Ready or not - here we come!

Today all five of us fly back to the US for our annual visit. This is like prepping for a summit attempt on Everest - only without the army of sherpas to help.

I would give anything to hire some sherpas right about now.

Last night I was supposed to run 4 miles but it just didn't happen, and it won't happen today. I was in a funk after getting some annoying and bad news re UK taxes and a snafu that has cost us quite a bit. Grrrrr.

Anyway, it's a new day and we are doing our last minute packing and will be getting a cab in about an hour or so. The kids are SO excited.

Run Yank Run 011: Vroom Vroom

Vroom vroom... watch out England, I'm driving! If you see a minivan full of people driving aimlessly in circles on a busy roundabout, that will be us... ha!

But seriously, we got the car on Thursday of last week. My first drive was kinda scary in that the minivan isn't so mini (about the size of a Honda Odyssey) and our neighborhood streets are really narrow. Not knowing the width of the car, I drove like an old lady. I'm happy to say I stayed in the lefthand lanes when turning (this required concentration).

Anyway, several practice drives later I took the kids on an excursion and they are thrilled to be mobile again. This is the start of weekend getaways, camping, and general freedom of movement not possible with mass transit.

In running news, I had a brilliant 4 mile run on the early-morning Paris streets, the highlight of which was the smell of baking bread. Oh my!

This podcast is mostly recorded during a 7 mile training run on Sunday in which I explored a new run route east of Chiswick Bridge. It was a lovely path along the river that lead to a river walk near Hammersmith. I will definitely be going that way again.

It was really windy during that run and the planes landing at Heathrow were constant, but I think that still beats the constant car noise from a commute run recording.

Speaking of recording, I ordered a breakout cable and mic from Giant Squid Audio Labs. They should be waiting for me in the States when I get there later this week. I'm pretty excited about this - should improve the quality of these recordings.

So the next episode will be coming to you from the US - we fly there on Thursday.

Hope all are well!

Music from the Podsafe Music Network

Featured Song:

"Paris" by Friendly Fires

Intro/Outro:

"You Start It" by The Monikers

Download Episode 11

Run Yank Run 010: Race Pace

The podcast has hit double digits with episode 10, and coincidentally I ran the London 10K last Sunday. My official time chip time was 51:24 with a gun time of 1 hour, 25 minutes. The race was REALLY crowded and as you can see from the gun time it took over 30 minutes just to cross the start line and begin running after they started! I did a lot of weaving around walkers and people in costumes etc. Makes me long for the Peachtree Road Race's time corrals. Guess I got spoiled getting to run up front. Wah wah, poor baby.

This week was another trip to Paris for project meetings - this time a day trip starting with a cab ride at 4:15am but it was a good, productive day.

In other running news I started training for the Worldwide Festival of Races Half Marathon in October. Of the many plans to chose from, I went with the Nike+ Coach since they are very strict of mileage and exact day of each run. I figure I could use the discipline and motivation! Also, I chose the Beginner plan since I have finally accepted the fact that I am over a year behind in mileage and frequency and must gradually build back up. This will force me to limit myself and not go hog wild as I see I tend to do. The last thing I want to do is injure myself... again.

Music from the Podsafe Music Network

Featured Song:

"See You At The Lights" by 1990s

Intro/Outro:

"You Start It" by The Monikers

Download Episode 10

Run Yank Run 009: Bon Voyage

Bonjour (or bonsoir depending on when you read this). This short, short episode is from this week's business trip to France. While I'd like to say we spent a few days in Paris, we really spent it in Chatillon, which is an outlying area circa 1930's-40's.

It was a short intense trip spent mostly inside the conference room of the client, but I did get two dinners and a run in. I ran a very hilly 4 miles through Chatillion and managed to get a few pictures along the way.

The highlight of the trip was my first dinner in which I ordered La Potence - which was a steak and potatoes dish done medieval, Torquemada style.

In other news the twins have spots in the school much nearer our house for next term (meaning neighborhood friends for them finally!) and I met with the third guy from the local band and we are going to have our first rehearsal next week. We hit it off and I think the songs they want to do are interesting.

The London 10K is this Sunday and I am pretty nervous about posting any kind of decent time given my lack of consistent running, but I just keep reminding myself to have fun and enjoy my first UK race!

In all a hectic but satisfying week!

Music from the Podsafe Music Network

Featured Song:

"French" by B-Sea Surfers

Intro/Outro:

"You Start It" by The Monikers

Download Episode 9

Run Yank Run 008: Dis / Jointed

Happy 4th of July, Yanks! This past week was an all-over-the-place week and it shows in this episode of the podcast.

After recovering from the bug I got some good runs and cycling in and made some recordings during. We also won a major project at work and I attended a conference on the future of digital media on Friday.

Anyhoo, this episode was recorded over several days and I did the best I could to stitch together all the various bits of dreck I recorded during the week. Hope it works!

Music from the Podsafe Music Network

Featured Song:

"Ein dickes Paar im Pool" by Automat

Intro/Outro:

"You Start It" by The Monikers

Download Episode 8

Back in Business

Feeling much better!

Yesterday I enjoyed a morning bike commute and evening run commute, as well as a hybrid run/tube commute this morning.

When I synced my iPod and launched nikeplus.com I clicked over to the new beta site. It is fantastic!

Parts are a little sluggish (hey, it's in beta!) but the new run graphing system works so much better. The other thing I really like is how integrated all the sections are now. It is much easier to expose challenges, goals, etc. Oh, and they have integrated nikeplus.com with nikerunning.com (their running blog) which makes a heckuva lot of sense.