I think this is for real, but it's hard to believe:

http://www.chessboxing.com/

This is really just me testing out blogging from within flickr. After Jamie took a picture of me and Heath, he took one of me and Jamie and Jamie's hat.

UPDATE: This doesn't work for me, for that same reason I had trouble with aligned images along time ago.

The band was in town for a show at the LA Convention Center last weekend.  Jamie and I made our way down there in the early afternoon, and eventually found our way to the bus in the freight area.  We had a good time catching up on the bus, while the band enjoyed Jamie's butterscotch chip oatmeal cookies.  Wow, they're good.  They were only in town for a few hours, so there was no time for the usual trip to Trader Vic's, so Jamie and I picked up some of their bread and peanut butter and brought it back to the bus, where thankfully, they had a toaster.

Around 8:00 p.m., we headed inside for the concert.  The band was great, as per usual.  Dave busted out a keytar; I did not see that coming.  The audience was made up of predominantly of asians.  And why not?  Asians love David Crowder.  The security lining the front of the stage were a real comfort, as they were singing along, instead of keeping the crowd at bay.  If you get a chance to see the band perform, do it.  I enjoy the CD so much more when I've seen it performed in context.  And if you haven't bought the CD yet, don't wait.  They actually made it to #1 on ITunes the week the album came out.

After the show, the band was off to sign autographs for hours.  I spotted Robbie Seay, who had opened the show, and went over to introduce Jamie to him.  As we were talking to him, some young asian girls came over to get Robbie to sign something, so I backed away with Jamie while we talked with some other friends of Robbie's.  But then one of the young asian girls came over and asked if they could get a picture with me and Robbie.  Apparently, since I wasn't asian, I must have been on stage that night.  Before I could make things awkward by trying to explain that I wasn't in any of the bands, Robbie said "Sure he will", and put his arm around me to pose for the photo.  Robbie, you are one class act to your fans, my friend.

We only took a few pics that night, but here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcoulter/sets/1090811/

This is a little belated, but I just got around to uploading the picture to Flickr.  Heath was in town for Microsoft's PDC a couple of weeks ago.  We got to have him over for dinner and catch up on each other's lives.  No visit, however, would be complete without a picture of the two of us and our favorite Ameriprise Financial commercial.  Great to see you, Heath!  (Clicking the image will take you to the Flickr image page.)

Scheduled Distance: 3 miles
Actual Distance: 3 miles
Time: 37:21
Gmaps Route
RPE: 6

Well, the pain came back at about the same point in today's run, which slowed me down.  I'm going to do a lot of stretching today and tomorrow before I attempt my six mile run.  It's frustrating, because it had gotten to the point of not hurting any more on Monday, and now I'm back to square one.

Thought those interested in up and coming stuff on the web might find this article interesting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9598708/

UPDATE: Here's the link to Flock.  http://www.flock.com/home/

Scheduled Distance: 4 miles
Actual Distance: 4 miles
Time: 55:40
Gmaps Route
RPE: 8

Apart from covering the necessary distance, today's run was a bust.  After fifteen minutes, my legs were in some serious pain, and I slowed to a crawl.  I thought maybe I'd started out too fast or that Monday's run had been too aggressive.  Then, I realized that I had neglected to do a very important stretch before setting out.  I hadn't stretched out my calfs and shins (if you can stretch a shin).  It was really hot again today, which didn't help matters.  So, I stopped, drank a little water and stretched.  After that, I walked a bit and then got up to a jog, but about as slow a jog as you can get.  I was never able to get into a rhythm, though, and I expected that it would take me over an hour to complete the miles.  I was actually pleasantly surprised that my time wasn't much past last Wednesday's run.  Hopefully, tomorrow will go better though, because I'm going to stretch, and because I purchased a new running shirt today.

Scheduled Distance: 3 miles
Actual Distance: 3 miles
Time: 34:40
Gmaps Route
RPE: 4

Well, I ran late today, but not because of laziness or busyness or business, but because of illness.  I laid low today, doing minimal work, trying to get better.  I decided not to miss my run though, and I even ran pretty hard, as my time improved quite a bit.  I'm getting to the point now where I can envision keeping up my faster pace through the entire 3 miles.  As for my left ankle, it has been bothering me less and less, so I think the new shoes are doing the trick.

Scheduled Distance: 5 miles
Actual Distance: 5.2 miles
Time: 1:08:26
Gmaps Route
RPE: 4

It's hard for me to believe that I ran for more than an hour.  The temperature was mercifully back in the 70's and there was a heavy marine layer, so I occasionally felt like I was running through little pieces of mist.  Basically, perfect running weather.  TQ was in my legs for the first couple of miles, and then I settled in and just kept going.  The reason I ended up going past the 5 miles was because I couldn't remember how I had routed my last mile, so I ran another lap around our block just to make sure.  I was feeling so good still that I would have kicked myself if I had come in and checked and seen that I only ran 4.8.  I got back in time to watch the last minute of regulation for the Baylor game.

Scheduled Distance: 3 miles
Actual Distance: 3 miles
Time: 37:34
Gmaps Route
RPE: 5

After having done 4 miles yesterday, 3 miles was in no way daunting for me today.  However, I'm leaving the RPE up at 5 for two reasons: faster pace and hotter day.  I figure that my short days are the best days to add some bursts of speed every now and then and increase my overall pace.  Hopefully, by the end of October, I'll be comfortable running on my short days at a constant fast pace that I can only do in bursts now.  The reason heat was such a factor today was because of, um, well, my nipular region.  Yowch!  I'll try to avoid running in the afternoon on days this hot.  On a follow up note from last time, I think that taking longer strides does make it easier on my legs and harder on my cardiovascular and respiratory systems, which is a good thing, because my heart and lungs were getting off too easy.

This article from MSNBC tells us that Matsushita has developed a technology to turn every day electrical outlets into broadband connections.  This sounds like a great idea.  I've thought for a long time that the electrical outlets should send out a standard time beacon-type thing, so that whenever you plug in a clock or computer or oven or anything that plugs in and has a clock can set itself.  I'd be happy never to see a blinking 12:00 again.

Scheduled Distance: 4 miles
Actual Distance: 4 miles
Time: 53:28
Gmaps Route
RPE: 6

I decided to keep the watch on, not so much for obsessing about my pace now but so that I can hopefully see a trend towards improvement later on.  My left ankle is still a little tender, but hurt much less after I got through the first mile.  The Quit (TQ) was predominantly in my legs still, though my mind kept bringing up the longer distance.  I find that the second half of the run is always easier mentally.  I'm curious if my legs are really just the weakest link or if there's a way that I can displace some of the stress on my legs somehow, maybe by lengthening my stride or something.  Anybody have any ideas?

Scheduled Distance: 3 miles
Actual Distance: 3 miles
Time: 39:45
Gmaps Route
RPE: 5

I made the distance today.  It wasn't too bad, but I was a little disappointed in how long it took.  Not that it matters.  I'm training to do the distance not to do it in a certain time.  So, I may stop wearing a watch for awhile, so that I don't get distracted by that.  The Quit today was in my legs.  By "The Quit", I mean the element of my being that was trying to get me wuss out on the run.  I figure there are four elements where "The Quit" can come from: mental, heart, lungs, and legs.  I'm hoping that the legs were just still complaining about the hilly run on Saturday, but we'll see.  My left ankle is bothering me.  If it still hurts like this after Saturday, then I'm going to have to do some research on what to do there.

As I start to run longer distances, I eventually want to get the Garmin Forerunner 201, which has GPS in it, plus a whole bunch of other neat stuff that you can read about if you follow the link.  Until that purchase is made, I needed some way to measure out some routes, as I start running for distance tomorrow instead of time.  I did a little searching and found this little dandy that somebody did using Google Maps (http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/).  You can even permalink routes that you've built, so tomorrow, I'll be running this route.

UPDATE: The link has changed to http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/.