March 2014

By admin , 30 March 2014

7.3 miles

I went for a slightly longer run today, 7.3 miles. This was the first time since last year's Cherry Blossom race that I ran more than 6.2 miles and it went well. I'm pretty tired but not extremely so.

The weather was terrible. Rain, cold streaming wind and only 40 degrees. The first mile, until I reached Custis, my arms were very cold but once on Custis the wind was less strong. At the final stretch, after having to wait for a green light at Fairfax Dr/I66, the wind blew very strongly on the Ballston Connector behind the Blue Goose and I even lost my breath for a moment.

Still, a great run. I ran for the very first time on the Bluemont Junction trail. So wonderful that that was spared from becoming yet another road, it is a gorgeous trail.

Once I got home I quickly took a shower to warm up. I had lots of big red spots on my skin from the cold but they disappeared after the shower. Much longer runs than this one, in this type of weather, would probably be unwise.

By admin , 24 March 2014

The Big Roads

Recently I've been reading about the history of Arlington and specifically about traffic calming. I saw reference in a newspaper article to this author, who said that he expects that Arlington will regret its refusal to allow HOT lanes through the county (Arlington preferred the real HOV). Turns out that he wrote a book on highways.

There was even a reference to Arlington in the book:

By admin , 22 March 2014

Getting warmer

The weather is getting nicer. Again snow predicted for Tuesday/Wednesday but you wouldn't believe it today.

Went for a 6-mile run, just like last weekend. Felt good.

By Guus , 18 March 2014

A Universe from Nothing

It has been a few years since I've been reading about physics and boy, a lot has happened since I read Hawkings popular books.

I'll be honest -- A Universe from Nothing was something hard to follow and I don't pretend to fully understand everything that the author explained. I sort of get the proof that we live in a flat universe, but the multi-verse and "creating something from nothing" are truly weird. Very interesting to read to.

On the last day I was reading the book, news broke that gravity waves were detected.

By admin , 15 March 2014

6 miles on a beautiful day

Three weeks ago I ran this route and injured myself -- it took a good week to recover. No pain so far, so I'm pretty optimistic.

The run was great -- gorgeous weather. I ran late, started at 1.00 pm and had a few nuts before the run, that went well.

By admin , 8 March 2014

soffit

the underside of any construction elemen

By admin , 7 March 2014

Early morning run

It was slower than 2 days ago but that's usual for my early morning runs. I went to bed at 10.30 pm and promptly woke up at 6.00 am.

By admin , 3 March 2014

Cosmos

Terrific book. When I was a kid, I read Contact from the same author. I still remember the location of the book in the library in Middenmeer, just around the corner from the main hallway.

Cosmos is a terrific book, very energizing and hopeful.

By admin , 3 March 2014

The Adventure of English

The Adventure of English is an enjoyable book about the history of the English language. It gives a good summary of the main events that shaped English.

It is written from a British perspective. The anthropomorphism by the author of treating English as a "person" is a little weird but doesn't interfere too much with the text: "But English was too smart to be pinned down, even by the English".

Author loves language but has a survivors bias in claiming that English was uniquely adapteble and therefore strong.

This book was recommended by Eric.