Appeal of Light Rail

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Wednesday the Met Council approved light rail along the Central Corridor . This means the council chose to approve the project to put in light rail to connect Minneapolis and St. Paul instead of other options, such as bus rapid transit. LRT on the Central Corridor isn’t a done deal yet, but this is its start. I would be excited to see a completed route between the two cities and would be much more likely to use LRT than the bus rapid transit. The Hiawatha line already exceeded pre-construction estimates in its first year by 58%.

I have to admit that I am not good about taking public transportation, but I have found myself using LRT on occasion. I think there are a lot of people who would otherwise drive that would use the light rail. What is the appeal of LRT over buses? Is it the ease of use? You just buy a ticket and hop on. Right now with one line, it is easy to navigate too. Even with an additional line, it would be a bit simpler than deciphering several bus schedules. I believe some of the attractiveness of the LRT is that it feels more modern and cosmopolitan. Busses run in little towns, but subways and light rails belong to the big players. The LRT along the Central Corridor is definitely the more expensive option, but it also seems to be the option that would encourage more use.

runnings
I'm heading to the gym to work in a run now.

Beds I Have Slept In

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My good friend Barb gave me a photo album for my birthday on which she created a cover that reads "Beds I have Slept In ... On My Vacations". Another friend of mine and I have discovered we are pretty good travel partners so we have taken a couple trips together. Since so far it has just been the two of us on these trips, we've set up the camera each time to take a photo of us on a hotel bed. We decided that we'll have to do this for each trip and I apparently mentioned this to Barb. She was thoughtful enough to give me an album to put these photos in -- and creative enough to give it a good title. This one is from our trip to Grand Cayman in April:




runnings
No run today. But I did realize last night that I have to start thinking about when I should start seriously training for the TC 10 mile in Oct. I thought it was about a 12 week training program which would put me starting in about two weeks. I panicked briefly (well, got flustered at least), but figured out today I'll be doing a 10 week program. That gives me about three and a half weeks to bump up my attitude and get acclimated to the summer.

Birthday Messages

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What a great feeling to come home after a successful celebration of my birthday and listen to several messages on my phone from friends and family wishing me happy birthday. And several people sang. But not my sister. She has a beautiful voice – why didn’t she sing??

runnings
I recently read this article on warm weather running. It made me feel a bit better about how much of a hard time I was having running in the heat since it states that at temperatures over 65˚ F your body starts to have a hard time getting rid of the heat buildup. The article also suggests slowing down. This is a problem for me. I’m a competitive person and always time my runs. I’m guilty of frequently charting out my times and seeing how I’ve improved (or not) on a specific route. I’ve been trying to not worry about my times (although I’m still timing…) and to just let myself run at a level that doesn’t make me dislike running. I think I did that pretty well today. I ran the 4 mile River Road loop near work at noon today in about 76 degree, sunny weather and my time was right there with my longest times for that route. But I didn’t come out of the run wondering if I could get motivated for the next run.

My Birthday!

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I happen to love my birthday. Part of this is because a piece of me likes attention and the spotlight (I know... unbelievable, huh?) but it is also because I believe it is a great time to gather up friends. It seems like it can be hard to find a time when everyone is available, but when there is a birthday to celebrate, people tend to make a little extra effort to find the time. So today is my day to gather up friends!

runnings
Too much celebrating to do.

Keeping Up With Garbage

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I always have a little satisfaction with keeping up with traffic downtown when I'm riding my bike to work. Of course, I also drive my car to work, so I can't have complete piety, but it does add a little element of fun to see how long it takes me to get down Hennepin Ave versus a certain car. Well, this morning I unintentionally kept pace with a garbage truck all along Hennepin. And it had to have just picked up some choice garbage. I have to say I wasn't quite as excited about keeping up with traffic this morning!

runnings
I actually did get in a good run last night. There is nothing like being motivated to run because you mentioned it in your own blog. It was around 8pm so there wasn't any strong sun and it had cooled off. When I left my place I wasn't sure how far I was going to go, but once I got going I was feeling good and did a 6.5 run on the Greenway, around Lake of the Isles and back. I actually felt like I was in running shape! I wasn't overheated and I was enjoying the time outside. I was even thinking to myself that I look forward to when I can build up to a 10 or 12 mile run again.

Jittery Dan

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Last night I heard my good friend Jo play at the Hat Trick in downtown St Paul with her group Jittery Dan (hmm.... no website yet...). Dan (yep, the jittery one) once said that he started playing in front of people because he saw his son do it in school so it gave him confidence to do it himself. Knowing that it isn't old hat or just a routine for the members of Jittery Dan to get up on a stage makes the evening a bit more special. Jittery Dan doesn't have a CD, has only played out twice (or maybe three times?) and currently has a fan base of friends and family. When they are out playing, they are playing because they love music and more importantly, love to share their music.

Thanks for a fun evening Jittery Dan!

runnings
Yeah... no running yet this weekend. I had a bit too busy of a schedule so far this weekend, but that tells me that I'm not giving my running enough of a priority. So far it's a nice evening... perhaps I can squeeze something in yet!

Level of Liberal

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I recently had a conversation with someone I had just met about how liberal Minnesota is. This person wasn’t originally from here so perhaps he has a less biased opinion, but he claimed Minnesotans just think they are liberal. Now, I can’t speak on rural Minnesota because I have no experience with it, but I think Minneapolis is doing more than thinking it is liberal. The problem with the conversation, however, was that this person was focusing on lack of ethnic diversity as the determining factor to Minneapolis’ level of liberalness. According to the 2000 census my neighborhood’s makeup is

• 47% White
• 21% Hispanic
• 20% Black
• 6% Asian
• 4 % Other
• 2% American Indian

The state demography website states in 2004 Minnesota ranked 16th nationally for number of legal immigrants, receiving more African immigrants than all but four states (California, New York, Texas and Maryland). Minnesota also had nearly 37 percent of all Somali immigrants in 2004, the highest percentage of any state.

My point, however, is not about the ethnic diversity of Minnesota. My point is this is not the deciding factor of how liberal a state or city is. Social programs, heath care system, welfare and minimum wage are just a few factors. And don’t forget – we have the third largest Pride celebration in the nation. And it is this weekend!

Perhaps the fact that the only tidbit I'm solidly armed with is the bit about Pride makes me one of those Minnesotans that thinks we're a liberal lot. So, while I plan on attending Pride this weekend, I now also plan on doing a little research into Minnesota and our liberalness.

runnings
After work I was a bit wound up so I actually wanted a run. I made it to the gym to squeeze in a run before meeting friends (it was 80 degrees out so I opted for the treadmill). Once I got there I discovered I had forgotten my knee straps so I just ran for 2 miles. This is the first time I ran without a strap on my right knee for almost a year and probably six moths with my left knee. I did okay, but it did feel a bit odd. I'm glad I got in some sort of run but 2 miles is feeling like it probably didn't do much for me.

Adult Macaroni and Cheese

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Last night I was so hungry and so out of groceries that I made macaroni and cheese. I had a leftover box from when I watched my nieces and nephew… oh… nine months ago? In an effort to make it a little more than a box of powdered cheese and stale pasta, I added salmon and capers. I remember having macaroni and cheese with tuna as a kid and salmon and capers seemed like a bit more of an adult version. Of course, I must have had this tuna combo at a friend’s house, as my mom would never deign to put tuna in mac and cheese, let alone make it from a box. My mom's macaroni and cheese was the perfect mix of freshly grated, gooey cheese and noodles. Being from Wisconsin, we only ate real cheese. In fact, I don't think I had cheese out of a can until I was in college.

I still love cheese and it's one of the things guaranteed to be in my fridge (along with a jar of pickles), but the salmon, capers and macaroni mix wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be. I then had to remind myself I never really liked macaroni and cheese with tuna either.

runnings
I passed up another motorcycle ride and instead did a 4 mile run on River Road. I figured since it was mostly cloudy it wouldn’t be so bad. Of course the sun came out while I was running and it was about 77 degrees. I tried hard to tell myself to take it easy so my time wasn't any too speedy, but the run felt pretty good; I was just warm. Perhaps I should start carrying water on these runs. Previously I’ve just carried water on 6 mile+ runs.

Strike the Run

I considered a run this morning, but somehow ended up getting up 45 minutes after my alarm. Strike the morning run. Even though I rode my bike to work, I packed in running gear to try a run at noon instead. Around noon it seemed like a much better idea to use those running shoes to go for a motorcycle ride (don’t really want to ride in sandals!). Strike the noon run. The motorcycle ride was great, but I felt a brief twinge of guilt as we rode on River Road and passed several runners running the route I had intended to run today. I still had the thought that I could go for a run after work. Well, a coworker of mine had a rough day and needed a beer. Strike the after work run.

Obviously my motivation for running is lacking a bit right now. I ran a half marathon in April and loved it. I loved the accomplishment but even loved the training. Lately, however, it has taken a bit to get motivated to run. My issues have been 1) the weather and 2) nothing to train for. Ok, I can easily take care of point 2 and have signed up for the TC 10 mile, but that's in October. Point 1 has been a bit of a problem. I fell in love with winter running last winter. Especially considering the mild Minnesota winter we had. But now I can't stand being so warm when I run. And with the weather come motorcycle rides and beers on a patio. I think I have some obstacles to overcome this summer...

Welcome

With encouragement from friends (ok... one friend) I'm giving a blog a go. I have to figure out an angle -- a direction -- an appeal. Hence the Random. I've also been doing some running and have logged every run for about a year and a half. This is the closest brush I've had with blogging. Along with my thoughts, my running has been random. So... welcome, Random Running.