More HRM Fun

Here are a few more HRM graphs from the past week. The first one is from the Freedom 5K I ran on July 4th. I tried to keep my HR up throughout and then really hit it in the last bit. I did OK on it, but I'm still slow.


This next one is from my impromptu 14 mile run the day after the 5K (Saturday). Unfortunately I didn't really take into account the fact that this is more than a half marathon and I just plain didn't prepare (decided to do it about three hours beforehand after not eating much that day) and didn't take enough water/gel. I exploded after about 10.5 miles and ended up walking a few times which equaled about 1.5 miles. Oh, well. It was a great learning experience, for sure. I was able to keep my HR very steady for the first half to 2/3's.


Finally, this last one is from an interval bike ride I did today. I read about it in Men's Health and how doing two minutes at a hard pace and then one at an easy for awhile will yield better results than just going out and "riding". It was difficult and I felt I did an OK job at keeping to the pattern. My legs are waaaay weak (I didn't have enough leg power to get my HR where I wanted it - low 170's) and I need to start biking more -- especially before the duathlon in a couple weeks. Either way, the peaks and valleys really show my heart working. Sweet.

Happy July Fourth!

Our day started getting up at 7am to head to Faurot Park for the Freedom 5K race. We took the kids as Laura wanted to push them in a running stroller. I elected to do the actual run and ended up with a 25:35. Not terrible; better than last year. I probably still got beat by kids in the "10 and under" group. Oh, well. Laura made it to the end with Kaden running on his own.

We headed to Ft Wayne to hang out with J, C and K. We had some beer-butt chicken and corn-on-the-cob. Mmm.

After getting home and the kids getting naps, we headed back to Faurot Park for the fireworks. Kaden played on the playground for awhile and then we went and rode a couple rides. After "making camp" on a hill and playing some soccer, the fireworks started around 10:10p and we were leaving around 10:40p. They were pretty good with a pretty impressive "grand finale". We finally rolled in the garage well after 11p. Ugh.

Big Cook Out Party

We have a bunch of our friends over tonight to enjoy some grill cooked meat, Corn Hole, fire pit with s'mores and good company. We ended up having 23 people here and it all went very well. We didn't get a ton of photos, but here are a few.

Fire Pit - Ready For Action

Last year when the landscaping was done, we were planning on using the retaining wall bricks to build a fire pit in the back yard. Between not having a plan and not having the motivation so many times, we decided to have a little get together with some friends and have a fire pit be part of it. My goal was to be done by Friday.

On Monday I called OUPS to get all the lines and pipes marked. In the evening, I measured out where I wanted it and marked it with some paint. Wednesday evening I repainted it after all the marking was done as my original place was about 18" inside the CATV line. I moved it to 24" away from any lines as not to melt them even though I was only digging about 6" down.




Thursday I spent the better part of the afternoon driving around Lima in Laura's Xterra trying to find someone who had a corrugated metal fire pit ring. Well, either they were sold out or they had the wrong size or they were just plain weird (i.e. elk cut outs in the metal). I didn't get home until 6pm and ended up only buying a chisel and some hot dog/sandwich cookers. Oh well. I'll be ready.

After dinner finished at 630pm, I went out and dug the 5' wide hole to get all the grass off the top and make a surface to pour the sand for a level surface. Kaden helped out by moving sod with the snow shovel. We poured 150# of sand down and leveled it.



The first level of bricks went down and made a small ring. After chiseling down the last piece, it was finally taking shape. After putting down a few more bricks for a partial supporting second ring, we started laying the actual retaining wall bricks. We decided to knock the "lip" off each brick. They're made to hold on to the one below by sitting behind it, but that was going to mess up our measuring. After two layers of those we put some river rock in the middle and then a little bit around the outside.



Done! It look about 2 hours and 15 minutes as we were looking for stuff to burn at 845pm. We threw some wood and news paper (Wall Street Journal) in the fire pit and burned it. The newspaper burned quick and the wood didn't burn, so we were done quick.





Can't wait to start using it!

Me, Kaden and the Herk

Lenny just sent me this photo that he took of us standing in front of the Mansfield C-130 at the Wings Over Akron on Sunday.

Wings Over Akron

Kaden and I flew the Cheetah over to Medina this morning and met up with Lenny, his dad and his dad's wife to head over to Wings Over Akron for a couple hours to enjoy some old war birds and one of Mansfield's C-130's. We walked around all the aircraft and then watched some of the flying acts including an Extra 300, B-25, some T-6's and what looked like a Corsair.

It didn't take Kaden to become more interested in lemonade and French fries, so we cut it short after a couple hours and headed back and he was asleep in the airplane before we made it to Mansfield. It was a good trip and I'm extending his "travel legs" with longer and longer trips sitting in the the plane. Today was about one hour each way.

Check out all the photos by CLICKING HERE.

At the Park With Ilona and Moriah

Kaden and I met the two girls and their dad at the Ottawa Metro Park today for some playtime and melon. After about ninety minutes, everyone was ready for some lunch so it was off to Mickey D's.

More Random Photos

Some more photos from around the house.

Check out all the photos by CLICKING HERE.

The Kiddies

Here are a few shots of the kiddies around the house.

Red Bull Air Race 2008 - Detroit

Laura, Kaden and I headed up to Windsor, Ontario, Canada today for our Race Club tickets at the Red Bull Air Race 2008 on the Detroit River. After lots of road construction and traffic delays, we finally made it to the parking garage in Windsor and found our shuttle over to the race entrance. Unfortunately our tickets required a pick-up about 1/2 mile away so I ran over and got those. We headed into the Race Club and it was NICE. They had small bars setup along with tables and couches with a great view just inside the start/finish line of the race. Sweet.

We headed to the food tent for some lunch and they had burgers, chicken, sausages and a ton of other stuff which, of course, included all you can drink Red Bull. (It's pretty tasty actually.) We finally found a table with some friends of one of the pilots, Mike Mangold. They had some good stories.

Once the race started we moved closer to the fence by the water with some chairs and I did my duty with the cameras (still and video) and Laura and Kaden watched too. Interspersed with the show was a B-25 fly-by, F/A-18 and F4U fly-bys, a demo by the Red Bull acro helo and a Canadian Harvard Aerobatic Team show.


The show was awesome and I am really looking forward to the next one. I wasn't sure how I'd like it since I'm not a huge fan of going to live sports. It never seems like the cost/reward ratio is ever in my favor. This time it was and I'll be back.

The drive home was a nightmare getting over the Ambassador Bridge from Canada to the USA. Ugh. We were in the car for at least 90 minutes sitting in the streets of Windsor. Next time we'll be having dinner there and then leaving.

Check out ALL the photos by CLICKING HERE.