Monthly Archives: April 2009

Marathon Mis-step

Well, I’m afraid my back has been hurting bad enough that I haven’t been able to run. Ever since the 18-miler, my back and butt have been very sore and stiff, and when I try to run there is a severe jab of pain on each left step. Eeven stuffed full of ibuprofen I could only manage a few miles and felt like I was doing more damage than good.
 
I saw the doctor yesterday and he said I had SI joint dysfunction, which was causing my right leg to be longer than the left. I’m doing physical therapy starting Monday to correct it (doctor said that would take about a week). Also, a coworker who runs a lot pointed me to an article about some core strengthening exercises that seem to be helping as well–it’s at http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263-266-13030-0,00.html
 
So, I won’t be doing a 20 miler before the marathon, but the doctor was pretty sure that with the physical therapy I would be able to still run the marathon. I’m walking and biking instead of running in the meantime (I pull my daughter along in a cart on the bike, which makes it a pretty good exercise). Obviously missing the 20 miler (and associated runs) won’t help my training, but if I can get in some small runs and one half-marathon before the actual race (with rest time before the actual marathon), I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine.
 
Not necessarily good news, but it could be a lot worse…

LDS General Conference

The 179th General Conference just ended, so I wanted to put down my thoughts on it while I still have it in my head…

For me, there were a few things that really stood out. One was attending the temple regularly. There were a number of talks on this, actually. My wife and I try to get to the temple regularly, but each month it is a struggle to accomplish, and we miss more months than we should…

Another was a talk on living within your means by Elder Hales. My wife and I agreed that we tend to buy a lot more things than we really need. Part of it is that we encourage each other to get the things that the other wants, but in his talk Elder Hales told a couple stories, one about wanting to buy something for his wife when they couldn’t really afford it, and another about when he wanted to buy something for her when they could afford it. The basic idea wasn’t to never buy anything, but to live within your means, and to not buy things to try to impress others, and to save money for rainy days.

Elder Perry talked about the need for members to be major part of the missionary effort. It just struck me that I need to do more to share my feelings about the gospel to others and see if they want to know more.

Finally, Elder Scott, President Monson, and a few others talked about facing adversity–looking forward with faith. Elder Scott especially told a few very tender stories about some severe trials he has gone through in his life.

April Fools!

So on April Fools thinkgeek.com offered a number of fake items, including this awesome item: The TaunTaun sleeping bag!

tauntaun sleeping bag

Note that the inside pattern of the bag is entrails. My favorite part is that the zipper is shaped like a lightsaber.

What’s even better is that ThinkGeek claims that they got enough positive comments about it that they are going to see if they can get the rights to build and market it (see the original ad here).

While you’re there, you should check out the miniature trebuchet that they sell (throws small objects up to 20 feet)…