dickies work shirt embroidered with Splashtop and PC World logos.
I moved the blog to an external server today. It is now hosted by pair Networks as opposed to running on a 500MHz iBook via a DSL line.
Hopefully, it will be faster.
Switching took less than an hour.
First, I signed up for pairLite. This gave me an account that includes a MySQL database. Then I installed the WordPress package. The hardest part of that was to figure out that I could not configure MySQL via the usual command-line way, but had to use pair’s admin/management webpages.
Once WordPress was up and running, I exported the original blog(on the iBook) to an XML file, and then imported that into the new blog.
The last thing I did was to move the svgeek.com domain name. That needed two stops: one at the pair admin webpages and the other at Network Solutions (which, true to form, tried to sell me a bunch of other domain names).
And then, voila! The move was done!
The advantage of this is cost. The pair Networks account costs $99 per year. Now, I can switch to a low cost DSL service instead of the premium Speakeasy one that I currently use. Goodbye static IP addresses.
Maybe I’ll even have money left over for a wireless WAN card for the Macbook.
I finally managed to run 16 miles today.
And I’m still standing! Oh yeah!
The knee is still giving me problems. But I think it’s a residue of the ITB problem I’ve been having and not an aggravation.
The difference with earlier long runs (e.g. the ones at Sawyer Camp) is that I ran fast. Instead of doing a 10 minute/mile pace, I did below 9:30 minute/mile for the most part.
This improved bio-mechanical efficiency and reduced the chance of injury.
That’s my theory, anyway.
The other difference is the running route. Instead of Sawyer Camp, I ran in the neighborhood, along the San Jose north-eastern foothills. There was no steep climb and strange road camber like the 5-6 mile stretch at Sawyer Camp. So maybe that also helped.
I found that the 20 oz bottle of my Amphipod Trail Lite hydration pack was no longer sufficient for such a long run. So I dug up my up-to-now unused HiTec hydration backpack. It has a 1.5L bladder, chest and stomach (I am not going to call it “waist” for embarrassing reasons) straps and a little pouch for a cell phone. It was a little uncomfortable in the first half mile, but I either got used to it or the sore legs were distracting me. There was no easy-to-access pocket, so I ended up carrying the energy gels in my shorts pockets.
The last change was the use of electrolyte powder instead of Gatorade. I managed to get some Cliff-branded stuff. It was a lot better because it wasn’t too sweet (unlike Gatorade). So it was a lot more thirst quenching… The downside was more alchemy in the morning before the run. Should’ve paid more attention in chemistry class.
Anyway, all in all, it was good run.