(home) (race) improvement

i haven't been able to post for a little while because we painted my "office". i have plans to get a new desk in short order, but i couldn't wait any longer to access the internet. its crazy how attached one can become to accessing the outside world on a very regular basis. this is exactly where i'm sitting at the moment:

















If you look closely you'll see a strip of small pictures of some desks i'm looking at (in front of monitor); hehe.

i used to rip on the former owners of my place because a lot of the painting they did sucked (although i really like the colors they went with). but alas, 2 coats of paint in one small 10x10 room later and i have a little more respect! this room used to be white, now its sort of a tan color. i was thinking brown (seemed like a distinguished office color), but it was too dark and made the room look super small.

this is actually the first time i've ever painted (i know, lame). my gf did all of the taping because she's a saint.

while she taped i took everything out of the room. while taking apart my crappy computer desk that i've had for about 7 or 8 years, it broke. i secretly wanted a new desk anyway, so as it broke i rejoiced! yeah!!!

first, i painted the top of the wall--you know, all along the ceiling? even though she taped the wall, i kept thinking, what if i screwed up and hit the ceiling?? thats when my my arm would inexplicably jerk, and WHOOSH my paint brush would jab at the ceiling where there was no tape.

CRAP! hehe. figures!













well anyway, i think we did ok. not perfect, but ok. i'm going to try to clean the spots today.

this past sunday i decided to sign up for the first race of the season, the Human Race 8k (4.97 miles).

38:03!! (7:39). my forerunner said i ran 5.03 miles (7:33) but i'll try not to focus on that.

i think i could have managed the race better, but it was pretty fun. i didn't have a lot of expectations since this was the first time i've ever ran an 8k.

Avg heart rate was 166, peak 179.

1. 7:42 (AHR 160)
2. 7:35 (164)
3. 7:40 (167)
4. 7:45 (169)
5. 7:08 (171)

sure seems like i should have been pushing harder given my HR's were a bit low? i finished in the top 39% of 1,034 finishers which does not seem very good. in order to finish in the top quartile of this race, i'd need to shoot for 6:50 pace. ouch.

look at what just arrived!!