Benfalk Blog

Today was a VERY frustrating day.  I didn’t get to run today nor did I go into work to get some work done this morning… as I guessed I wouldn’t.  I slept in until 9am and waited around until noon when Lucas was in the safe zone to leave for our mom’s house so we could do some chores for her today.  While I was waiting around I set up SVN and played around with it for awhile, but never fully got it working and it kept ticking me off =X.  To complete the ensemble of destruction I broke my Apache server setting up SSL with the subversion web access mod, which I’ll work on later.

After Lucas and I got back from cleaning up the upstairs bedrooms of our parents house I set back to figureing out how Subversion, SVN, works and more importantly… how it works with my Komodo IDE.  I finally broke down and decided to host my project source on code.google.com .  Once I finally figured out how to get my files updated to the svn project repository my frustration levels started dropping.  Now it’s just a matter of actually working on the project =) .

My brother and I are scheduled to once again head down to the old homestead to help our mother get the house ready for the family who will be taking care of the place; but, before we do I plan on doing my long run tomorrow morning.  I haven’t read the C++ book for a couple days as well, I plan to read at least fifteen pages tomorrow night before I hit the sack.

Had a great day today.  Even after being interrupted quite a few times today, it was still all and all a good day.  Made some fantastic headway on a big project at work that I hope to have wrapped up by the start of next week.  During lunch today I decided to build up the start of the code section for this site and laid out in my head some of how I would like to arrange it.  Part of me wants to go back into work tomorrow morning and get caught up on some other things that I know I won’t be motivated to do during a normal work day, and I just may… but since I’m leaving it up to chance and not making plans to actually do so it probably won’t happen.

When I got home today I changed into some gym clothes and went over to do some more strength training on my legs.  My legs seemed to be a bit stronger than last Friday so that’s a good sign I assume =) .  I did leg curls and squats with various leg stretches between sets.  I would like to get my long run for the week in tomorrow, but since it’s going to be raining it looks like it might not happen… I really don’t want to do it on the treadmill, but if it comes down to it I will by Sunday if I have to.

Before I go to bed tonight I hope to get some more of the coding section done and work on setting up my PHP project of “Hybertrofy” on a SVN, a source code management system.

Today was pretty descent.  It started out kind of shaky with email problems with one of our remote plants, but things seemed to get better as it got closer to noon.  I worked on a couple helper libraries for a PHP framework I like to use called Codeigniter .  I highly recommend this framework.  The website has some descent video tutorials to help show you some of the fundamentals of the framework and what it is capable of accomplishing.  One negative against this framework is it’s not all that easy to set up with Microsoft’s IIS as it likes to use “clean URLs” to trip class functions of the framework.  On a plus side however; it works quite well with Apache =) .  Sometime tomorrow I’m going to start publishing my class libraries and helper functions on my site.

When I got home from work I changed clothes, did some deep stretches, grabbed my iPhone, and set out on a run.  I had a fantastic run tonight I might add!  I did 10.2 miles in just under one and a half hours.  I am estimating my average pace for tonight was somewhere around 7.2 miles per hour, and the best part was I wasn’t all that winded either =) .  My knees feel fantastic and I have to attribute it to the extra stretching I have been doing to the IT bands.  I am also sure the strength training on my upper legs is helping too.

I made it to chapter 6 in my C++ book.  Branching and conditional statements, here I come!

Unproductive day ahoy!  I seemed to gain no ground today at work and spent a fair amount of time struggling to figure out the riggers of Microsoft’s worst operating system, “Windows ME.”  About forty-five minutes before lunch an email popped in my Yahoo from Activestate saying I qualified for their Komodo 5 IDE beta !! =) .  I installed it and played around with the features for awhile before remembering how much stuff I need to get done.  After getting knocked off course a couple more times by normal, random user calls I made the executive decision to go ahead and leave at my “scheduled time” of 4pm, which I hardly ever do.

When I got home I did the exercise bike for awhile to get the heart pumping and then did some bench pressing.  I need to start incorporating some more core strength training into my workout plan, going to work on that tonight and make a schedule I can stick to.  I have also been tinkering with the idea of tweaking my running schedule.  I am thinking about doing some light distance running on my off days.  On Friday I want to do leg strength training again, and I’m thinking before I do that I’ll do two miles and see how that goes.

Read about twenty pages in my C++ book today.  I was to afraid to see, but it feels like I’m about half way though chapter five.  I am excited to get on to chapters that make me feel like I am once again learning helpful material =) .  While I have been talking here and there about C++ I haven’t really said much about the core language that I do know, PHP.  My hope is to have some pages up on that soon!

Today was an okay day.  Didn’t get much done that I wanted to do today, but it could have been worse than it was I guess =) .  On my way home from work I was stopped by a train that had crossed the road and decided to stop for about 25 minutes, insanely annoying.  I am not sure how much longer it was there as I decided to join the heard of patient people who had also had enough and turned back down the road!  Getting home late was definitely not what I had planned as I wanted to get some running in tonight and flush that Mexican food out of my system; which I was able to do at least.

I ran 8.8 miles tonight, and the first two and a half or so seemed pretty rough on my quads, definitely from doing that strength training from last Friday.  After that though the pain dulled out and running almost seemed to kick into auto pilot mode.  I ran the last lap or so at a very strong clip and was pretty winded on my return run.  I am overjoyed to report still no sign of join pains in my legs, or at least joint pain that has any prospects of lasting.

No C++ today, had to many things going on.  Tomorrow is another day though.

Mondays… oh well.  To celebrate my birthday in the workplace I always bring in a bag of breakfast burritos in the neighborhood of thirty or so, and this year was no different.  Arrangements were made the night before and unlike years in the past, this year was a simple operation of picking them up and paying for them =) .

Top Knot Start

I tried to break the new look to as many people as I could today with my head and I’m hoping the shock value of it dies quickly, which I’m sure it will.  As I have tried to explain a couple times, the top knot is here to remind me of what I should to be focusing on.  Every morning when I shave my head it will remind me of the things I should be doing each day to improve myself.

My knee felt fantastic today, and I think I have to attribute it to the leg strength training and extra stretching I have been doing through out the day.  I hope to put together a set of pages explaining the pitfalls and problems I went through when I started running so other people can avoid them =) .

I’m going to read a tad more of my C++ book and head in to bed early tonight as I’m not feeling all that great, it feels like I have a slight fever.  On a side note:. it appears I made it to the top viewed list in YTMND today thanks to my roommate !  http://runningmad.ytmnd.com

Today was my birthday!  What better way to spend it than running for a couple hours =) .  I got ready at 10am this morning and headed out with my friend Mason, who tagged along on his bike.  He took along his camera and snapped some shots of me running and even made an animated Giff of the event.  My knees felt great the whole time, and even better, I read up on some stretches that will help stretch the muscles that are pulling on my knee and acting up from time to time.  Used my new iPhone on the run and listened to Pandora, it was amazing, and I in no way regret buying the plan after using today.

Benfalk running down Covington Road

When I got back from my run I showered up and my roommates, Lucas, his wife, and I went to a Mexican “all you can eat” buffet.  I didn’t go overboard on unhealthy food, but the food I did eat was greasy and I could feel it coursing through my veins.  A lesson learned, won’t be eating that again anytime soon during my training.  Upon returning home I crashed on the sofa and fell asleep for about three and a half hours.

My mom called and wished me a happy birthday and told me about how the cats got into the house through an upstairs window that I left open from last Sunday when Lucas and I were down helping put together a water bed =( .  It wouldn’t have been so bad but she was gone until Saturday fishing with her father on Lake Erie.

To finish out my birthday I started the official cut of my “Top Knot Project.”  I normally keep a shaved head, but have been letting my hair grow so it’s easier to identify a patch of hair growing on the back of my head while I shave.  It took some time to get it shaved down and I need my roommate’s help squaring it away.  Hopefully by the end of December I will have a descent lock of hair on the back of my head =) .

Had a great but unproductive day.  Not completely unproductive, but more so than I was hoping it to be.  Signed up for and got an AT&T plan with an eight gigabyte iPhone.  I love it already, it’s fantastic!  Was playing around on it off and on today for quite some time installing free apps and getting familiar with how it works.  The one I like the most so far is the Pandora music player =) .

I read about twenty-five pages of the C++ book.  Right now in the book it’s talking about loops and conditional statements, which is pretty much familiar to me from PHP and other languages I have picked up on over the years.  I am trying my best to stay focused on the reading in case there are any nuances or tricks to the language I can take advantage of.

My knee isn’t sore today which has me pretty glad.  These two days off from running I hope will go a long way in making sure it survives the training I’m putting it through.  Tomorrow I’m shooting for a thirteen or more mile run on a different course than normal.  This course will have hills but it won’t have the same quick changing variation of hills like the cemetery course I run does.  Before I go to bed I’m going to do some weight lifting and stretch my legs out as best as I can.  Might even start re-plotting out my Hybertrofy project.

A rushed and busy day with prospects of hurt knee =\ .  I was finishing up helping someone and was turning away to head back to my cubicle when my right knee lit up with pain for just an instant and my heart sank in an instant.  I babied it the rest of the day and kept stretching as much as possible.  Of all the fears I have, one up there somewhere near the top is KO’ing my knee again and being out and unable to run for three or more weeks.  With that in mind, when I got back home I put my plan into action that I made a couple days back: strength train the legs.

I did seven seven sets of leg curls, each set ranging between 10 and 6 reps.  I’m not 100% sure how much weight I was lifting as the machine I was using was a pulley system and the weights were not labeled in any way, which bugged the living daylights out of me.  I also did leg lifts and some lightened squats with plenty of stretching between exercises.  My knee feels quite a bit better afterwards which is good; however, I think I am going to delay running tomorrow and give my knee some more time to heal up.

The rest of my night is pretty much my own.  Roommate is over at my brother’s place trying to watch all four seasons of “LOST” in an inhumanly amount of time on the new LCD TV.  I took the opportunity to finish reading chapter four of my C++ book and did some mapping out of the web based game I really want to finish, “Hybertrofy.”  I don’t want to spend too much time blabbing about that though, that’s for a separate posting altogether sometime.

Today’s looking back forecast: fair.  Morning was descent, worked on the tracking program logic some and made some catch ups on some of the jobs that have been building on my marker board of depression.  Noon time was a little rugged with some server problems but for the most part they corrected themselves.

My knee today seemed to have fits off and on like it was going to start hurting, which kept me on edge most of the day but it never really acted up.  I stretched really good before going out on my run and took it easy for the first ten minutes to make sure my knee was going to be okay.  Ran the normal Cemetery trail which I will post the route sometime in my running section.

I have yet to finish chapter four of my C++ book, and it is a little depressing for me but a near schedule free weekend is just in sight =)