Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I did really well last week but I think most of the favored teams won so it wasn't that hard. This week looks much more difficult and I went out on a limb on a couple of them. **cough** Buffalo **cough**

Expert Picks: ESPN Analysts

Last Week: 11-5

San Francisco @ Atlanta:	Atlanta
NY Jets @ Buffalo:	Buffalo
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh:	Baltimore
Carolina @ New Orleans:	New Orleans
Denver @ Tennessee:	Denver
Cincinnati @ Cleveland:	Cincinnati
Detroit @ Green Bay:	Green Bay
Seattle @ St. Louis:	St. Louis
Indianapolis @ Jacksonville:	Indianapolis
Houston @ Oakland:	Houston
Arizona @ San Diego:	San Diego
Washington @ Philadelphia:	Philadelphia
Chicago @ NY Giants:	NY Giants
New England @ Miami:	Miami

Overall Record: 27-21

Quick Thoughts on the Games:
Am I the only person not convinced the Falcons are a Super Bowl contender? The only team they beat was an inept Cardinals team. Hartley had no right missing that field goal for the Saints, so I don't call it a win for the Falcons

Jets vs. Bills, this is my big upset. Bills got close against the Patriots and Dolphins, they'll do it this week.

The Ravens/Steelers game cannot end well. I do not like a 4-0 Steelers team with a bye week and Ben coming back and I do not like sitting in the AFC North with 3 teams at 3-1. The only way this game ends well is if they tie. Then I shall laugh at them.

Well at least the Saints will make the Panthers look awful, because the Bengals didn't do it.

Broncos/Titans - this one is a coin toss. Both teams are decent but not world beaters.

I know a few Browns fans who read this blog so I'll use super double secretive code when talking about the game so as not to annoy them: If the Boogaloos don't wamakablam the wikiwikis in the who ha's, i might just drive my beep-beep off a whoosh. That was just a haha, but it would seriously &@$*$!)(@  me. 

I can't believe Green Bay lost last week. Now that they have a short week, Detroit has a chance, but I still think the Pack pull through.

Seattle looks amazing at home but lousy on the road.Why does it feel like the AFC and NFC West divisions are so bad?

You see what happens when Peyton gets mad? He tries harder and plays all perfect-like. Jags don't stand a chance.

Take a couple of Advil Houston and get it done this week, you get to play the Raiders in sunny Cali

How did Arizona get 2 wins?? I thought for sure they were 0-3.Well this week they become 0-4 in my eyes.

I'd love to think McNabb gave the Redskins all their secrets, but Vick is playing too well and if he keeps it up, home field advantage gets it done.

I don't think the Bears are a 3-0 caliber team. They are barely winning games but they won't this week. It's Sunday Night Football and the Giants new stadium is just far too shiny.

I will not pick against New England again.

I realize I still need to blog about the Bengals game from this past weekend, and when I get time to mess with pictures, I will do that. But for now I only have time to jot some thoughts down as a blog post and that's better than nothin!

I mentioned not too long ago something from the book called "7 Habits of Highly Successful People" by Stephen Covey. I am now in the middle of reading it and the first section/chapter was very thought provoking. Actually so much so, that I feel like I'd have to pause for a few days to think about almost every page. He even says in the book, this isn't a book to just read straight through and then put down. It needs to be digested and practiced. I completely understand what he means, but since I got it from the library, reading it straight through and then putting it down is exactly what I'll be doing. Sorry Stevey!

The part that stuck with me was the concept of taking care of your production and production capability, or as he calls it the P/PC. His example is a story of a farmer who has a goose who lays a golden egg once every day. The farmer loves it and starts to get rich but gets too anxious and wants more eggs. So one day, instead of waiting another day for another egg, he cuts open the goose to get all of them. Of course this kills the goose and it's egg laying capacity. Stephen's point is that you need to take care of your PC (the goose) in order to expect any of the P (golden eggs).

It got me thinking how that can be applied to our lives. I want so badly to be a faster runner. Speed and better times of course are my production. But how can I expect to get faster if I don't spend time working on myself both physically and nutritionally. I can't neglect the production capability aspect and expect production. It goes back to my "Becoming a Machine" post at the first of the year, you can't expect to not take care of a car and still want it to drive 200K miles over it's lifetime.


I'm sure you may be reading this thinking "yeah sure, of course". But I've never heard it in those terms before, production vs. production capability. It applies to anything and everything. I want Gryffin to learn tricks? I have to spend time with him. You want some deliciously amazing chocolate chip pumpkin bread? You can't use crappy ingredients. You want that stove to cook the bread at the right temperature? You get the point...

I think we can all find something in our life that this simple formula applies to. If nothing else, it certainly made me eat healthier the last few days... I want some golden eggs!

Liz and I are HUGE fans of the Biggest Loser television show, so when we heard they were going to be in Myrtle Beach, SC this weekend hosting their own 5K, we absolutely had to go! It's only a short drive and we love running. We got there on Friday around lunch and walked around the event area while they set up. Registration was at 4PM so we had some time to kill.

We got up early morning on Saturday and went down to the race and stood around just looking for old contestants from the show. They had a big introduction of all the contestants as well as Bob Harper at the beginning and fortunately we were right up front to see it all. We were literally about 5 feet away from the stage. When the episode is aired in November, if they show any scenes from the beginning of the race where Bob is saying hello to the crowd, Liz and I are standing right in front in red and light blue shirts.

So the race started and it was a little difficult to weave around people at the beginning. It certainly wasn't a race people went out to win. The motto was "Don't Compete, Just Complete". Well you all know me, I'm not out there to do anything but compete. So my competing was difficult to manage around all the completers. . I ended up getting 11th based on the overall time out of 2600 people. Our chip time was messed up though. We only started 30 seconds behind the gun time. My time based on the gun was 22:15 and my chip time is supposed to be 21:45. It claimed I ran it in 20:04, which would be awesome but not true.. Not sure how that happened. Liz ran the race, the entire way without walking, with a time of 38:05 (based on my watch). It's her first 5k in years and she's super proud of her time.I really enjoyed seeing her approach the finish too.

When we finished we walked around and stood at the finish line looking for famous people. Here is Pete Thomas from Season 2 was there:


And from Season 9, here is Sherry. At first we actually got her confused with Helen who won Season 7.



Then there's the man that needs no introduction. I am a huge fan of Bob Harper. He is the franchise and the reason why the Biggest Loser is so successful. I think he's classy and has done so much to promote healthy living in the 10 seasons on the Biggest Loser. I dread the day that Biggest Loser gets canceled or he leaves the show because I seriously enjoy the entertainment and motivation he provides. We were not bold enough to call him over or request a picture or handshake or anything. That's just not our style. So as classic introverts do in this awkward situation, we just creepily stand to the side and take pictures: 


The highlight of the day for Liz (and me too I guess) is that right at the start line, Liz saw him and threw up her hand and he gave her a high five. I have to admit, I am super jealous. That would have made my day/year.

Yes, this picture is as close as it looks. He was saying hello to someone was standing one person down from us along the finish line fence: 

As the last finishers began to roll in, in true Biggest Loser fashion, they found the person with the most heart-wrenching story. A person so improbable to compete in the 5k and they surrounded them with cameras. I am sure in the episode you will see this person's story. Here's the finish from afar with Bob and some cheerleaders:


Here is the post-finish interview they were conducting as well: 


We found someone with a fancy camera who knew what they were doing to take our picture. I had already changed out of my running shirt and number though. We had such a good time at the event. I think the nice thing about Liz and I are that we operate with the same mindset all the time. We got to the race at 6AM when it doesn't start until 8AM. We sat there and watched the sunrise. As we stood there at 7:15AM she points out "check out the cars waiting to get in the parking garage". When trying to decide when to get to the race, it was no question that we'd get there crazy early and sit around. It's much better than rolling in late with all the stress that entails. She's also super punctual, so when we want to leave at 5:45AM, she's ready at 5:40AM. I love it, that's my girl. 


After the race and "celebrity" watching, we hung around and then went back to the hotel. We cleaned up, got some lunch, and then took the dogs back to the event where there was supposed to be a post-race party. It was lame since everyone had already left. So we walked down the boardwalk and Liz snapped this picture of Daisy chillin' in the shade. She's too adorable.

** Side Note ** I haven't even said anything yet and I'm already including side notes. Crazy. I have always wanted a blog that had a purpose. Some people have running blogs, or animal rights blogs, or like "Who Lurks?" (linked on the right) is dedicated to sports. I think if I were to create my own blog and dedicate it to a specific subject, it would be about overcoming adversity and tapping into inspiration all for the sake of accomplishing a goal. Setting goals and working towards them is intrinsic to who I am. It really gets me going for some reason. It's my ridiculously competitive nature. Side note over.

I listen to the Dave Ramsey radio show while at work. It's really limited because he only broadcasts 3 hours of new radio every day. Most of the time I can absorb what is being said, during busy times I completely tune it out. When I run out of his 3 hours, I listen to music. Today I listened to Tuesday's show during which he mentioned one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (written by Stephen Covey). The habit he mentioned was number 2 which goes "Begin with the End in Mind".

I haven't read the book, although it is very high on my very slowly dwindling book list. I love to write, but I hate to read, go figure. But I heard that habit and said "Exactly! I freakin love it!".

Having not read the book, I assume what he is saying is when you set out to accomplish something, have a clearly drawn out goal and clearly drawn out map to get there. A goal is only as good as it's plan of accomplishment and a plan is worthless without a specific purpose. You can say I'm going to walk around the block once a day to lose weight but that doesn't give a defined goal. At the same time you can't say I'm going to lose 20 pounds by walking around the block sometimes. Sometimes turns into yesterday turns into hardly ever. Those are lame examples but you get my point.


I think included in goal setting, there needs to be smaller accomplishments that build up into large ones. 2 pounds a month doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're standing 20 pounds lighter in October, that's pretty awesome.

Well when I got home I was standing in the kitchen deciding what to do with my early evening and looked at our mortgage amortization table that is posted on the refrigerator. "Wait ... what?!?"

It is my goal to pay off our home mortgage. I know it's ridiculous and far-fetched and a lot of people don't ever do that unless they're uber rich or live in an old house. For some reason though I can't get my mind past how awesome life would be if I could take that mortgage payment and put it toward Reese cups. Oh the deliciousness. Or how about just save up for a whopping 5 months and take a ridiculously luxurious trip to Italy. Imagine the possibilities!! Take what you pay in rent or mortgage and just for a minute imagine what you'd do with it. Doesn't that make you MAD!??! It makes me motivated! One month would be enough for a SWEET trip to Disneyland!! One month would be enough to get us the sweetest TV and entertainment center we've ever had. As Dave Ramsey says, that's living like no one else. Am I right?!?

Back in February we refinanced to a 15 year mortgage. At that time I thought, "OK, 2025, that's not too terrible... but I want monthly updates." So yes, I have our mortgage amortization table printed out and pasted to our refrigerator. If my goal is to pay it off, darn it, I want it staring at me during dinner. I realize 15 years is a long time to hold onto a goal so....

Recently we started chunking a specifically defined extra amount of money every month to it so it would go away even earlier. As I stood there in the kitchen absorbing the "Begin with the End in Mind" concept, I realized that the posted "balance" our table says we should have left is no longer correct. We definitely started moving toward our goal faster, but that instantly ruined the small goal updates aspect since it was no longer accurate.

That had to change. So on top of the monthly payment amount, principal amount paid in the current month, interest amount paid in the current month, total interest paid on the loan, and the current principal balance on the loan, I added the "Actual Balance" column. At this point the only question I keep asking myself is, how fast can we do this now?! I'll leave that topic alone for now.

I think we've set ourselves up for success barring any setbacks. We have a clearly defined goal, we have a clearly defined plan, and we have a way of tracking our progress. I'd certainly say we began with the end in mind.

** Addendum ** I realize since we are paying more per month that the monthly interest and principal amount we pay per month is no longer accurate. It's really all about achieving a balance of nerdiness and sanity. Amortization table is nerdy, a monthly adjusted table with changing values per column is insanity. 

I am trying to stay ahead of the NFL here because our weekends are jam-packed with activities. I am also finding it hard to continue doing this because I am a terrible picker. I guess the good news is there is a lot of room for improvement. In looking at the expert picks, I guess I'm not doing too bad! I do enjoy giving my quick thoughts at the bottom. It's like mini-creative writing.

Last Week: 9-7

Cincinnati @ Carolina:	Cincinnati
Atlanta @ New Orleans:	New Orleans
Pittsburgh @ Tampa Bay:	Pittsburgh
Cleveland @ Baltimore:	Baltimore
Tennessee @ NY Giants:	NY Giants
San Francisco @ Kansas City:	Kansas City
Dallas @ Houston:	Houston
Buffalo @ New England:	New England
Detroit @ Minnesota:	Minnesota
Washington @ St. Louis:	Washington
Philadelphia @ Jacksonville:	Philadelphia
San Diego @ Seattle:	Seattle
Oakland @ Arizona:	Arizona
Indianapolis @ Denver:	Indianapolis
NY Jets @ Miami:	NY Jets
Green Bay @ Chicago:	Green Bay

Overall Record: 16-16


Quick Thoughts on the Games:
If Cincinnati doesn't win, my head will explode
I really want to pick the Falcons over the Saints, but it just feels wrong
Tampa Bay over Pittsburgh, I can only dream
Baltimore's defense is going to eat Delhomme for lunch, and their offense gets back on track.
There's only one game less interesting than the Giants vs. Titans. Both teams are vanilla and irrelevant.
Kansas City is not for real, but San Francisco is not the test they need
Dallas isn't even the best team in Texas anymore
I can't believe New England lost, is away really that much more tough than home? They won't lose to Buffalo at home. I'm guessing 44-10 is the final.
Detroit almost did it last week, this one will depend on which Favre shows up.
St. Louis could upset Washington, we haven't seen the Redskins on the road yet.
I originally took Jacksonville when I thought Kolb was starting. I think with Vick, Philly will be fine.
Seattle at home, that's the only reason why.
This is the most uninteresting game of the week, not even the fans in Oakland or Arizona care who wins.
Indy or Denver, I was close to flipping a coin. Denver is tough place to play.
The Jets better not beat the Patriots and then turnaround and lose to the Dolphins, that would be embarrassing.
At home, Green Bay would spank Chicago, but on the road, this will be closer.

The only thing from this past weekend (and if you don't know what happened, check the previous post) that I could construct logically into a blog post were my 3 legs that I had to run. Outside of those, I can't think of any way to put a post together that flows in a logical way about the race weekend. There's nothing I can do but make it all random thoughts on what happened. As a whole, the race was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. But of course there were also the crappy parts like sleep deprivation, lack of decent meals, lack of cleanliness, and so on and so forth that started to mar my feelings of the race around 3AM Saturday morning. Me and sleep deprivation don't work well together. So for this post I thought I'd logically construct the positive highlights from the race by naming this post "Things That Are Amazing".

Big Vans:
Van #1 was a huge 15 passenger monstrosity and van #2 was a 7 seater Toyota Sienna. Van #2 has said that it wasn't terrible and they were comfortable but I feel lucky to have been able to ride around in Van #1. Come to think of it, we should have named our van, it deserved a name. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. I spent most of the time in my own row which allowed me to spread out and relax when I needed to. Most teams had huge vans like this. It was funny at some random checkpoints like a shopping strip mall, it looked more like a Ford Econoline sales lot. There were more vans than cars. If you look closely you can see writing on the vans as well, a lot of the writing was HILARIOUS. We need to bring window markers next year too. Big vans are amazing.


Headlamps:
Who ever thought it would be that easy to see in the dark?!? You can write in the dark. You can put up a tent in the dark. You can freakin' RUN in the dark. Headlamps are AMAZING!

Slap Bracelets:
The "baton" in the race that we handed off at each check point to the next runner was a slap bracelet. OK, so the slap bracelet didn't work very well. When you tried to slap it on, it just slapped you back. You had to roll it onto your wrist and force it to stay. Everyone remembers these sweet accessories from the 80's... early 90's... I can't remember, but I do recall that my favorite was an orange and black checkered one. Slap Bracelets are amazing.


Good People:
I could definitely talk about my teammates here but I'll get to that below. The other teams were such good people and it was so nice to be a part of a race with people like that. Runners in general are great people but it really came out this weekend. The one moment that stood out the most was from the second checkpoint. There was a small stray puppy hanging around the church parking lot where we were. He reminded me a lot of Gryffin in size and demeanor. A team named the "Fuzzy Dice" picked up the pup and because it wasn't wearing a collar and was obviously a stray, decided to adopt it. I mean how much more awesome can you get? Along the race course it was so awesome to see the puppy go from a skinny, sad, and worried dog, to a happy dog with a full belly and a new momma holding him tight. They named him "Fuzzy" after the team (much to my chagrin because his hair was anything but fuzzy). But had they not taken him, I just might have. There were so many strays along the way, and a few that had obvious abuse issues. At least one had a happy ending. Good People are amazing.

Running:
Alright so it's a race and the reason we are there is to run. Running is amazing. After every one of my legs I got that runner's high everyone talks about. It's hard to describe but you basically feel like all the effort was worth it. For me I get goosebumps and finish pumping my fist like "YES! I did it!". The greatest feeling for me was after the 7.1 mile run. It was hard but I finished with a time I could be proud of and just was all smiles at the end. This picture is from the very start of the race (5100 feet above sea level) and I started in a wave of 11 teams at 9AM. You can see the start line behind us. At that moment I was turning to the girl and asking "how fast you doing this 4 miles?" because she came out FLYING. That may be why I ran it so fast. The dude in lime green eventually smoked me though. Running really is amazing.


Gallon Sized Plastic Bags:
When you finish a run, the last thing you want to do is hop in a van for a few more hours with gross clothes on. So you throw your sweaty clothes in a gallon sized plastic bag, wipe down with a wash cloth, and get out a fresh change of clothes and it's like you never ran in the first place. I told Liz when we came back. She asked "Where did you change?" and I said "Ya know, after a race like that, I'm a little more OK with public nudity". In all seriousness though, we'd hide behind the doors at the back of the van. All you gotta do is yell "No one come back here" and you're good to go. But to keep your stinky clothes under control, gallon sized plastic bags are amazing.

Headbands:
OK, I get a lot of flak for this because it looks ridiculous. Headbands are just not cool anymore. It brings back nightmares of Richard Simmons in short shorts. But I seriously LOVE headbands. I have no hair to soak up all that sweat and I used to always have stinging eyes at the end of long runs because sweat would just flow down into them. With headbands the sweat all gets soaked up. Here is a picture of my get-up for the long 7.1 leg I had. Headbands are amazing and I don't care who knows it.

Verizon and Sprint:
Matt and I were constantly texting back and forth on our locations and times while the punks with AT&T went the whole race with absolutely no service. In the mountains, Verizon and Sprint's services were amazing.

Mountains:
The views were absolutely gorgeous. At one point at the top of the hill on my second leg I turned and literally took my hand like a camera and said "Click". It's one of those stop-time moments that I wish I could always remember with a photographic memory. It was a breathtaking view. Whether I was running or driving, I just never got tired of the scenery. This picture was taken at the top of Grandfather Mountain. It was at the end of our second runner's second leg at 8PM. His run was a 10 mile gradual uphill climb. I really wish I could have been here in the daylight. Mountains are amazing.


Awesome Teammates:
I really could not have asked for a more fun group of people to run with. I went into the race not knowing anyone in my van and only knowing Matt (black shirt/black shorts) and Moose (white hat) from van #2. We had a lot of fun talking and getting to know each other and laughing about some of the lyrics in the songs that played on Jeremiah's iPod. Check out one of them, it's too hilarious. Everyone was also super respectful of the other people in the van. We all were very aware of our sanitation following long runs. With everyone getting super sweaty our van could have been super double disgusting. It was impressive how clean it was at the end. Awesome Teammates are amazing.


I swear I had so many more things to list as "amazing", but those are the highlights I can think of at this moment.

Friday and Saturday I ran in the Blue Ridge Relay. I have so much to tell but I thought I'd first just post on the facts of the race. We started at 9AM on Friday morning and it took us 28 hours and 13 minutes and we finished at 1:13 PM on Saturday afternoon. I am still waiting for the results to see how we did against other teams. Since teams start anywhere between 6:30AM until 1PM on Friday, there's no way to tell how we did. I do know the winning team was a team of only 6 runners and they finished in under 22 hours and beat the team that hasn't lost in 4 years. That's just insane. As far as how I did individually, here were the 3 legs that I ran in the race:

Leg 1:
This was without a doubt the easiest leg in the whole race. I feel like my 3 legs together were the easiest ones to do compared to the rest of the team but I guess that's OK. This leg was the first one so I ran it at 9AM. I was fresh and it was 4 miles which is relatively small compared to all the other legs. It was also straight downhill. 2 miles of it was actually so steep that I had to slow myself up so I wouldn't run out of control and fall or something. My philosophy was to just run it as fast as I possibly could stand without holding anything back. 4 miles downhill? I can't just lallygag through that. It turned out to be a pretty successful plan because I finished the 4 miles in 24:18. That's a 6:04 mile which is the fastest I've run anything since High School track and field. Here is the chart from the first leg (click it to see it bigger):


Leg 13:
This leg I ran at 6:30PM on Friday evening and it was quite a jump from an easy 4 miles to go to a hard 7.1 miles. The first 2.5 miles are straight up a hill and then the next 2.5 miles were downhill and then the last 2 miles were rolling hills. It was certainly not an easy run at all. That hill was a beast. I passed roughly 5 people on the way up and a few people going down. I got a little bit of a pride out of the fact that I was able to run it faster than the people around me. I went into it just saying I want to hit 8 minutes per mile and I did just that. I finished the 7.1 miles in 56:26 which is a 7:56 pace. The other thing that made this run difficult is that the road was under construction. They had torn it up so they could replace the surface. Not sure I can explain it any better than that. So the entire run I was trying to place my foot in spots that were smooth and not gravel-like and also so I wouldn't hurt the bottom of my feet from the roughness. I spent about 5 miles of this leg just watching where I placed my feet. It's hard to run fast and run cautiously at the same time.

One thing I have to say about the 2.5 mile climb uphill, it really got me thinking about how those are the moments when you really find yourself. If I'm in physical pain and it's dumb to keep going, of course I'm smart enough to stop. That's not determination, that's just ignorance. But in climbing that hill, I was only tired from my own self-infliction. I was climbing a massive hill and everything tired in my body says "this is ridiculous, just walk a bit and catch your breath". Of course I could give in easy and walk and not tell anyone, but it's those "grind it out moments" that you really find out what kind of heart you've got on the inside. When I do these difficult things, I try to keep those thoughts in mind, and it really motivated me to keep fighting.

Here is the chart from the second leg (click it to see it bigger):


Leg 25:
My last one wasn't too terribly difficult except for the fact that I started it at 2:30AM. It was 4.3 miles relatively flat with a half mile uphill climb at the end. Again I only wanted to hit 8 minutes per mile. I finished this leg in 33:20 which was a 7:45 minute per mile pace. I'm super proud of that because I had no downhills to take advantage of. The way you run in the dark is you have a headlamp on your forehead to light the way, you wear a reflective vest for cars to see you, and you also have a blinking red light on the front of your waist and another on the back of your waist. It's actually really impressive how easy it was to see where you were going and also for cars to see you. Safety was not a concern at all.

It did however make me feel like I was shooting a scene from the Blair Witch Project. If you put your hand to your face all of a sudden you were blinded by light, you know, that type of sensation. When you're running in the dark and lighting your way in front, everything behind you is pitch black. I started to feel a little paranoid and begin to hear things that weren't really there. Every few minutes I'd turn my head real quick to check behind me to make sure everything was clear. Every time I was fully prepared to see a ravenous pack of wild dogs nipping at my heels. Even though it was 2:30 AM, dogs would bark from all the houses near by which also added to the paranoia feeling I had. You could never be sure that something wouldn't jump out. But take away those distractions and it was a very easy run. Also during the time I was on the road, a train was passing on the tracks near the river, so that was really awesome to look down into the river valley and see the lights from the train zooming by. It got me thinking, how many moments like this will I have in my lifetime? It's all about living a better story right? I am certainly doing my best. Here is the chart from my 3rd leg (click it to see it bigger):


Sometime this week I will post information on how it went logistically, some highlights from the race experience, and pictures from the course.