Last night Eric and I ran 9.25 miles, 2.25 miles more than my previous personal record! We ran 6 miles a few days ago, but I was feeling pretty tired and wasn’t up to running much further. Last night, however, I felt good the whole way. In fact, by the end of the run I still wasn’t all that tired but my knees were starting to feel sore. Regardless, we stepped up the pace a bit in that last quarter mile and sprinted for a strong finish!We haven’t been running super fast… perhaps just under a 10 minute mile… but we keep a surprisingly steady pace. My heart rate usually goes up to around 185 and stays there during the majority of the run.

Eric and I ran 7 miles tonight!… a personal record for both of us. We’ve been running together since approximately the end of March, doing anywhere between 3 to 5 miles per night, twice a week, schedules permitting. We ran 5.6 miles a few months back, but had not done more than 5 miles in a given night since then. Tonight we were at 4.6 miles and I was feeling pretty good so I suggested that we do about a mile more. Near the end of that mile, I was still feeling pretty good, so I suggested we try for an even 6. Then Eric suggested that we may as well try a route that would probably put us at 7 miles… if we couldn’t make it the whole way we could just walk. Well, sure enough we kept chugging and made it all the way to the 7 mile mark (according to his GPS receiver).Eric has participated in a few triathlons this summer, but the running segment for those is about 6.2 miles. He also did the Bay to Breakers, which is approximately 7.4 miles, but walked a portion of that race.It definitely helps to have a running partner to keep my mind distracted from the physical exhaustion and to push me to my limits. I’m sure I couldn’t have gotten this far without his help!

Jennifer and I had a great dinner tonight. I was planning on grilling some salmon from the Sunnyvale Farmer’s market but quickly realized that that wasn’t going to happen when barely a flame could muster itself. We were out of propane. Plan B: we decided to broil it. I smothered it with olive oil and put it flesh side down on foil wrapped over the broiler pan. Three minutes later I flipped it so the scales were on the bottom. Another three minutes later I cut it open down the middle only to find that it was still a raw in the middle. Yet another three minutes later and I pulled it out. Perfect. I think it was the best salmon I’ve had ever. The outside was just slightly crunchy and the inside was nice and tender, not undercooked, overcooked or dry at all. This piece of salmon happened to be from the end near the tail. This end tends to be thinner than the rest of the body. We purposely chose this cut because we often have problems with the middle not cooking all the way through on the grill yet the outside becomes charred. Not this time. Delicious. To add to it, we also had corn on the cob and green beans boiled and steamed to perfection. I love home cooked meals.

What was supposed to be two days of surfing lessons in Santa Cruz ended up being one afternoon of sun burning and another of sea kayaking. The surf was vitually non-existant so our classes were canceled. After applying Sooth-a-caine to the areas of flesh that we neglected to apply sunscreen to at the beach, we ate dinner at The Acapulco in downtown Santa Cruz. On our way home Sunday, we stopped at Marianne’s on Ocean Avenue to treat ourselves to some ice cream. Yum!

I took Friday off and headed to Las Vegas last Thursday night for Defcon. It’s a hacker convention that is more networking opportunity and party than convention. The talks are usually pretty good, though most people go to just meet up with birds of the same feather and have a good time. Though the conference itself was a little disappointing due to over-attendance, it was still great to meet up with friends I haven’t seen in a few years. Continue reading →