CUBBIES

World Series starts on 22 Oct. Games 3-5 are at Wrigley, 25-27 Oct. Anyone else going?

VALUE OF TIME

So, I'm leaving work today. The building I was at is exactly 1 mile from my house. It makes for a nice commute, but crappy for listening to music.

Anyway, I was walking out of the building with another Air Force Major. She was headed home, too. Her house was 100 miles from our work parking lot. Yes, that's right, 100 miles. I've never been so thankful for my commute as I was today when I saw her headed to her car and thought, "her commute is 100 times longer than mine" without the slightest of exaggeration.

It got me to thinking about the VALUE OF TIME. Time is probably our most precious commodity. We can always make more money, buy more things, make new friends/relationships. But we can never make more time.

So, it really comes down to how we want to spend our time. Do we spend it teaching our kids multiplication, or drinking beer with our buddies, or surfing internet porn, or going to the gym, or talking with friends? I guess it's a way to gauge peoples' personalities - look how they spend their time.

It's also a way to see if people truly care about you. Are they willing to spend some of their precious time for you?

My co-worker spends about 4 hours a day in her car (sometimes more depending on the state of the 405). That's an interesting way to spend time, to say the least.

HAWAI'I

Tiff and I just got back from Maui. Wow - good stuff! I talked her into doing the Maui Half Marathon. It was her first race, ran the whole way, and finished strong. Results are here: http://www.pacificsportevents.com/Races/Maui%20Marathon/2008/Overall_Half_08.htm

Pretty cool place to run a race. Perfect weather, great scenery, friendly people. We started at 5:30 and were done by 7:45. Walked back to the hotel, showered, and it was like we slept late, but still got a long run completeted.

We spent the rest of our time getting sun burned, drinking "lava flows" (pina colada over strawberry puree - yum), and swimming.

Awesome place, that Maui.

MT WHITNEY

[please excuse the mistakes - typing fast and not proof-reading today]

I tried climbing Mt Whitney yesterday. It's the tallest peak in the lower 48 states. Thought it would be cool.

I went with 4 other Air Force dudes - all in great shape. Even worse for me, they were all 6-10 years younger. I knew going in it would be tough to keep up.

Things I learned trying to climb Mt Whitney:
1. Living at sea level and doing all my training on flat surfaces was not the way to prepare for an 11 mile climb up to 14,494 feet.
2. Having a fever is a signal to NOT start a climb.
3. Falling behind your co-climbers in the first 2 miles is a signal to turn back.
4. Stumbling on the side of a shear drop at 13,500 feet really gets your adrenaline pumping.
5. Trying to climb Mt Whitney in one day is a bitch.

The fever / head cold thing was dissappointing. Because Mt Whitney climbers are limited to 100 per day and we had to get our permits months in advance, I had to try it even though I was doomed from the start.

We woke up at 4 AM and were hiking in the dark at exactly 5 AM. I felt like shit from the beginning. John, Grant, Dave, and Scott were cool - routinely stopping and waiting for me the first 7 miles. But, when we were at the highest camp (trail camp), it was time to part ways for good. They cruised to the top while I staggered up the "96 switchbacks." My head was pounding and the fever wouldn't go away. When I stumbled just below trail crest, I knew it was time to turn around.

I was about 3 trail miles and 1,000 vertical feet away. It was 11 AM.

The trip down sucked! I was totally under-prepared. If I had any kind of head medicine, I would have been better off. John had the water purifier with him at the top so I had to blow past all the running water on the side of the mountain. "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink."

Luckily, I stashed some water bottles at 10,000 feet. It felt like an oasis.

My new climbing buddies got down 2.5 hours after me. One of them got real sick at the top and was puking / moving slow most of the way down.

I can't decide if I want to try it again.

NUTRITION

Recently, I've been trying to study nutrition a little more. The way I figure it, the only way we exist is by putting food in our body. Seems like it should be more important to everybody. Think about how many people have no idea what they put into their system. Think of all the frustrated 50 year-old men with expensive cars who only put the best fuel in their pet Corvette yet eat all kinds of crap themselves. Kinda' ironic.

Anyway, why don't we put more emphasis on teaching nutrition to our kids? Other than that lame food pyramid, I didn't have any nutrition education until I got to college. Even then, is was a quick 10 lesson PE course taught by some dude who could golf, but his only nutrition experience was reading the textbook one lesson ahead of the students.

Here's where we could improve: start teaching nutrition in school. I mean REALLY teaching nutrition. Have qualified nutritionists with real credentials. We require math and science teachers to be qualified and let's face it, I have never used Calculus in my adult life, yet I put food into my body at least 5 -10 times a day. Seems like I would have benefited much more if someone had told me what that daily big gulp from 7-11 was doing to me while I was in high school.

It would be great if our young kids knew why they're obese. Yes, I know some kids have genetic issues that cause the obesity, but I would venture to say the vast majority of obese kids are obese because they eat too much and exercise too little. They have no idea that a soft drink is not good for their system. They've been programmed to think soft drinks are normal sources of hydration.

As I parent, it's ultimately up to me to make sure my kids know what's up. I just would like our society to put as much emphasis on nutrition in schools as we do other subjects that have far less impact on the rest of our lives.

That's it - I'm going to have a piece of cake.

RUNNING TO BOSTON

I've been running for a while now (20 years, but not continuously). I figure it's an easy way to ensure I can continue to fit into my uniform. I thought I was doing pretty good, running marathons, then moving up to ultra-marathons. I was proud of myself.

Then something very bad happened -- I bought a GPS watch. What I thought was easily a 9:00 min/mile pace was actually 10+. How did I slow down so much? It was a gradual degradation I never noticed. Hell, I might as well have been power walking.

So, instead of succumbing to the usual "getting old" excuse, I decided to see if I could get faster instead of slower. It worked. I ran my fastest marathon in March (Los Angeles, 3:44), then bettered the time in June (San Diego, 3:31).

I was tempted to call it good, but that damn GPS thing kept hounding me. The only thing I could think of was qualifying for the Boston Marathon, probably the most famous marathon in the US.

Problem: for a 36 year-old male, the qualifying time is 3:15. It wasn't that long ago that the thought of qualifying for Boston was as ridiculous as the Cubs winning 4 games in the 3rd week of October.

I'll spare you the math. 3:15 means I have to average 7:26 min/mile FOR 26.2 MILES. Good freakin' luck!

We'll see. I've got the Air Force Marathon on Sep 20th. If I can keep my hamstring in one piece that day, I'm going to give the whole qualifying thing a shot. I think the Olympics got me overly pumped. It's all M Phelps' fault!

The reason for putting this in the blog is the "put up or shut up" I have to live with now. So, here's the plan:

1. 20 Sep: Air Force Marathon

2. 27 Sep: Noble Canyon 50k (31 miles) Trail Ultra-Marathon (I should skip this and recover, but the race is 15 miles from where I grew up - I can't miss it!)

3. 23 Nov: Santa Monica Mtns 30K (there's a 50K version, too, but I'll refrain)
4. 7 Dec: High Desert 50K (a great winter Mojave run)
5. 25 Jan: Carlsbad Marathon (my attempt to run 3:15)
6. 20 Apr: BOSTON, BABY

But no matter what happens with the whole Boston thing, I won't become a Red Sox fan . . .

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Today was the kids' first day of school. I took the day off work so I could walk them to their new classrooms with my wife. I'm sure my boss (no kids) was a little confused as to why I thought it was worth one of my vacation days. I didn't try to explain -- you have to live it.

So here's where I see a need for improvement: TEACHERS.

We send our kids off to school and they spend 6+ hours a day with their teacher(s) for 9+ months a year. On a daily basis, our kids spend more time talking with and listening to their teacher(s) than they do their own parents.

Question: why isn't the profession of teacher one of the best paid, hardest to get hired into, and most scrutinized professions in our society? Teachers do more to shape our youngsters development than any other profession I can think of.

We should pay teachers an incredibly high salary. More people will want to become teachers. The competition will be tougher, the hiring process can become more stringent, and we can have better qualified, more motivated teachers. Every year, we can cut the bottom 10% and bring in new hires. The teachers will stay on top of their games.

Instead, we shell out $30 bucks to sit in the upper deck of Dodger Stadium for the chance to eat a $4 Dodger Dog and drink a $7 lite beer. But hey, it's for a good cause: so sub .500 pitchers can make $8M a year and send their kids to private schools.