Last week, as we were waiting at the airport in Tikrit for our chance to fly to Kuwait, I stayed focus on my running and managed to put in three runs for almost 18 miles while staged on the flight line, ready to fly out on a moments notice. Sitting at a desolate airport, waiting for weather to clear or a plane to arrive, for several days can, well, be pretty damn boring. Lots of folks watched movies or caught up on their reading — I tried to go run.

But those were flat miles, in a dry heat. Looking back now at my Garmin records from the 16 mile run I did two weeks ago, it was a total of about 700 feet of elevation change — for the whole thing. There’s nothing flat about where I live — if you’re not on the beach, it’s not flat.

After I got back home last Sunday, after the day was done and the kids were in bed, I took off and did a 12 mile run. My training plan told me I was suppose to be having an easy week — thus 12 and not 17 miles — but 12 miles seemed pretty boring. I figured I could spice it up by heading to the hills. Ugh — it had over 1000 feet of ascent. When it was over, I was smoked — it part because I had just flown half way around the world, but in part because it was 6 miles up and then 6 miles back down. I slept pretty well that night.

This week, though, I have mixed it up — some loops through the neighborhood (still not flat) and some runs through the pineapple fields. And I gotta say — the runs have been a lifesaver. I’ve been able to self-medicate, getting healthy doses of endorphins, as I’ve tried to adjust to being home and as the family has put up with my crap.

If that sounds odd, well, it shouldn’t. The Army says that the #1 thing we as soldiers can do, post deployment, to help deal with the stress of reintegration, is physical exercise (cardio, specifically). It’s no joke — those endorphins are magical when it comes to dealing with stress. When I had first approached my wife about training up for this marathon, it was just this that as I cited as the #1 reason for wanting to do this — endorphins during redeployment and reintegration, since I know it’s always stressful not just for me but for us, when I come home.

And so, I’ve spent the week trying to find the balance — miles, vs. hills. The miles are good for me, but the hills are helping me build strength in my legs (and with how much they ache, I have no doubt it’s working). They were pretty uneventful runs during the week, but the long run today was noteworthy: I ran my our neighborhood not just to the Army base, by across it to my new office.

K and the kids had gone to see a performance of Annie last night, and I….. went to sleep. I was very tired. And by tired, I mean I went to bed before 7 pm. Yeah, tired. But I slept 7 and a half hours, getting up at 0230 and hitting the road just after 3. It was almost 6 miles through the fields, and then a little over three up to post and then across post to the office. I stopped, on the way back, at a 24 hour convenience store, to buy a 64 ounce Gatorade — most of which went into my camelback, to restock it since I had drained it on the way, but the rest went right into my belly. No food, no gel packs.

I had hoped to do the run in about 3 hours. Last weekend, I finished reading the book Born to Run, which at one point talks about slowing down slow runs, to burn fat and not what’s in your stomach. Since my stomach was empty, well, I was committed to trying this (and it totally worked). It was 18 miles in 3:05:40, a hair more than I had set as my goal. But there was the whole 2200+-feet-of-ascent aspect, too, so I’m okay with the time. My thighs are seriously smoked — even my hips hurt — but I feel pretty good. I’ll be drinking water all day, and I did eat that Buick when I was done running.

If you’re curious as to how the running has been going, here’s the updated spreadsheet for my running and training. Pretty nerdy and geeky, but it does show what I’ve been up to. I have a Google Earth file, too, that I can email you – just ask, and I’ll send it.

I am home in HI. Iraq is done. It was nice, but I so much prefer to be at home. I had the honor of being in charge of getting 94 soldiers home, which was an adventure. After some initial delays in Tikrit, due to rain of all things, we rushed from there to Kuwait, through Customs, and onto a North American Airlines charter flight. Similar to when I came home (covertly) this summer, we went through Leipzig to Bangor, Maine, before stopping in Sacramento on the way to Oahu. It was a long, long 36 hours. For me, the saving grace was that, as the guy in charge, I got to sit in the comfy sets at the front of the plane. Still, though — that’s a lot of miles to cover. And really, when the wife and kids are waiting on the other end, the miles seem to take that much longer.

Now that I’m home, I’m really doing three things:

1. Hanging out with the wife and kids.

2. Working on the honey-do list.

3. Running.

The hanging out part is pretty easy. My temperament seems to be a lot better than it has been after other deployments. I am much slower to be irked – which was not always the case after other trips.

I’m doing my best with the honey-do’s. Today, I spent a good amount of time tinkering with our TiVo. With Galleon, VisualHub, and websites like this, I figured out how to add video to our TiVo (when normally it just has the things that it records). Now, I can add programs to it, for us to watch — I can go someplace like this, download a movie like the original Street Fighter, when load it on the TiVo for us to watch later. Not have to do, just nice to do.

And yes, running. Always with the running, even while in the process of staging to move from Iraq to Hawai’i. At the airport in Tikrit, while we waiting for the weather to improve, I did three runs that totaled almost 18 miles. On Sunday, about 14 hours after I got home, I did a 12 mile run through the pineapple fields. Iraq was flat; I am having to adjust both to the lack of flat running, as well as the humidity. This weekend, I am suppose to run something around 18 miles for my long run — I’ll need a plan for water and maybe food along the way.

So, yeah. It’s good to be home.

After five weeks of running, I am .29 miles ahead of the training plan. Not too bad. It’s always give and take with me — lots of little days of just a pinch more than required, and then the one or two days where I come up short a mile or two. My shortfall was the other week when I had rolled an ankle and done only 3.5 of 5 — that’s a bunch of pinches to make up.

Very uneventful week in running. I was suppose to close out with 10 on Saturday, but I wanted to loop the airfield. That hasn’t changed — it’s still 11+ to do that. Which is fine. I wasn’t setting any time records on that run, just enjoying the darkness and the exercise.

Running this week is accelerated. I normally run late Saturday night and then pick back up late Tuesday night, but this week has the Army 10-Miler on Friday morning, almost 2 days ahead in my training week. So, I ran 11+ last night, and I went back out and hit my 3 tonight to start the new running week. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday night, and then Friday morning I’ll do the 10. I’m only scheduled for 7 this week, but 10 won’t kill me. I’ll probably run it with Rob or something.

On the 19th, I had rolled my ankle off of the side of the road when running. I was less than 2 miles into a 3 mile run, but did 4 to make sure it wasn’t broken. I figured it was just sprained.

On the 22nd, I did it again, this time rolling it so far I fell to the desert floor and drew blood. I was a mere .25 into my planned 7 mile run and yes, I ran the 7 miles that night.

On the 29th, I rolled it a third time. Same left ankle — I run against traffic, on the side of the road, after midnight and in the dark, so these things happen. I made it about 3.66 miles of my planned 5, but had to stop. It hurt, and in one of those, “Uh, oh” kinds of ways.

But I have kept running. I knocked out four runs this week, for 19 miles. Saturday night was 9 miles, and I dragged Rob out to run with me (he’s also a zombie) which slowed the pace (talking always does that) but made it a very enjoyable run. 19 miles for the week, average pace of 9:12 per mile, running in the dark with a sprained ankle. 4 runs, averaging almost 45 minutes per run. When I’m back past 10 miles, and over 45 minutes average run time per run, I’ll say I’m again a distance runner. And I’d probably return to regular ice cream, too.

I think it was an OK week. Good running. This coming week, I’ve got new Nikes to work into the running. I’ll start with small runs, to see how they are. I can do 3 or 4 miles under the worst conditions, so even if the shoes are horrible I’d still make my run — vs. trying new shoes first on a long run, which could be a nightmare.

It’s going only OK. I am running at night, almost exclusively at or after midnight. And I am trying along the side of the roads — and once a week, at least, stepping on the edge, rolling my ankle, and hurting it. My ankles are in pretty bad shape right now. I can still lace up and running straight on ‘em, but rotational stuff hurts some. They’ll bounce back. I just need more moonlight.

But it does sort of kill the pace. Week 2, which included a 7 mile run in which I rolled my ankle in the first quarter mile, had me averaging 9 minute miles for the week. This week, when I again rolled my ankle, my weekly average pace was 8:42. I need to stop rolling my ankles.

Anyway, it’s good to run. It’s good to have a training plan. It’s good to be out on the open roads again. This coming week will close with a 9 mile run — the distances are getting respectable again. Maybe by then my sleep pattern will return to something considered more normal, too.

Good running. At night, too, which helps with the heat. 3 x 3 miles, 1 x 6 miles. The 6 mile run (last night) featured some pretty strong winds, which killed my pace. But I ran, which is good enough.

I wanted to post a link to a file I whipped up, for training for a marathon. It’s an Excel file (here) and it’s all geek. It’s built on the Hal Higdon novice marathon training plan, which I swear by for anyone just wanting to run and survive a marathon (it’s fool proof).

On the first sheet, you’d enter the date for the Monday before your planned marathon. On sheet 2, you’d record distances and times for the various runs. And then, behind the scenes, it does a ton of math – pace per run, pace per week, and all kinds of other eye candy stuff, to include charts and graphs.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Week One, Day One of training for the Honolulu Marathon was Tuesday. Tuesday was also the day my boss told me to go back to bi-phasic sleep, until further notice. Could life be more complicated? Yep. So be it!

So, go get your geek on and check it out.

I’m running again. When the Doc told me recently that my foot would be ok — no broken bones, no bone spur, likely just a soft tissue injury — I told him I was itching to get back to running.

Stay off of it for two weeks, he said. Take these, he said.

Well, one for two ain’t too bad. I’d not run in about ten days by that point, so I waited a few more and got back to running. After all, this is week 0.

I’ve got my eye on the Honolulu Marathon. And I’m not alone. More than a few soldiers from my unit are eyeballing it. I am not alone.

Now, getting ready for a marathon isn’t a simple thing, and it’s not an overnight thing. So, I am planning to again use the Hal Higdon training plan to use the next 18 weeks to get ready.

18 weeks. Starting, while I am in deployed, in northern Iraq, in the summer, and working nights. 18 weeks, that will include us going at full throttle at work, prepping to and handing over out mission to someone else, flying half way around the world, taking weeks of vacation, traveling to the continental US, and, oh yeah, reuniting with my family.

That, and the little issue of 435 miles to run, between here and the start of the marathon. Yeah — 435. That’s what it takes to train up for a marathon.

So, this was week 0. I have not registered for the marathon yet; I want and need to get a few more miles on these feet of mine before I lay out the cold, hard cash. I did 15+ miles this week, over the week and with 5 runs. It’s a start – nothing broke.

My little bi-phasic sleep experiment drew out of a need to be in the office a whole lot. I was left with the choice of getting maybe 4 hours of sleep a night, or breaking it up into chunks. So, I went with chunks.

For four weeks, I did sleep 3 hours, twice a day. I generally went to sleep around 2200 or 2300 — 10 or 11 pm — for the whopping 3 hours. On good days, I’d get up and run, on bad days I’d just get up. Shower, shave, and on to work. Some days, there would be food on my desk, waiting for me, and on other days, I’d tough it out until 6 or 7 AM when I’d sneak out for some breakfast.

I’d finish around 10 or 11 AM, on most days, and go back to sleep until after lunch. No, no lunch for me. I’d be sleeping. I’d make it back to the office sometime between 1 and 2 pm. Most days I’d sneak off to get some before the close-out meetings of the day started. By 9, maybe 10 pm, my day was over and I was heading back to sleep again.

Does it sound like all I did was sleep and work, and sometimes run? Well, that’s a pretty fair description of my 4 weeks. Did it kill me? No. Could I do this forever? Yes. Does it take a lot of attention to pull this off? Yes. Could I have done this by myself? No.

Would I ever do this again? Yes — but only if I was back in a situation like this. Being awake all day and being awake all night just isn’t… normal. I did get a lot of work done, it did have the effect I wanted, but to a “T” everyone thought it so abnormal as to be troublesome. Some worried about my health, others worried if I was eating enough. Thankfully, no one seemed to think that my work was slipping.

For me, it was all about the 9 hours. I’d wake up knowing I just needed to make it 9 hours and I’d go to sleep and reset. If I could make it to then, I’d be good.

There were a half dozen or dozen days when I did not make it to sleep during the day until well into the afternoon. There were at least two days where things were so busy that I did not get to sleep during the day. Being late was one thing; missing sleep was something entirely different. Being late was generally OK, but missing sleep left me trying to make it up over the next one or two sleeps — 4.5 hours vs. 3. Which worked.

I could do this, long haul. I’d take care and attention and dedication to the hours, the missed meals, the need to fit running into all this. But it can be done. It’s very regimented, but very possible. And very possible in a military environment, where there are people working 24 hours a day, every day.

I have no idea if this would translate to the regular world, to a regular job. I guess if your boss would be OK with you just sleeping all the time. I had the two windows every day — early night, and late morning / lunch — when I could sneak away to sleep like this; I don’t know how many others have windows like that.

So, today I sleep some some and tonight I go back to nights. But maybe a run first, since my foot has felt rock solid for a couple of days.

– damaged the muscle on the underside of my foot, or
– pinched a nerve there, or
– developed a bone spur in a most-unfortunate spot under my foot, or
– just plain broken something there.

I could be in for anti-inflammatory drugs and / or steroids, or surgery, or who knows what they do for a break there.

But, apparently, all involve less running. Which sucks, because in two weeks, I want to start training for a marathon. Who knows – I might just do it any way.

So, the scorecard reads something like this:

– I sleep twice a day, for 3 hours at a stretch;
– I eat breakfast and dinner, and some cookies in between;
– I have a pretty damn stressful job right now which, oh by the way, is the greatest job on the entire planet;
– I’ve messed up my foot;
– and I may ease up on the running, or I may start training for a December marathon.

Please feel free to leave comments below, about what am idiot I am. It’s OK — I’ll understand.

Figured it out yet?

That is, of course, me and Frank Shorter. Frank Shorter (book), winner of the gold medal in the marathon at the Munich ‘72 Olympics (YouTube). And silver medal winner in the same event in ‘76. And winner of just about everything else. Frank Shorter, arguably the American voice of marathon running.

I say arguably, because there’s this other American runner, Bart Yasso, who could also be described as the American voice of marathon running.

That’s Frank and me and Bart Yasso (blog, book, Twitter, Yasso 800’s).

Wow. Just wow.

These two superstars came to Iraq with the groups, The Warriors Tour (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter), which was sponsored by Under Armour.

Oh, and with them were others — like Sandy Magnus. (Twitter). Did I mention that she was amazingly nice? Even gave me a signed photo to take to my daughter — girls need to go to space (she was there 4 and a half months).

Sadly, we did not get to race. The crew brought with them everything necessary to have a fully sanctioned race, just like in the US. Only weather shut us down.

I thought it looked OK. But what the hell do I know?

Does make for some pretty photos, though. Here are some of the war / peace machines.

I told Frank that I took to running because of my PTSD. He said he took to running because of the stress of Yale. Oh, and he said that life has been grand because his running has not defined him — when he runs, he runs, but the rest of the time he has a life.

Oh, and I love that everyone was blogging, posting to YouTube, active on Twitter, etc. Very well covered events.

I hope I hear from Frank. I was to ask him about ‘74 an Japan. And Bart? Egads, he has me wanting to go run, and run long again. He’s a dangerous man!

Cab bomb sucks. They take suck to a whole new level. Their sucking goes to 11.

I hate them because they are so full of violence. The news from yesterday was of 6 killed and 67 injured. I don’t remember what the killed / wounded numbers were from the other day, but I am sure it was high when combined with the suicide vests (yes, with an “S”) that also were used in Ninewa, the province in which Mosul is the center. They destroy people. Not just kill then, but destroy people. The bombs don’t care what’s there, they destroy it all — homes, schools, kids, shops, cars, memories. They are rage, in the worst public way.

And they also represent profound frustration. I am so fed up with things, I need to lash out. Like a 6 year old, who can’t find words for the firestorm of emotions inside. I see no answer, things aren’t going my way, I’m going to go slam the door / fill a truck with explosives and set it off in a neighborhood.

Because really, who responds to a VBIED by giving in? When would a society, a people, a government decide that, after a car bomb, the answer is to abandon their society, their ways, their values and their dreams, in order to make the changes wanted by the guy on the detonator. Didn’t happen when it was the Red Army Faction, and it’s not happening now.

Put down your rifles, put down your det chord. Pick up your ballot, your books, your newspaper, and pull your kids in closer. All this is, of course, my Judeo-Christin view of things, that solutions can come within and through progressive change; what makes sense to me won’t make sense to the VBIED makers. However, I just want them to end.

OK, that’s not entirely true. But my sleep has changed.

When I got back from Hawaii, my work changed. Suddenly, I was on nights, learning what my day counterpart was doing so that with time I could do both — as he had been doing. I was easing into changing jobs and taking over his.

Well, he definitely does not sleep. Long, long hours, often being in the office until after midnight and coming back in at 4 or 5.

I don’t know about you, but I only do so well for so long under those conditions. So, I broke the mold.

I wanted and needed to come into the office by 3 am. There’s some key work that is done before the start of the regular work day, work I think is important. But the work day really doesn’t end until 10 pm / 2200 on a regular basis, and yes, sometimes as late as midnight when things are crazy. That leaves little time — and the problem.

So, I’ve stopped sleeping and gone to napping. I start my day around 1 am, when I wake up and dress and now try to go run on most days. I shower and shave and stuff, and could be ready to go by 0200 but often, like right now, sneak in an hour or less of me time to read emails, etc. By 0230 or 0300, I am in the office.

Some nights, there’s food waiting for me. People think I am working strange hours, and some are looking out for me / worrying. I might eat around 0300. Before 5, my boss shows up. By 7 or so, I usually have had some breakfast — an actual meal which, on a good day, I sneak out to get (to go, of course). By 1000 or as late as about 12, I am back in my room, asleep.

Going to sleep means opening Apimac Timer for OS X. I tell it to play Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals in 3 hours and 15 minutes, and I rack out. Ideally, I start that by 1000. When I wake, I get up and head back in. I often have a next hard time / event at 1430, so I can catch up and then press on.

Some but not all nights, I sneak out to get some dinner to go. Not always — I never did get to eating last night. I have a 9 pm / 2100 meeting, and then after that, it’s a matter of closing up shop, making sure subordinate leaders are straight and that projects are underway, and I head back to the room. On a good night, by 10 pm / 2200, I am starting the countdown and going to sleep.

Does this really sound nuts? Not the whole “I only work” aspect — there are jobs in the Army for which one all in, and this is one of those ones. But two naps, of 3 hours each? Why would I do this?\

Well, there’s a couple of reasons. First, I already fall asleep in a blink. Like, insanely fast. Two, I know that I sleep in 90 minute intervals — my sleep cycle is 90 minutes, so 3 hours is 2 full cycles on a regular sleep night. Only getting 3 hours every once in a while would be better for me that only getting 4 hours every one in a while.

But, I had read this article a loooong time ago, and the idea of doing this has been in my head ever since. My job isn’t one wherein I can sleep every 4 or 6 hours, but right now, every 12 works. And I thought about a powernap – biphasic / siesta approach versus actual polyphasic, and that wasn’t going to work because I was after a little sleep mid night and a little sleep mid day. And I wasn’t trying to go extreme — I just needed to break my sleep up into different chunks.

So, i shifted to two naps a day, three hours each. And the soldiers have started to refer to me as a vampire – which royally sucks, because I am so much more of a zombie fan than a vampire fan.

What’s it like? Odd. Really, my work has me on the go all the time, so it’s strange to have that actually mean all day and all night. When I wake up, I still have problems identifying if it’s mid night or mid day. I can now fall asleep really, really fast — i.e. within a minute or two most of the time. And yes, I still tend to wake up just ahead of my alarm, as I set it for 3:15 and sleep 3 hours.

I need to do a better job with the whole eating thing, esp. now that I am back to running, too. People ask how I do this, and I tell them that I am surviving on the blood of kittens — which is about as good of an explanation as anything. Loooong days like this burns more energy, as does the running. So, really — kitten blood just wouldn’t really cut it, if you thought abut it. And I’ll be honest — I notice less that I’ve skipped a meal than I might otherwise, and I am unsure why this is.

I’ll probably write about this some more. If you have questions, ask — I’ll do my best to answer them, though I am kind of busy these days and long answers take time. I’ll probably also talk about this on the podcast which, as you might have guessed, has dropped off in frequency — down, but not out.

This was the view of my world, an hour before the start of 30 June. Dark, quite, not much moon. Alone. Many people, I suspect, fear darkness because of the great unknown. I have come to embrace it, for all the potential it holds. It’s fitting, then, that this was my image heading into 30 June.

In 2003, I spent the dark hours listening, watching. If I found you, I probably tried to kill you. Depending on how you view things, I was probably either a great guy, or the harbinger of death. I usually vote for the former.

But like then, I have been quietly waiting for the arrival of 30 June, waiting through the nights, listening, looking. Waiting, since the US and Iraq signed the security agreement which said that US forces would be out of the cities, villages, and localities by 30 June. Or maybe on 30 June. Whatever.

Out of the cities. It such a simple thing, that is really so very complicated.

The US, I fear, is very worried about not just security in Iraq, but all of the folks and groups here who really, really, really hate America. In the grand scheme of things, that’s probably less than 1 billionth of the total population of Iraq, but when you line them up, shoulder to shoulder, or AK47 to AK47, car bomb to car bomb, it’s a bunch of folks. And US forces have been in the cities, because that’s where they are, and they’ve been in the cities because that’s where we have been.

Some, but not all, of those same people also hate 1. the government of Iraq, 2. the Iraqi military, 3. the Iraqi police, 4. other Iraqis, and / or 5. something else about the Iraq of today. If the US were to actually get out of the cities, what would this do to the Iraqis themselves?

Together, these form something of a Jungian struggle — protect ourselves, but protect them, too.

But for the Iraqis, I think this all has been so much simpler. US, get the hell out of the cities, and in due time, get the hell out of Iraq. Love ya, love what you’ve done for us, but it’s time for you to be going. Ready or not, the Iraqis seems committed — socially, politically, and every other way you can think of — to taking care of themselves, their way.

Not long after we got here, we started to throw around the phrase by, with and through. I am unsure how many of us here really understood what our leaders meant when the started to use this phrase, but I think I picked up on it pretty early on. Instead of waking up and deciding what we needed to do that day, we needed to start waking up in the morning and asking the Iraqis what they wanted to do today, and if there was anything they needed us to do to help.

If others didn’t pick up on that back then, they’re seeing it today. Because that is the really of today. There is very, very little that US forces can or even want to do unilaterally — or, entirely on our own.

In four words, Iraq belongs to Iraq.

And I’m just here for the comic relief. I saw something in the paper the other day, saying that in this new era, post 30 June, information was going to be key. Information, and how it’s used in cooperation between the two countries. I firmly believe this — and not just because I’m an information guy. And it’s not just information about what the bad guys are doing — it’s information about repair parts, about new training techniques, about best practices, or ideas for new or unexpected problems. It’s about waking up in the morning, and sharing information about what to do today.

It’s exciting. In many ways, it may seem to observes that I’m still sitting in the dark of the night, watching, listening, taking it all in. Which is fair, I suppose. But this is their deal now, completely. If I can help, I will, If they need me, I hope they’ll ask. I will work as hard as if I was about to send my own soldiers out into harms way, because in many ways that has not changed — it’s just that the first guy going in the door is probably going to be an Iraqi, not an American. So be it, and good for them. I hope we help, not hinder. Iraq stands on the brink of such amazing potential, I hope they are able to realize all that they can be.

So, thanks man. You rule.

Post-Sandstorm

Ok, enough of the drama. Yes, I’m back in Iraq. No, I’m really not blogging. There’s a reason.

I changed jobs. And my life was turned upside down.

Coming back to Iraq from Hawaii — I kid you not — took 7 days. 6 x 24 hours, and 1 x 20 hour days of nonstop movement, from when the wife and kids dropped me at the curb, to when I was in the terminal here. Un-freakin-believable.

Bizarrely, I made it to Kuwait in less than 24 hours. Poof, just like that — HI to Los Angeles, to Atlanta (and 12 hours at the USO), then to Shannon, Ireland to refuel and on to Kuwait.

And then, I settled into the oven. It was 120+, and windy. My skin could possibly have cooked like bacon and come off. I tried my best to keep to a reverse cycle of sleep — sleep all day, party all night. In actually, we were on 12 hour shifts, where every 12 hours we had an opportunity to move to a flight if there was one. A couple of time, we didn’t even try. Many, many times, they were canceled while we were getting ready — maintenance, weather, etc. But all too often, we’d finish a few hours of sleep, only to meet again and be told to be back in a few hours, to wait and here to stand down and come back in a few more hours. Exhausting.

But, I made it. I got it on a Sunday morning, about 6 am. I checked in at the office, to tell them I was “home” and OK. I grabbed some breakfast — the maybe third time I’d done that here — and then I went to sleep. At 8 pm, I was heading in to get ready for a 9 pm / 2100 shift change briefing. Poof, right back to work.

Most days for me now start around 6 pm. Around — I’ll explain in a minute why that is so. I either get up and run, if weather permits, or head to get cleaned up and read email. If I run, it’s all I have time to do, and it can’t take more than an hour, to include shower. If I don’t, I have time usually for one thing — which might be a laundry run, or some tech support thing, or some blog reading, etc. But’s it’s maybe 45 minutes or an hour. By 8 pm, I am heading into the HQ to see the boss and start the day.

I work special projects until maybe 1 am, and read a TON of stuff. By then, I try and hit midnight chow before it closes — which usually means driving to a distant chow hall that stays open until 0130. Dinner is often to go, and often enough for a midnight meal and a 3 am sandwhich or snack. And Diet Pepsi. By 2 or 0230, I am being handed things to read and edit, and that goes until 6. In between all of those, I have more reading and more questions to answer, and some orders to bark at other readers and writers — I am the senior guy at night. By six, the day guy is there and we talk shop / resolve problems until 8, when we tap in to listen to a brief (and about half the time, someone brings me back an omelet and fresh melon to eat during the brief). By 0845, we’re in a meeting with the boss (who I see around 0500 every day) and a few others, and then it’s back for shift change at 9am.

On a good day, I can close out things at walk away by 0930. I’d been as late as 1100 before. My goal is to be here — right here — at 1000 hitting start on my timer. An 8 hour timer. I get 30 minutes to be asleep, and 7.5 hours to actually sleep. That’s it. I fight to keep it at 7.5, because if not, it’s 6 sleep with the same buffer up front. So, 10 Am is my goal every day. And it wakes me up around 6 pm. Or so.

So recreational reading. No blogging. No podcasts, which sucks. Very little blog reading, though I do love seeing what my wife and awesome kids are up to. No Skype yet, I don’t think. Non stop, back to back.

I did run three times last week, 3.5 miles being the longest (and done at midnight, when it was still around 100). Too damn hot, too much sand and dirt right now. And yes, I can and do run in sandstorms, and I can and do get upper respiratory infections from it. Like I have right now. (cough cough).

That’s it. That’s my life. I work, I sleep, I eat a little bit. I live for cookies from my sister, email from family and friends, and sleep — glorious sleep. And I get by on Diet Pepsi, and disciplines sleep. Yes, I could keep this schedule for a year. I’ll keep it until I’m told otherwise — I’ve adapted quickly.

And I would not change back to my old job for a dump truck of money. This is a ball. Hard to believe they’re paying me to read and write and be in charge again.

Is it just me, or do others think that this is truly amazing?

In 1932, my grandmother went to LA to go to the Olympics. Reading her account, it sounds as if that trip took more effort than the American effort to put someone on the moon. But today, in less than 2 days, I can move clear around the world, from an island in the Pacific to the Middle East.

Wow.

At Tantalus, overlooking Diamondhead

That’s Diamond Head in the background, and beyond it is the Pacific. I could not be further from Iraq, even if I tried — physically, emotionally, or mentally. If this is what turning 40 is suppose to feel like, I can say that it’s a good thing.

We have done a few things.

This past Saturday, we went to the 17th Annual British Car Show, held down in Waikiki near the zoo. The local British car club invites the Hawaiian Mini Motoring Club (of which I am a member), as they view the Mini — even the new ones, made by BMW in England — as being true British cars. Well, who am I to pass on a chance to go to a car show?

Naturally, I put my Germany badge on the front of the car. The kids and I had a great time of it all — from the pre-meet at the mall downtown, to the slow procession through downtown and Waikiki (honking and waving the whole way), to parking in the shade and swapping stories all morning.

And while there were some exotics there, this car below is the one that caught my eye. I could not stop staring. Lovely Austin-Healey — just lovely.

I also loved the wide range of MG’s that were there — quite a few of which were adamantly described as daily drivers (which has to be easier to do here in paradise).

I was surprised, though, to see a fleet of Cobras and even a GT40 roll in as part of this group. I had expected the MG’s and the AH’s, even the Jags and the Land Rovers and the Rolls’, but these ones caught my eye.

I had to go do some reading, to learn that yes, the GT40 was designed and built on UK soil. And the Cobras? Yeah, I’m a dumbass for forgetting that it’s an AC Cobra — which is most definitely British. Nice and loud, too. Great crew of owners, very nice people.

The other thing I’ve been doing while here is running. Well, running and shoe shopping, as I’ve purchased a new pair of running shoes, a new pair of Five Fingers, and now a new pair of combat boots (that feel like running shoes).

How much running? Try 45 miles. I’ve been doing 4 runs a week, using the Hal Higdon running formula (though not adding miles) — short runs on Tuesday & Thursday, medium run on Wednesday, and a long run on the weekend that about equals what I ran during the week. 45 miles seems like a lot, though.

Today, I had a wild hair and I ended up doing 10 miles. I pushed through the fields on a route I had scoped out via Google Earth. I’ve been trying to find a semi-legal way to get from my house, to Schofield Barracks where I will work post-Iraq. There’s a road that drives there, but it’s certainly not running friendly. That leaves the pineapple fields — which are all adorned with NO TRESPASSING signs. Leaving at 6 AM this morning, I moved with people going to work in the fields — all of whom waved and seemed OK with my being there, which is all I needed to keep going.

I had no intention of doing ten miles today, but the sun was low, the clouds blocking the sun very well, and I was on a roll. Here is a Google Earth file from today — I think this might be my new favorite route, though I do worry about the work area in the middle (I think it’s part of the Dharma Initiative).

Why am I running so much on R&R? I have no idea. Running & More Running. It feels great, though. Last week, I was still dealing with jet lag, so running early — between dawn and sunrise — was working out ideally. Now that I am sleeping well, I should — should — lay off the miles some. Maybe. We’ll see; I am very excited about finding this new route, and may need to go back there once more before I turn into a pumpkin.

Running big. As in he did a 50km / 30 mile run this week. He ran for — are you ready for this? — 5 and a half hours. I don’t even like to watch TV for that long.

And did I mention that he blogs in German and in English, or that from time to time he runs with his camera in order to share photos from along the way, or that he, too, is a Garmin user?

Or that on 12 June, he’s going to tackle a 100 km / 60+ mile race?

So, yeah. Follow along. Running with Jack — it’s the new black this summer.

Saturday we went to a pool party. The families from my unit had a pool party scheduled, and my wife and kids had already made plans to go. Seemed like a good idea for me — who doesn’t like going to the pool? Within about 12 hours of getting home, I was already working on a sun burn.

After the pool, we stopped off on post and saw my Iraq-roommate, on his last day in Hawaii. Small, small world, that we’re both in Hawaii at the some time, when we share a room in Iraq. What did we do? Not much. Sat around, chatted, had a beer, got our geek on over his new stereo set up (and over how cool the iTunes remote is for the iPhone / iTouch).

Saturday night, we went to California Pizza Kitchen (here), just because we could. Their food is the opposite of what we get in Iraq, in addition to being damn good. Surprisingly, we ran into a chaplain from my old unit, from my first stint in Iraq.

After dinner, we stopped off for some shoe shopping. Running shoes, as I clearly have too many miles and too many months on my old shoes (Nike Pegasus). I was torn — shoes built to last, to shoes that are super squishy. The shoe guy told me to expect only about 300 miles from any super squishy pair of running shoes — like the Pegasus ones I just destroyed, via the 400 to 450 miles I ran on them. I was seduced by the squishy – and I bought a pair of Nike Vomero+ 4 that, at size 13, were a full size larger than the Pegasus I’ve been wearing. And thanks, Foot Locker — very nice of you to give me a 20% military discount.

I was really torn about picking shoes. These days, I am running about 30 miles a week. If I keep that up when I get back to Iraq, I’ll get 10 weeks of running out of these new shoes. If I drop to 20 miles a week, I’ll get 15 weeks of running out of them. That’s almost 4 months — and I have another 5 months to go in Iraq, or thereabouts. Logically, I should have either purchased two pair, or gone ahead and purchased less fickle, more rugged shoes that would last longer. But, truth be told, I was totally won over by how squishy they are. We’ll see how it goes.

Saturday night, I was probably asleep before the kids were. I was out like a light — a trend that is still ongoing.

Sunday morning, I woke up early and realized that it was Bay to Breakers day. So, at 0500 — the same moment the race was kicking off in San Francisco — I took off on my own 12 km run, up through the pineapple fields. Torture, for my new shoes. Torture, because they came back soaked and fully saturated in the red, red Hawaiian soil. Good run, though — they are going to be good shoes.

Sunday we went to North Shore with Kathleen and Cam, and then on to Sunset Beach to frolic in the water and lay in the sun. And work on the sun burn some more. There’s no such thing as a bad day on the North Shore, and no such thing as a bad day at Sunset Beach.

Monday, I saw the kids off to school, and then headed out to run some errands. I brought home a list of things to do over R&R, and I headed off to see about three of them — shoes, some love for my Mini, and some love for my MacBook Pro. I struck out on the shoes — they place was closed. For the Mini, I stopped by the dealer to talk about the car not keeping a charge, and set an appointment for Tuesday morning to drop it off. For the laptop, the Apple store was willing (for free, even) to give the machine a full service and cleaning, if I’d leave it for two days. We agreed that it’d make more sense to do that after the year is up; it was very cool of them to offer to do it, and is something far beyond what I had even hoped possible. Monday closed out with Taekwondo.

Tuesday morning, bright and early, I knocked out a 4 mile run. I dropped the car off at the dealership, and they gave me a ride back to the house. After that, I didn’t really do much — ran a couple of errands, upgraded the other Mac to 10.5.7, installed another external HD for Time Machine, etc. Puttered. Tuesday night, we hit Cold Stone Creamery for some quality family time.

Wednesday, I did a 7.1 mile run in the morning — a hair under 12 km — and then I cooled off on the lanai. It is so awesome to: 1) run, and not be rushed afterward (to get cleaned up, to get to work, etc) 2) have such a nice place for cooling off. Wednesday was my 24Hour photo day, and I happened to be on the lanai when the prescribed hour arrived:

Flowers in the morning

I’ve been a part of this web-effort for a few months now. Pam and I went to high school together, so it’s not quite six degrees of Kevin Bacon. At the prescribed hour (based on GMT, no less), everyone takes a photo and shares their thoughts. Photos in Iraq are probably a lot less exciting than ones I can take here. The next scheduled date is the 30th; I’ll probably be finished a long run through the countryside when the prescribed hour arrives.

After the run and the cooling off, we rotated cars. The Volvo went in for AC work, and we picked up the Mini (whose work was all done under warranty, thanks to the awesomeness of Mini of Hawaii and their super service folks).

At noon, I went for another run. This is very unlike me, to do two runs in one day. I am a very regimented runner — Tuesday and Thursday are short runs, Wednesday is a medium run, and one long run on the weekend. Two runs in one day? Yep — something special. I ran at noon — when it was far warmer than I prefer for running — to match the running my cousin and her family were doing in support of the Concord Hospital Rock ‘N Race fundraiser. I was just tired from the 7.1 mile run that morning, and just running up into the hills and pineapple fields; my cousin was pushing twins in a stroller.

At some point along the day, I broke out the old PC and fired it up – I need to harvest a hard drive from it (IDE, actually) for a project I am doing in Iraq. While I have it running, though, I am rolling it back to Windows XP from Vista, which I just don’t like. The day closed out with more Taekwondo and, for the first time, I managed to stay up past 9 pm.

I also have been slowly sneaking time in with a new book. I finished A Million Little Pieces on the flights over here, and am now (finally!) reading Three Cups of Tea.

– I picked up A Million Little Pieces from a stack in Iraq. No, I would not buy it. I had a good laugh when the whole scandal broke over at The Smoking Gun; I loved that Oprah so loved the message of the book, but was so hurt to learn it was fiction. And her love it the book got so many people to read it, too. I try and alternate between books I want to read, and books I should read; this fell into the latter case, mainly because I often feel out of touch with American culture. Oh, and the book isn’t that good. Good message, I just did not care for the style of writing, or the characters for that matter.

– my wonderful sister has been after me to read Three Cups of Tea. It just took this long to get to it. And yes, it is good. Very good. I should have read it sooner.

This morning, I did not get up at run, having run twice yesterday. Kristin and I took the kids to school, as today was their curriculum day, which featured a bunch of exhibits in the library and a chance for me to meet Z’s teacher. Afterward, K and I puttered around the house some until the Volvo folks called, and we headed that way to get her car. First stop, though, was Hank’s Haute Dogs for lunch (they were insanely good).

After that, headed back over to Tropic Blends, to see about shoes. Not just any shoes — Vibram Five Fingers shoes, and in particular the KSO model. Totally cool guys, and they even throw in a pretty awesome military discount. They seemed to think that it was pretty sweet that I am going to run in these. Yes, I really did just say that — I intend to run in these. I’ll give them a test run on Tuesday, a short run day, to see how well they work. The shoes are AWESOME — I really, really, really hope this works out.

And since then, well, I’ve played a little Quake 4 and done some blogging. Supervised some homework, too, making a certain someone rewrite about half of it because it was messy enough that I could not read it.

What else to do on R&R? We’re going to see the new Terminator movie (trailer), for sure. There’s a car show this weekend — Tess Turbo is entered, and the kids and I will hang out at the show while the wife is at a quilting event. And I might drink a couple of beers somewhere along the way, too.

Oh, and this might have the most links of anything I have ever posted.

I think I am found the culprit.

Try this (the regular RSS feed) or this RSS feed (is all else fails), and see if it works better.

The first one is the better one to use.

So, what happened?

For starters, the plug-in for feedburner needed to be upgraded. Wordpress is so good about these things, auto-updating seemingly everything else, that I was surprised when I looked, to see that there was a new one.

Also, Wordpress changed its RSS defaults on me. Not sure if it was a glitch (remember my recent gremlins?) or what, but instead of tinkering with the code, I copied the new one and added it into Feedburner.

Then, the output code for Feedburner had changed. Feeds2, with that extra 2 for good measure, apparently.

So, I better, I think. Sorry for the delay in getting to this — I was in Iraq, and then I was sneaking to Hawaii, and then I was OFO — out fraking off. Fixing the RSS feed? Yeah, come in just below Cold Stone Creamery trips and visits to Sunset Beach on the list of priorities right now.

Up next? Some Windows XP tinkering.