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A Personal Record

May 4th, 2012

Well, I've mostly recovered from last Sunday's Ravenswood Run 5k and I'm proud to report that I've set a new personal record of 21 minutes and 27 seconds (6:55 per mile avg.). That time is well below my stated goal of 22 minutes but not quite at my secret goal of 21 minutes. I was pretty close though and I feel good about my effort.

This is, in fact, my first official PR ever seeing as I've never run two races of the same distance before. And it looks like it will be my only official PR this year because the next three races on the list are new distances for me as well. I guess that means I'll have to hold onto this one for a while.

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April In Chicago

April 27th, 2012

April is winding down and, in Chicago, that usually means we're getting the first hints of warmer weather. Who would have thought March would turn out to be the warmer month of the two? I was hoping I'd be riding my bike to work regularly by now or at least having a few weekend-days of cooperative conditions. Even if I am a fair-weather cyclist, I'm allowed to get impatient!

Warm or cold, I'll be spending plenty of time outside. The Ravenswood Run 5k is this weekend and beyond that, my schedule is full of more and longer training for the triathlon, including the dreaded open-water swim. As cold as the air temperature might be, I can't even begin to imagine how cold the waters of Lake Michigan are this time of year.

I'm realizing now that the Lake probably won't be warming up much at all before the triathlon and that means investigating the possibility of purchasing a wetsuit. Unfortunately, I don't even know where to begin with that. The "Internet" seems like a good place to start but, as with most things related to fitness, there's a plethora of information on the subject that often contradicts itself. I do know that I'm probably expecting to spend $250+ on the thing, and that I'll also need something called "suit juice" if I plan on being able to take the wetsuit off after using it. I tell you, in the world of triathlon, there's a product for sale for absolutely everything.

There's not much else going on around here. I'm looking forward to a mini-vacation to the Kalamazoo area of Michigan in a couple of weeks. We're hoping to try out some bike trails in the area, take a tour of the Bell's Brewery and just relax away from work for a few days. I'm planning on adding some image gallery functionality to the site and photos from the trip may be the first things to go up. I'm not making any promises though!

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Brew Fest Recap

April 16th, 2012

Well, I'm back from the Blue Chip Brew Fest and I figured I'd give a little recap of the event. We had a great time at the tasting which was well organized and well attended. The organizers assembled a nice array of local, national and international breweries who brought beers running the full spectrum of styles. The Belgian breweries were in full force and the local Indiana brew scene was also well represented. The four hour tasting was only $35, far more reasonable than the tastings I've seen in the city.

I made it a point to give the Belgian styles a try. As a hop-head, I haven't given them a fair chance in the past, though I have been branching out to include them more recently. The stronger, darker styles, like the Tripels and even Quadrupels, have been my entry point into the world of Belgian beers, though I was surprised to find myself enjoying the lighter farmhouse and white styles just as much. Perhaps my previous assumptions were wrong, or maybe I wasn't drinking good representatives of the style.

My favorites on the day were the Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale — a very understated and drinkable sour, the Duvel Tripel Hop — truly a hop lover's Tripel, and the Gulden Draak Belgian Strong Dark Ale — which from now on will be my reference point when judging the style. I'm a little surprised at myself that my three "winners" on the night were European. I guess tastes change.

But that's not to discount the Americans. Two local Indiana breweries had the strongest showing overall, in my opinion. They both brought a large selection of their beers and each of them that I tried were well-crafted, easy drinking beers on par with any larger scale craft brewer in the country. I commend Flat 12 Bierwerks from Indianapolis, IN and Iechyd Da Brewing Company from Elkhart, IN for their solid showing.

Overall, the tasting was a great evening and I didn't even end up hung over. My next project is to try each of the beers that caught my attention while sober and see if they hold up!

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Dodgeball Champs

April 11th, 2012

We are the champions! Yes, people still play dodgeball.

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On The Radio

April 9th, 2012

I've been somewhat obsessed with last.fm recently. I remember checking the site out a couple of years ago but I don't recall it being so big and diverse. I can plug in any random band and it'll usually figure out some kind of 'related' playlist.

The last.fm API is also a really nifty tool. I've played around with it enough to integrate tracks I've been listening to onto the homepage here, but I can imagine a million better and more complicated uses for the amount of information the API makes available. And you can't beat a RESTful API that will return JSON data -- so easy to use. I'll have to create some kind of charting app for the site, or something.

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