Brief Fitness Update

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.