April 29, 2010
by dhoytt
1 Comment

Vibram Running Update & Natomas Mayday Run May 2, 2010 in Sacramento

Been falling behind in my posts about
running and Vibram five Finger KSO’s, and I’m here to report the runs
have been going well even with my gardening and other home projects
and getting used to another schedule!

I have been running intervals and as
stated earlier that put a new type of stress on the calves and I
think I’m finally almost out of the discomfiture that caused mostly.

The thing about it running shorter
interval distances trying for speed really gets you up on your toes
and the balls of your feet more than the 5k’s & 10k’s. Especially
once you wind down to doing anything under 400 meters! Being on your
toes and forefront of your feet really stretch calves and ligaments
in a way not used before in the typical running shoe circa now!

I also strange enough noticed that with
the VFF’s (Vibram Five Fingers) my toe nails are growing out! Let me
explain.

I was on the back end of doing the end
of my interval workouts a week or two ago and I noticed as I got up
on my toes I felt a weird pulling sensation as my feet gripped the
ground, my toe nails!

Before in umm … ahem what passes for
normal running shoes my toe nails took a beating and rarely grew out
especially the toes right next to my big toe which are the same
length and maybe a tad longer than my big toe. In fact my toes right
next to the big daddy toe always had crunched up bloody looking toe
nails that were about 1/8^th of an inch thick.

This is the first time I could ever
recall having intact regular sized toe nails that weren’t, half off
or mutant looking. Another unexpected benefit of running in VFF’s
barefoot minimalist style!

Next up is a 10k this coming Sunday at
the first annual Natomas Mayday run here in Sacramento California
right here in my neighborhood utilizing part of my normal road
course. How exciting!

Anyway her is the link to the run
Sunday: http://www.natomasmaydayrun.org/

I’m signed up and not totally in the
shape I want but ready to go come on out and join us and run part of
my course!

Going to be cruising in my VFF KSO’s on
this run as well of course!

Oh yes in case you are confused even
though I have discomfort getting used to the VFF’s it is well worth
it my running has become more efficient and the only discomfort are a
little getting used to the calves doing the job they were meant to do

Wow its late for me time to go to bed!

April 29, 2010
by dhoytt
1 Comment

Pictures of Vegetable & Flower Garden

Finally able to get some pictures of my vegetable and flower gardens.

April 24, 2010
by dhoytt
0 comments

Vegetable & Flower Garden 2010

Well last week I pretty much got the
vegetable garden in the backyard and the flower gardens in the front
yard finished except some spaces purposely left open for future
updates or seasonal vegetation.

I rototilled around the huge artichoke
plant that is now producing like crazy. In the garden on the other
corner in backyard I tilled around the existing sage, thyme, parsley,
chives & strawberries that stayed over the winter.

To compliment my existing herbs I
planted, basil (didn’t last over winter), mint & more chives, &
green onions.

I planted Roma, Big Boy, & Yellow
pear tomato plants. I also planted eggplant, hot jalapeno, Serrano,
banana, red chili & three kinds of bell peppers.

For the root type vegetables I planted
red potatoes, garlic, & red onion.

I also planted watermelon, zucchini
squash, mammoth sunflowers, sweet corn, Swiss chard, collard greens,
and mustard greens. Today I got some celery, cilantro & summer
squash.

I almost forgot I also planted last
week some peas, green beans, black-eyed peas (cow peas), a grape vine
& another blueberry bush.

I still have a raspberry vine &
what I believe is a blueberry plant from last year that survived
the artichoke bush from last year. Reminds me I also planted some
asparagus I hope is out of the way. Last year the asparagus, grapes
raspberries, greens, Swiss chard and other veggies were over run by
the artichoke bush.

Last week I also made repairs and
changes to the drip/watering system.

Today I also pulled up about 5 bags of
weeds from the small corridor between homes I have as well as cut the
grass and edged with the weed eater and pressure washed the patio and
sidewalks in the backyard around the pool. Now I have the pool pumps
going to get the dirt that inadvertently got in the pool from
pressure washing.

All in all it was a long but productive day!

Tomorrow the finishing touches and time
to hall off some trash perhaps. Ah yes I also got some ground cover
flowers to go between my roses up front called “verbien tapien
blue-violet”.

Pictures later perhaps. For now I will
have another martini & watch the pool lights change colors on
this very pleasant night.

April 10, 2010
by dhoytt
1 Comment

Giant Carrots & Artichokes Gone Wild

As I was removing 2 bags of weeds from my garden today I also took up some huge carrots I planted last year and noticed the artichokes are really starting to come in now!

Here are pictures of the huge carrots a few over or around a foot long and the artichokes coming in plentifully.

April 10, 2010
by dhoytt
5 Comments

Did 5k This Morning in VFF (Vibram Five Fingers)

Went to Lodi California this morning and ran in the inaugural “Run on Water” 5k that benefits helping clean and get decent water supplies in areas of the world where the water isn’t very healthy.

This run was organized by a young lady as part of her senior high school project. http://www.bearcreekwater.net/water_run.html

I was the only one in Vibram Five Fingers but I did ok and people were surprised I was able to keep up with them in the VFF’s.

Looks like the word is still getting out about the barefoot minimalist running. I had quite a few people ask very interesting and specific questions about training in them, getting used to them and how it feels on the trail or when stepping on items like twigs.

Like I told them I don’t think I could take the pounding from regular shoes without shutting down every once in a while for fear of shin splints and back discomfort as I had in the past and have not had to do with the Vibrams.

Now I’m getting faster and losing weight, feeling as if I could be competitive again loving my Vibrams!!

April 3, 2010
by dhoytt
0 comments

The First Artichokes From my Garden

These are the first Artichokes from my garden. The plant is huge and finally giving me produce! Artichokes don’t produce until the second year and this is this plant’s second year and this second year seems to be promising much produce from this artichoke plant!

March 6, 2010
by dhoytt
2 Comments

Track Intervals in Vibram Five Fingers VFF

I have been ramping up more on doing
track intervals trying to increase my speed for running 800 &
1500 meter events. I have noticed that when doing the shorter
intervals particularly anything 400 meters and below in the VFF’s
this puts a bit more stress on the calves since you are on the
forefront of your feet & toes even more.

This took me back
to when I first started running in the VFF’s in September last year
but of course the recovery has been quicker.

I did a time
trial with a running buddy that I work out with for track intervals
this morning and it went well considering we were both leg weary from
the weeks intervals plus I hit the weights hard, including the legs,
Tuesday right after doing six 800 meter intervals.

As we
walked from the parking lot to the track I thought no way would I be
able to run this 600 meter followed by a 400 meter time trial even
after warming up. Once we ran the trials my legs and calves felt a
lot more relaxed than when we got there and still do now and that was
0800 hours (8 AM)!

I think running intervals in the VFF’s will
give me further flexibility and push once I really start getting in
shape for these distances! I mean I haven’t done interval training in
over a decade at least and probably beyond that!

March 6, 2010
by dhoytt
2 Comments

Removed RSS Feeds Issue Preventing New Posts

I just finished isolating an issue that was preventing me from creating posts or doing much else on this specific blog only within my site. The other blogs were fine.

I had to recreate a new test blog and add different elements one at a time to pinpoint the issue on the test blog.

Finally after adding the RSS feeds from the other sites the issue preventing me from publishing occurred on the test blog. I then removed the RSS feeds from this blog and here I am publishing again.

I’ll have to pursue the issue on why RSS feeds caused this issue later since I have other items on my plate in terms of priority but will will have RSS feeds on the site again soon hopefully.

The issue appears to be Perl related so if any of you out there have any ideas I posted the error information to the MovableType forum “http://forums.movabletype.org/2010/03/overloaded-package-xmllibxmlerror.html” and I have included it below:

I got this error yesterday trying to
post a new entry to one of my blogs during the publishing operation:

“Operation "ne": no
method found, left argument in overloaded package XML::LibXML::Error,
right argument has no overloaded magic:”

______________________________________________________________________

The accompanying error from the Apache
error_log:

” \t(in cleanup) Can’t call method
“DESTROY” on unblessed reference at
/var/www/cgi-bin/mt/extlib/XML/Elemental/Document.pm line 20 during
global destruction., referer: http://mysite.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi
“

Line Apache error log references in
“/mt/extlib/XML/Elemental/Document.pm”:

“sub DESTROY {

$_[0]->{contents}->DESTROY if
$_[0]->{contents};

} # starts circular
reference teardown”

February 23, 2010
by dhoytt
0 comments

New Barefoot Minimalist Challenge Medium Distance Track Speed

That’s right I am now officially trying to get in shape for the all-comer track meets and attempt to run my old races the 800m 1500m and maybe the 3000m runs on track.

I ran the 800m this past weekend to see where I was at and it wasn’t a great run but considering that I was leg dead from my weight & runs, plus I stayed up until 4am in the morning still got up early.

I also had to replace and rebuild my starter(replaced plunger & contacts internally) on my truck after getting virtually no sleep after a hectic week in which I had to get my trucks rear end rebuilt, had electrical issues plus I had to repair some critical components on my servers.

Back to the running I was worn out as heck but now I know I need to do intervals more dramatically and work on my speed I felt very tight.

The other reason I wanted to run out here in California,at least locally here in Sacramento the funding is no longer there for the high school sports and my little entry fee helps them.

Stay tuned they are having the 35 and over championships here in Sacramento this year and I intend to be an entrant and work towards more than being decent in the 800m.

February 14, 2010
by dhoytt
0 comments

Runs & Workouts Going Great in New Year

Its been a while since I posted on my workouts but the Vibram Five Finger workouts are going great, whether using them in the gym or running in the street or on a track.

I’m pushing the frequency & distances of my runs and no signs of shin splints or anything like that for the first time in my life!

I am also starting to push my gym workouts harder increasing weight.

As far as my runs the 7mile runs are increasing in frequency per week and once again I’m hitting the push-ups, crunches (on Roman chair), leg raises and trunk twists immediately after my runs on days I’m not hitting the weights. Push-ups right now I do 3 sets of fifty, Roman Chair crunches I do 3 sets of 40 now soon to increase, leg raises I do 3 sets of 40 and three sets of 200 trunk twists.

I have always found that increasing core strength and endurance really helps posture and performance in runs. Hitting abs especially helps with breath control and stamina for running!

I’m also starting to do intervals with a running buddy on some days.

I missed an all-comers track meet I was intending to run the 800 meters & 1500 or 2 mile runs as well due to my truck’s rear end going out.

Oh Well time to take a run down to the gym which is a little over a mile away and hit the weights and then on the way back instead of hitting the treadmill I will run a bit over 4 miles in my Vibram Five Finger KSO’s!