Thanksgiving weekend report

exercise, General

So, Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone.

My plans for the weekend involved renting a car, running in the ORRC Turkey Trot 4-mile run Thanksgiving morning with my nephew Max, and then he and I would drive down to Lincoln City to meet up with the rest of the family for Thanksgiving on the Oregon coast.

The first part went according to plan. I had reserved a compact car from Hertz, but when I showed up, they had given me a “free upgrade” to a Pontiac G6 Sedan GTP: 240 HP 3.9 liter V6, leather interior, sun roof, 6 disk CD changer, traction control, Tiptronic 5 speed transmission… the works. It was going to be a fun car to drive to the beach! I realized that it had a downside, though, when the gas gauge showed only 3/4 after only 21 miles. Yikes. Oh, well, all good things come with a cost…

The other downer was waking up Wednesday with a sore left ankle. I don’t know how I’d hurt it. I hadn’t run all week, since the previous Sunday. But Wednesday morning, I had a muscle ache that felt like a twisted ankle. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to run the next day or not. When I talked to my sister, I mentioned the possibility of me not running, and she told me that Max had been looking forward to the race all week; he was, at that moment, picking out some running pants, since it was likely to be quite cold for the run. I felt bad, but injuries happen (even if I had no idea how this particular one had happened).

My nephew and I drove up to the Oregon Forestry Center, dressed as warmly as possible for the run. We picked up our shirts and bib “numbers” (since it was a fun run, it wasn’t timed and there were no actual numbers), then tried warming up. After just a few short minutes, up and down the hills near the Zoo, I could tell that there was no way I would last for the 4 miles of the run. I asked Max if he’d be OK running by himself, and after some thought, he agreed. I apologized for not running in this one. I waited with him at the starting line, and then after it started I found my dad, who had showed up to get some pictures.

And I was very impressed at Max’s time in the race! He ran 2 minutes per mile faster than he had run in our last race! His final time was almost exactly 45:00 even! He is really improving. I’m looking forward to our next race.

Then we drove down to the beach house, and I gorged myself for two whole days on the traditional Thanksgiving fare; ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing… and plenty of pie. We played Trivial Pursuit, which my sister’s father-in-law, Tom, won every time. It stormed and rained for most of the time, which is fine since the beach house is right on the beach and has a fireplace. Warm, cozy and we all went a bit stir-crazy but that’s normal for family. Right?

I also did a little bit of gambling at the Chinook Winds Casino… I’m not much of a gambler, so I managed to lose about $25.00. But it was fun.

My dad and Aunt Carol (his girlfriend… and my mom’s sister. Long story) came down on Saturday. Carol brought more pies, delicious home-baked pies. Mmmm… and then I drove back to Portland that afternoon. Quite the weekend!

I’m sure I’ve gained 10 pounds… all that eating and no exercise. But, hey, it’s the holidays, right?

Friday Cat Blogging EARLY

Smacky

Posting over the holiday weekend* will be spotty, since I’m going to be with my family in Lincoln City, a quaint seaside town with few, if any, 21st century conveniences like indoor plumbing and wireless internet connectivity.

So, I present my Friday Cat Blogging on Wednesday!

Smacky got to play outside in the sun this week. It may not look it from the pictures, but even in the sun it’s been cold. Luckily for Smacky he’s got a fur coat.

…and here’s some more!

*For all my international readers, this upcoming weekend marks the official start to the consumer-oriented shopping spree known as “the holidays”. After a traditional day of rest marked by incredible overeating and ritual family spats, Americans celebrate our exceptional wealth and sensitivity by spending money on anyone and everyone we can possibly label “friends and relatives”, gifts which are exchanged on the formerly pagan day marking the winter solstice. Happy Holidays!

I brought Gatorade and Cliff Bars

exercise

Ran today. Ran Friday night, too, just 5 easy miles, but since I forgot to blog about it when it was fresh in my mind, I’m going to gloss over it.

But, today, I planned on a long run, 8 miles. Even though it was sunny outside, it was still cold, so I headed for the gym. Wore my Asics. Music was Eminem’s “Encore” (thanks, Tracy, for burning that for me!) for the first half, then Gorillaz “Demon Days” for the last half. Since I expected the total time to be close to 90 minutes, I brought Gatorade and Cliff Bars with me.

I started out at a 10:20 pace, and kept that up for the first two miles, where I had to break for a drink. I pushed hard to finish the next two miles at a faster pace, but it was not to be. My total time, including my walking breaks, was 42:00 and I completed 4.08 miles, which averages to a 10:18 pace or so. Not bad.

After a short bathroom break, I set out to reach my goal. I thought I was going faster, until a 2:00 long walk break right around 2.5 miles. Still, I reached 4.0 miles in 41:27, which averages to a 10:21 pace, only slightly slower than my first half. I have to say I strongly considered stopping my second session at 3.92 miles, because I had only promised myself I would go 8 miles total… but that last .08 miles wasn’t that hard.

I still wish I could just keep going at a running gait the entire time, but I have to remember that I have only been doing these long runs for a few months. It will take me a while to get conditioned to running the entire distance. And I’m not competing with anyone but myself, so every time I do a little bit better, I win.

Oh, small note: I have a hangnail on my left big toe – painful, but it didn’t hurt my running.

Potentially phildickian

General

I signed on to the Providian website to check if a payment had posted to my Visa card. Or, rather, I tried to. It wouldn’t let me sign on. It gave me a message to call their customer support line.

At first I figured I had just messed up the password. I tried their “reset password” feature… and one of the things it needed was my credit card number. But when I pulled out my wallet, I realized that my Providian Visa card was missing.

It’s not a card I actually use at this point. One of the features of the card is that it charges no interest on transferred balances until March ’06, so I’ve been moving the balance of my other cards over to it, and paying it down. So I hadn’t left it somewhere, since I don’t pull it out of it’s little slot behind my BofA Visa card. Y’know, ever. But this was worrisome.

It also dawned on me that the people in area code 925 who had been trying to get a hold of me for the past day might be connected with my missing Visa card. I called the number on their website, and, after figuring out how to bypass the automated “Please enter your 16-digit credit card number now” part (press 00), I was soon speaking to Stephen from Providian’s Fraud Division.

Stephen asked me to verfiy my social security number, then proceeded to let me know that there were some purchases on my card that had flagged their notice. Most of them were gas purchases. I told Stephen that I don’t even own a car, so it was unlikely that I had been filling up the tank. I told him about my most recent transactions (a payment and a balance transfer), and he was convinced. He cancelled the card, and is sending me a new one. I had previously thought that I would be liable for the first $50 of transactions, but Stephen said that I would likely be liable for none of the fraudulent transactions, provided their investigation shows that they were not mine. I’m confident that will happen.

I was a bit stunned, so I didn’t ask him the obvious question: how much had they charged to my card? I guess I’ll find out when the paperwork gets here.

But now I have to figure out how this happened. How did they get just that one card, and nothing else?

The only clue I have is a memory. I don’t recall the exact day, but I do remember an incident at my gym. I always keep my wallet in the same pocket (right rear), but there was a day last week where I came back to my gym locker after a workout, and when I went to put on my pants, my wallet was in the wrong pocket. I had looked at my wallet at the time, but didn’t see anything missing. My Providian Visa may have been missing, though; I might have failed to notice it because it’s usually hidden behind my BofA Visa.

I had brushed the incident off, but not without wondering if it was a phildickian moment, akin to the scene in “Time Out of Joint” where the hero goes down what he thought was a three-step stairway, but found it was only two steps.

Now, I believe that, somehow, someone had gotten into my locker, gone through my wallet, and stolen this credit card. Still seems strange to me, though. The simplest scenario is that I had forgotten to lock it. That feels unlikely to me, since, in addition to my wallet, I normally have my larger iPod, and my laptop, in my backpack, and I certainly did on the day of the above-described incident. That knowledge leads me to lock my locker every time I leave it. But memory is a fluid and fallible thing, so it’s possible I’m not remembering it.

Another oddness is that they didn’t take anything else of mine – my drivers’ license (yes, I have a drivers’ license but no car), my debit card and other Visa, my bus pass. But the thing about all of those is that they all have my picture on them – normal for drivers’ licenses and my permanent, county-issued bus pass, but thanks to Bank of America’s focus on security and customer service, both of my cards issued by BofA have my picture on them, as well. I want to give BofA a huge, wet, sloppy kiss for that.

At any rate, this should all turn out to be, if not a positive experience, at least not a negative one. I will probably not be out any money, I’m getting a replacement card, and nothing else seems to have been stolen. I’m going to have to be more cautious at the gym, though, and I might buy a new lock, just in case whoever got my card picked the lock. And, of course, I’ll have to pay close attention to see if any other personal information of mine was stolen, also.

Live and learn, I guess.

New Miserable Experience

exercise

Quick running update.

Ran last night. Just planned on 3 miles at a moderately-hard pace. Succeeded, but it was a tough run. I think I’m coming down with something. Bleh.

Tonight was speedwork, same drill as last several weeks; after a mile of easy warmup, do four alternating sets of 4:00 fast, 2:00 easy. Record my distance. Then a mile of cooldown at whatever pace I need.

Music was Gin Blossom’s “New Miserable Experience” (kinda slow for a speed workout, but whatever, it worked). Wore the Asics, and they gave me a freakin’ blister again. I am not pleased.

And even though it was tough, and I had trouble breathing properly (too much gunk in my sinuses), I managed to improve from last week’s 9:15 average pace, to a 9:11 average pace (distance: 2.61 miles).

Imagine what I could do if I could, y’know, breathe. Yay. I rock.