What's Ben into now?

Frank Maples Memorial Triathlon

2011-01-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

In April, I was able to find a triathlon near Colette’s parents, so I was able to combine a triathlon with a trip to visit them. The Frank Maples Memorial Triathlon took place in Scottsboro, AL on an absolutely beautiful morning. The weather was perfect, and one of the rec center employees sang an awesome National Anthem right before the starting gun.

The race was a reverse triathlon, so it started with the run. This was fun for me because the run is my weakest event by far, so normally the run is filled with people passing me. In this race, I was able to get behind early, and then have fun passing people on the bike and the swim. The reason that the event worked well in reverse was how they did the pool swim. As you finished the bike, you would enter the pool in on lane, swim down to the end and then cross over to come back down the next lane. With the swim at the end, people were all spread out naturally from going different speeds in the first two disciplines. As opposed to a similar approach of time trial starts with a pool swim at the beginning, which can take hours. I did that once this year, too, so you’ll get that story soon.

Anyway, I completed the two mile run in just over 16 minutes, so most people were ahead of me getting on the bike. I passed some of them on the 15 mile bike and more in the 200 yard swim, such that I finished in about the middle of all participants (65th out of 139) and about the middle of the pack for Clydesdale (9th out of 20). Everybody came to watch, and there was a park right there for the kids to play on while they waited for that few minutes where I was actually visible during transition.

I would love to do this race again if it ever works out that I'm visiting Alabama on the right weekend.

The kids enjoying the playground right next to the transition area while I enjoy the race.

Dad keeping my splits with the timer on my phone while the kids push all the buttons in his truck.

Re-racking my bike to head to the swim.

A look at the lanes as I complete a lap and I'm just about to turn around.

Coming down the last lap.

Close up right before a turn. The water was too shallow and crowded for flip turns and I'm not very good at them.

New Types of Races – Summary of 2010

2011-01-10T12:39:00.000-08:00

In 2010 I did my first half-marathon, my first reverse triathlon, and my first 52 mile bike ride. Each was a lot of fun, and each had different challenges. I also did two other triathlons and another 10k run. More on those later... let's start with the 13.1 mile run.

I ran in the Texas Half on January 30, 2010. It was COLD. I had been running quite a bit in preparation for the half, as opposed to my normal workouts that are usually designed around variety. I had cut out some biking, rowing, and lifting to fit in more running. Good thing, too, because the race still felt long.

It was about 28 degrees and windy. Waiting for the race to start was really cold. After the first few minutes of running, it was pretty comfortable when trees were blocking the wind. The race course was around White Rock Lake, so part of the course was sheltered from the wind, and part was not. My legs felt pretty good up to about mile 8 or so, where it started getting tough. Speaking of tough, don’t try to carry chewy candies for carbs when it is below freezing—they get rock hard. Anyway, I did some walking in the last few miles and finished in 2:32:52. The time is not impressive, but hey, I was slow when I was in peak condition in high school, so at 32 I’m happy with just finishing.

Near the end of the race it seemed really cold again. Sweat had soaked through some of my clothes, so when it got exposed to the wind… brrrr… Colette and the kids arrived at the race just as I was about to cross the finish line. I guess it is good that I was not any faster. This also means I don’t have any pictures.

I felt good in the days after the race. Even though I was not too sore, I did have trouble motivating myself to run again for a while. I logged only about 8 miles in February. I have definitely learned that I need to keep a future race scheduled in order to stay motivated.

Obviously not blogging

2011-01-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

My last post seems to be about races in the fall of 2009, so I guess I have not been into blogging! I have a few posts in mind, as I have continue to run, bike, and swim, and we added Piper to our family, and I got an iPad. Piper has obviously been the most significant change since my last blog post. You can find recent pictures of her and the latest happenings of our household at ameybc.blogspot.com

Since fitness and iPad apps have dominated my discretionary time, stay tuned for some posts on those topics. I'm posting this from my iPad, otherwise I'd start with something longer. While the iPad is a truly amazing gaming platform and media consumption device, it is less than ideal for media creation.

First 10k run (and a couple more 5ks)

2010-05-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

During Oct, Nov, and December, I ran in two more 5km runs and my first 10km.

I ran in the "Cowboys and Kids 5k" at the Mesquite Rodeo Arena in October. Janina also ran in this one. I finished with a new personal best of 28:09. There was a big hill about 2.5 miles into the race that was quite painful.

I did my first 10k in November. It was the Arbor Day run in Plano. It was a great event with lots of music and food at the finish area. I finished in 1:03:43 so breaking the 1hr mark is an obvious goal for the next one.

I did the "Rudolf Run" 5k in December in downtown Allen. It was below freezing. Even though I went to the restroom right before the start, I still needed to pee by mile 2. My knee started to hurt pretty bad with about a mile left and I had to stop and stretch and then walk a bit. My time ended up 28:54. So the 28:09 from October will have to be broken at the next one.

Second Tri - Stonebridge Ranch Sprint Sept 2009

2010-05-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

Last September I did my second triathlon at the Stonebridge Ranch Sprint triathlon. Most of you have heard about this already from me or from Colette's blog, but I thought I'd put down a few stories about the event.

It was a big event, with something like 900 participants. This sprint distance tri had a 750 meter swim, a 20km bike and a 5k run. There was an olympic distance race also that doubled all three legs, but I participated in the sprint.

I got of to a good start with the swim, but had some mechanical issues on the bike. I got a flat rear tire. I had practiced changing tubes, but there were a few things that didn't go as planned. I had left the receiver for the kids' bike trailer on the rear axle. It was a mistake to leave this on. Because my hands were so sweaty, I couldn't move the receiver enough to get the quick release lever off. I messed with it for awhile. Then I thought maybe I could use a pliers if I could walk back to the transition area. I walked the bike for awhile but then realized it would take forever to walk in and I needed to fix the flat or quit the race. I tried again to get the quick release lever off in spite of the trailer receiver, and this time I was able to get it off. I guess it was easier once my hands dried a little and my heart rate slowed a bit. All in all I wasted about 30 minutes, but I was able to finish.

Oh, I'm always easy to find in a crowd.

Even though the weather was nice, the water was COLD. We had to tread water for a while waiting for the gun for a deep water start. There were lots of guys making jokes like "Come on over here, there's a warm patch."

Lila was willing to watch for me when she had a donut in her hand.

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Exiting swim for a relatively long run to T1.

I think I make my bike look really small. This was the biggest mountain bike I could get in 1995 without a special order. I think it might be getting close to time for an upgrade. Hmmm.... I think I'd look more properly proportioned on a 29er.

Finally coming in from the bike.

Starting the run.

I was in the third wave, so my time was about 2:18. I lost about 30 minutes walking my bike before I got my flat tire changed (since the bike portion was two loops, and my split was 30 minutes faster on the second loop.) So that would have been about 1:48. I have already signed up for this same triathlon next year where I will be seeking redemption and a finish time of about 1hr 40.

Hot and ready for a snack.

My First Tri

2009-08-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

This morning I completed my first triathlon. It was a lot of fun. Matt Nix told me about this race, and he and Denise met us there this morning. It was an off-road sprint triathlon, so the biking portion was mountain biking and considerably slower than riding on roads. It was at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, which is about an hour from our house. We decided to leave Lila with Aunt Janina and take Wyatt down the night before and stay in a hotel nearby. The idea was that we'd get more sleep by not having to get up so early since we wanted to be at the park by 5:30. Well that didn't really work because Wyatt basically kept us up all night. So with about two hours of sleep, we headed out from the hotel around 5am.

I started getting my bike and transition gear ready by the headlights of the car since it was pitch dark.

There was a little bit of light when I actually went down to rack my bike and setup my transition area.

Okay, here we go. Thirty seconds to swim start.

And I'm off. I'm the rightmost guy, basically in the center of the picture.

Wyatt is pointing me out to Denise. "Look, there's Daddy in the water." He really loves poining lately.

Emerging from the swim. I lost 15 pounds training for this race, but there's still plenty of gut to make me wince at this picture.

Through the first transition and riding out on the bike.

Coming back into the transition area at the end of the bike. The bike was the longest component at about 1 hour 16 minutes for me to do the 20km (about 12 and half miles.) There were a lot of places with pretty deep sand and a lot of fields where the grass wasn't cut very short. So it seemed longer than 12 miles. Thankfully, it was pretty flat.
My fans were as tired as I was by the end of the race. Colette took some great pictures of Wyatt at the race. Watch for them to show up on her blog. ameybc.blogspot.com

Crossing the finish line at a little over two hours. The clock says 2:09, but that was the time from the start of the first wave of swimmers, and I was in the second wave. My official time was 2:03:34.

Me with my biggest fan.

Matt and I after the race. We were covered in dirt from the dust on the trail mixed with our sweat.

Exhibit A.

So we went for another swim.

I had a great time, so I'm looking forward to picking out my next race.

Second 5km race

2009-08-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

I ran in the McKinney Historical Run yesterday and finished in 30 minutes and 0.44 seconds. Yes that's zero point 44 seconds. So just a little bit more of a push at the end and I would have been 29 minutes and something. I was still very happy with my time. I had been a little stuffed up, and my time was a little over 33 minutes in the race about 2 months ago. The goal for the next run will be somewhere under 30 minutes.

The 5k runs have been part of my training for the off-road triathlon, which is next weekend. I hope I'm ready.

Brief Fitness Update

2009-07-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

I'm about 8 weeks into my training and I've made some big gains.

                         First result       Most Recent
                         (mid May)       (mid July)       Change
Weight                224                 214                10 pounds
1 mile run           10:36           8:05           2 min 31 sec
2 mile run           21:01           17:59           3 min 2 sec
3 mile run           31:59           29:19           2 min 40 sec
4 mile run           46:48          39:44           7 min 4 sec

My goals by the end of July:
1. Weight below 212
2. One mile below 8 minutes
3. Three mile below 29 minutes
4. Five mile below 50 minutes

I'm now officially registered for the Prairie Trail Off Road Sprint Triathlon and the McKinney Historical Run 5k. Those race dates should keep me motivated.

Fitness

2009-06-13T19:18:00.001-07:00

Pushing Wyatt in the Dadfest 5k.

Pulling Lila in the bike trailer.

The title of my blog is "What's Ben into now?" because, as Colette will tell you, I frequently change hobbies. Some stick around (Guitar Hero), some fizzle because the equipment is expensive (astronomy), and some I just get tired of (too many to name).

My latest thing is fitness. I've had goals many times to run or lose weight. But those, like so many people's new year's resolutions, last about a week. But when a friend asked me if I wanted to do an off-road sprint triathlon in August, I was a little bit interested. Suddenly, I had a goal--not make a complete fool of myself. Well, this has been quite motivational.

Since that invitation about three weeks ago I have :

1. Acquired a bike trailer so I can pull Lila on my bike

2. Acquired a jogging stroller so I can push Lila or Wyatt while running

3. Made a couple of bike upgrades.

4. Run about 17 miles, biked about 39 miles, and ridden the stationary bike about 34 miles

5. Lost about 5 pounds

The particular triathlon I'm thinking about for August is a 400 meter swim, 12.5 mile off-road cycling, and 3.1 mile run. Colette thinks I'm insane. Three weeks ago my goals for the triathlon were to A) finish and B) not die. Now these goals might seem like a low bar, but I was pretty out of shape. After a couple weeks of running and cycling, I think I am prepared to add a third goal: C) not finish dead last.

I figured I needed a few baby steps, so I decided to run in a 5k. That event was this morning. I pushed Wyatt in the jogging stroller and finished 317 out of over 600 people with a not-so-impressive time of 33:02. I didn't really know what to expect in terms of time because I have never run that far pushing the stroller. I thought maybe I'd be a bit faster because of the extra excitement of the event, but the time wasn't really a faster pace than when I run in the mornings. The event was "Dad Fest" which is a fundraiser/awareness-raiser for prostate cancer.

Above are just a couple pictures. There was some fun stuff for Lila to do at the Dadfest event, so I'm sure Colette will post some pictures of the kiddos on her blog.

Cool clouds

2008-11-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

I don't know anything about clouds, but I thought these looked cool. I took these Friday afternoon as the cold front rolled in. I was amazed at their uniformity. They were in rows that were the same width and length, and equally spaced. They went on across the whole sky, but without a wide angle lens, you just get to see a little piece here.

Triskaidekaphilia

2008-11-12T17:47:00.000-08:00

One month ago tonight, we were headed to the hospital for Wyatt's birth. Colette remarked to me that if he was born on the 13th, his birthday would occasionally fall on a Friday the 13th. I said "Hey, we were married on the 13th of January." So, we do not suffer from triskaidekaphobia in the Amey household, we embrace the number 13.

So far our anniversary has only fallen on a Friday the 13th once, in 2006. It was fine. Others have chosen to fly in the face of the number 13, like the original George W. (Washington that is) who laid the cornerstone to the White House on October 13, 1792. Though those being born on the 13th don't have much choice in the matter, Wyatt shares his birthday with Jerry Rice, Kelly Preston, Marie Osmond, Sammy Hagar, and Paul Simon.

Our anniversary is also the birthday of Orlando Bloom, Patrick Dempsey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Trace Adkins (whom I have met, and he is as tall as I am), and that certain person American Idol made famous for being awful, whom I will only identify as W.H.

I made up the title as the logical opposite of triskaidekaphobia, but I was certainly not the first to do so. Even though the word isn't in the dictionary, you will find plenty of uses on the web with a quick google search.

Anyway, October the 13th of 2008 was certainly a joyous day for us. God is great, and our first month with Wyatt has been such a blessing.

For more photos, don't forget to check Colette's blog: ameybc.blogspot.com

Kelsey stars in my first YouTube post

2008-09-28T18:29:00.001-07:00

Kelsey, our 50 lb shepherd mix, loves to play with balloons and try to keep them in the air. I think it is hilarious. You can also hear Lila laughing in the background, as she thinks it is great fun, too. It inspired me to try my first YouTube post.

BMI & The Metric System

2008-09-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

I recently crossed the 100 kilogram mark. For my fellow American-educated friends, that is just a hair* over 220 pounds. I am also just a little over 6'7" tall, which puts me right at 2 meters. This makes BMI calculation easy, because it is (mass in kilograms) divided by (height in meters) squared. This puts me right at a body mass index of 25. This easy math got me thinking about how horrible the English units of measure are. I imagine that BMI is a recent creation and that its ties to the metric system are somewhat arbitrary, but it was still a reminder.

Working in engineering, almost everything is metric, and I love it. I want to pull my hair out when I come across something in a weird English unit. For example we use microns, that's one millionth of a meter, as a unit of length all the time at work, but every once and awhile somebody will document something in "mils" which is thousandths of an inch.

This somehow made me think about facebook groups and how I could start one for people who thought America should switch to the metric system. Of course, such a group existed already.

I joined.

But for the foreseeable future, our children will probably just have to learn that BMI is their weight in pounds divided by their height in inches squared, multiplied by some conversion factor that few of them will ever be able to remember.

*note: a "hair" is not a metric unit, but I like it. Does that make me a hypocrite?

Sorry Mastercard, I wrote checks.

2008-09-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

Whole house treated for termites after termites found -- $1534
New relay for A/C after it failed on a really hot day -- $132
Having a plumber come clean out a clogged sewer line -- $297
Having our home ready for when our son is born -- priceless!

Okay, so I had to write this for a few reasons.

First, I tried to find information online about what prices to expect for the termite treatment and the sewer line clean-out, and it was very difficult. Websites for service companies would say "Call us for a quote." People in plumbing forums would say stuff like "that was really expensive." But people would never give me a price to use to set my expectations. So maybe some random person looking for this information will find this post. As they say in the boy scouts, do a good turn daily.

Second, I just found it ironic that I paid for every one of these items with a check. Sorry mastercard, I really do appreciate your services.

Third, we've always experienced costly repairs in waves. I'm hoping this wave is almost over, but yesterday I found water leaking from the bottom of the AC unit in the attic. I'll have to call somebody tomorrow, and I don't expect it to be cheap. We had several major things go wrong with the house when Colette was pregnant with Lila, so maybe this is God's way of helping us get these things out of the way before we have a new baby join the family.

Fourth, I just kept thinking up more possible things to go with "priceless."
Keeping my pregnant wife happy -- Priceless
Knowing God is in control -- Priceless
The blessing to live in a safe, sturdy, air conditioned home -- Priceless

Well, this got longer than I intended.

Windows Media Center

2008-08-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

I'll start by saying that I love my windows media center and its DVR feature.

Sorry my friendly MSFT'ers (BTW, do you have a fun name for yourselves?) Nothing worked in windows media center after my Windows XP Media Center Edition updated to Service Pack 3. It gave errors like "Component Registration Failure" and "Some of the files needed to play radio or video are missing or corrupt. Media Center component registration may have failed" and "Critical Process Failure" and "A critical Media Center process has unexpectedly failed. If problems persist, please restart your machine and try again, or contact technical support. Code 3."

But I found a post by 1stknight (any relation to one of the knights who might read this post?) on this Microsoft website and it fixed my problem. It was in this forum: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3358277&SiteID=17

My 802.11b wireless adapter also doesn't work since the update, but I haven't tried to debug that yet, and it is a generic one that I got for like $8 at Fry's 4 years ago. I guess I'll work on that one next.

Puzzle Quest for Wii

2008-08-26T19:54:00.001-07:00

I just finished Puzzle Quest for Wii. It tried to play to my previous addictions of both puzzle games and fantasy RPGs. The puzzle aspect isn't near as good as Tetris or Dr. Mario, and the RPG aspect isn't near as good as any Final Fantasy game, but it certainly was addictive. The game plays like bejeweled, but clearing gems gives you powers or does damage to your enemies. The game has the depth of hundreds of items and spells, and you have to clear unique screens to get the learn spells or forge new items, but you basically can get through the game by just playing hundreds of enemy screens over and over until your enemies are all dead.

I really can't figure out why I played it to the end when it is so repetitive, other than it is inexplicably addictive. (and I have to finish games I start)

Frankfurt

2008-08-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

I have a few pictures to share from Frankfurt. The weather last night was in the mid 70s and beautiful, so we enjoyed eating outside at a place downtown. Today looks to be rainy and foggy, but at least it's not 106 like Dallas.

This is the view of downtown, taken Sunday from my hotel room window. In the lower right of the photo, you can see the wooded park which neighbors the hotel.

This is the same view at night, taken by a pro.

The hotel lucky enough to have me.

"Die Alte Oper" or The Old Opera. One of my favorite downtown landmarks--because it has good parking!

The building in the center Commerzbank Tower, the tallest building in the European Union. This photo was taken from in front of the Opera. (the building on the far right is shorter, but closer). There are several radio/tv towers that are taller, but this is the tallest building.

Frankfurt Bound

2008-08-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

I'm on my way to Frankfurt for work this week. Before new readers get too excited for me, let me say this will be my 8th trip (plus or minus one, I haven't really kept track). I do have a one small thing to be excited about on this trip.

I got this 1 GB micro SD card for my phone and a little card reader so I could get pictures from my phone to my laptop easily. It is so small, I might start using it instead of my flash stick. You can see it's only about twice the size of the usb connector.

Also, I read an article on the plane about people who "flip" websites like people flip houses. They buy websites cheap, fix them up in ways to drive more traffic, and resell them. Feel free to make me an offer.

So I had to play with the camera on my phone a little bit. Here is O'Hare's add for their wifi, which I can tell you if you are reading this, works beautifully. I can't really say the same for the camera that is built in to my phone. It seems to be about as cheap as they come. When the new 3G iPhones came out last month, one complaint I heard was that the camera was only 1.3 megapixels. Sounds good to me... I've only got 0.3 megapixels.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Scrap Metal

2008-07-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

We are remodeling our guest bathroom, and I decided to take all the brass fixtures we removed to a scrap metal recycler, OK Scrap and Recycling. I had two brass faucets, some copper pipe, the frame of our old shower doors, cabinet door hardware, light fixtures, etc. It totaled about 27 pounds. I figured recycling this stuff was better than sending it to the landfill.

I didn't really know what to expect about this scrap metal place. I thought they might laugh at my small quantities and pay me a pittance that wouldn't cover the gas to get there. Since I was going anyway, I threw in some aluminum cans that would normally go in our curbside recycling, and two old garage door opener motors. If you are wondering why I had two old garage door opener motors, then you don't know me very well.

They paid me 70 cents a pound for the 2 pounds of cans, 65 cents to 70 cents for the brass (they characterized it in two different ways. I'm not sure why.), and 7.5 cents a pound for the motors, which they categorized as "steel."

So I left with a little over $22--more than enough to cover the gas to get there and enough to make me feel like it was worthwhile. It's something to consider if you ever remodel...or replace a garage door opener :)

Online Chess

2008-07-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a classic "What's Ben into now?" example. Online Chess.

Chess.com is a great website for playing chess against anyone anywhere in the world. You just make a move, and your opponent is alerted that it is their turn. Check back the next day and make another move.

My friend Alan Smith got me started on this. I hadn't played chess in at least 15 years. I'm sure this will only last a few months, but right now, I'm hooked.

Sign up and challenge me. You can find my profile at http://www.chess.com/members/view/bigpixy
My username is bigpixy, which is a story for another day. For some reason I didn't think to use SpoilingCitrus.

Getting Started

2008-07-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Colette's blog (ameybc.blogspot.com) will probably always be the official Amey blog. But Colette tells me that I go through hobbies like Lila goes through diapers. Hence, the title, What's Ben into Now? Family stuff, home maintenance, and video games are all probable topics for future posts.

My screen name of choice for years was Bigben. But it is just too popular to get when creating new accounts. Since I'm not a big fan of variations with numbers like bigben1978, I had t0 come up with something else. I've always been a big Dave Barry fan, and he liked to list possible funny band names by just combining random adjectives and nouns. Then one time I ate some questionable mandarin oranges and had an allergic reaction (or poisoning?) which caused my fingers to get bumpy and tingly for a few days. After that I started telling people I was allergic to spoiling citrus, which fit Dave Barry's criteria for band names perfectly.

Then I REALLY got into Guitar Hero. When I had to choose a band name, and bigben was taken already, SpoilingCitrus seemed to be the best choice. And now it is working its way to the top spot over bigben for all new logins and screen names.