Adjusted Reality

So today I am going to hang up the running shoes and weights both physically in preparation to be well-rested for my race tomorrow and mentally here to rant about a subject that’s not running, fitness, fashion, or anything similar.  You can fuck with quite a few things in my life and I’ll be laissez-faire.  There are a few exceptions: my family and close friends, my workout time, my weekends, and my internet.  I’m probably forgetting some things but you get the picture.  Internet access is something near and dear to me.  I could probably go without smoking longer than I could without access to Facebook or streaming Netflix.

Time Warner recently announced that they were going to be moving to metered billing later this year, with Austin as one of the cities.  Considering that we are one of the hubs of both technology and media in the US – of course there was a huge outcry here.  Tons of sites just like this popped up all over.  My boss wrote an open letter to one of the mayoral candidates and has a call with him tomorrow about the matter.  Between the time I started writing this and now, TWC has decided to back off.  The problem is – they added the caveat, for now.  Their statement essentially said that consumers misunderstood the intent and they would educate us and try again later.  I don’t think there is much to understand besides my cable bill would go from 40 bucks to 150.

The caps and rates changed around a bit but essentially they were $15 dollars for 1 GB per month (for someone like my parents who check their email once a week and maybe book a trip on travelocity), and had tiers up to 100 GB for $75 dollars per month.  Overage charges for all but the cheapest plan is 1$ per GB (2$ for the lowest plan) and it’s capped at 75$ in overages.  So the heavy internet user has gone from paying about 40 bucks a month to 150.  Yikes!  To give reference – 30 minutes of streaming music per day would take you over that 1 GB cap, and streaming a Netflix movie is 3-5 GB.  An online game doesn’t use all that much per se, but to download a patch – could be a few GB.

What do I think?  Well, I make my living in online gaming.  Particularly, a download-only title.  Time Warner’s cap essentially puts a cost on our free trial, which is one of the cornerstones of our company’s sucess.  My boss said it much more eloquently, and I wish I could link it to you (Facebook is being a jerk) but basically, besides fucking with my personal internetting, they are also fucking with my livelihood and the success of my product.  I don’t talk about work much here because a) I’m under a lot of NDAs and don’t want to accidentally violate them because I am a sharer b) work is work, and while I enjoy what I do most days, it’s something I’m happy to leave behind in a trail of dust when it’s not worktime c) talking only about work for 3 years makes Quix a dull girl and I don’t want to even chance going back to that and d) I can’t tell you the good juicy stuff and can’t rant about the stuff that drives me crazy about my company anyway because that’s just asking to be fired.  Suffice it to say, I’m not looking to get out of what I’m doing, and if I was, it would be in a blaze of glory, not because TWC crippled our company’s business model.

It’s been argued that we use metered systems for a lot of things – why would this not work for internet?  Things such as gas and electricity I understand fully – these are finite resources that we are depleting.  What about the telephone?  While cell phones are metered by the minute, most are only so only during peak hours.  Local phone calls are included with home phone service.  You can pay a slightly larger fee to include long distance, or just pay by the minute.  Cable TV is all or nothing – imagine if they decided to start charging me per program.  I’d certainly save money because I don’t watch that much TV, but I’d still be angry that I didn’t have the option to sit on the couch and watch a marathon of America’s Next Top Model I’ve seen 20 times.  Zliten might be happy, but not I.  Networks would probably be LIVID – if they imposed an up-to-75$ overage charge on couch potatoes, who would soak up all those lovely advertising views for which they get paid so dearly?  Please, they’d never let that happen.  If online games charged per hour played?  Forget it.  Every in-game issue would now relate to a monetary cost (I died and don’t think I should have – you’re costing me 25 cents in bandwith to get back to where I was and start over).

Essentially, they’re trying to take a billing method used by tangible resources and apply it to something intangible.  It’s not as if when I use up a GB, it’s removed from some magic bandwith warehouse that someone had to mine from the ether.  We moved away from this tier of pricing in the 90s because it hampered creativity and innovation.  Think of your favorite websites and services.  Do you like pandora or other streaming music?  They wouldn’t exist because no one could afford it.  Do you like online games?  If the customer base incurred an additional fee from the cable companies, they’d never have broken mainstream.  Love that the networks provide the ability to watch your favorite shows online (FINALLY)?  Never would have gotten off the ground.

Let’s not stifle innovation and creativity and new media so you can make a buck, TWC.  I can guarantee the only reason you are making the money you are now is because the need for internet is so prolific.  10 years ago, meh, I could take it or leave it.  Now, with social networks, games, movies, rss feeds – it’s as much a part of my day as brushing my teeth or going for a run.  Without the freedom a flat-rate bandwith service allowed, I guarantee I would still be ambivilent because there just wouldn’t be much out there.  Cap us now, and you’ve discouraged all those companies out there to offer that one service that might get my parents to FINALLY ditch the dial-up and join the 21st century and actually utilize your service.

My other boss and I in conversation put it very succinctly – “When sign me up for all-you-can-eat, and then you start charging by the dish…especially when you’re the only restaurant allowed in town – that ain’t cool.”

We have won the battle, but the war is not yet over.  You can laugh and say that you’re glad you’re not in Austin with us with targets on our backs, but I guarantee if we (and the other cities slated to be test beds) had taken this lying down, you’d all be next.  What do you think about metered internet?  Is it fair?  Worst idea ever?  What do you use the internet for on a daily basis?  What price do you think is fair for unlimited use?

Welcome back, unless you are a spammer, then go far, far away and bother someone else.  My super uber Akismet spam catcher will smack you down.  If you’re not a spammer, then read on!

Although I will shout loudly at the mountaintops about how I was able to lose 80+ lbs using SparkPeople, a lot of the articles are sorta drivel.  The other features are great, don’t get me wrong.  Tracking what went into my mouth for the last year and a half has helped me become aware of what a normal human should eat and what foods work for me.  Logging exercise made me accountable when I didn’t want to pursue fitness for any other reason than losing the proverbial junk in my trunk.  Seems silly now that anyone would have to push me to workout, but times have changed.  Getting involved with the community provided me inspiration and an outlet when I used to blog over there.  However, the articles – meh.

That being said, since I’m on the site all the time tracking my foods and logging my awesome fitness minutes, I do catch some and once in a while they’ll really hit home.  A few weeks ago, I read this one.  If you don’t want to jump over there and read it all, I’ll give you the reader’s digest version…actually the article IS a summary so this is a summary of a summary.  How meta!

There are 5 different types of workout personalities: squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, and squigglies.

Squares are very rigid and like to have a plan and stick to it.  They are committed, but hit plateaus easily because they don’t change up their workouts.

Rectangles are like squares in they like a routine, but they are more flexible and also tend to be more social.  Since they’re more flexible they will resort to a Plan B (as in, planned to run outside today but it’s raining, so I’ll hit the treaddy at the gym), but if they workout alone, they aren’t likely to stick to it.

Triangles are competitive and very focused on improving and tracking that improvement.  They appreciate all sorts of improvement (even if the scale didn’t move, they’ll appreciate the new personal best on their mile time), but are likely to get frustrated without a higher purpose in mind.

Circles are the emotional, social people who couldn’t imagine working out alone.  Having gym time double as social time gets them there regularly, but they’re likely to spend more time chatting than working out.

Squigglies are the polar opposite of squares.  They abhor routine and value, above all things, fun.  They rarely see plateaus because they’re always changing it up, but are likely to get bored and drop out of a regular exercise program.

It really hit me here that I was fully and completely a triangle.  It’s not just my body shape (inverted triangle, at least), it’s my workout type!  This inspired me to ditch April’s planned experiment, which while it sounded FUN, it also sounded like a chore since it was super varied.  I really like a routine.  I like to make a list and check it off.  I definitely have elements of square (in that I like routine) and rectangle (that I’m ok being flexible, if it’s raining the treaddy is fine, or if I’m exhausted and planned a hard workout I’ll switch it to another day and do something lighter), but I am true and true a triangle.  Even before I was working towards a race, I was working on improving my times, my distances, using heavier weights, doing more reps, and the like.

So this gave me the oomph to actually put this half marathon plan into place, I think I wrote out the spreadsheet the very same day.  It still scares me but more than anything I’m excited.  I’m also signed up for a 5k in 2 days and a 10k next weekend because I realized – I love races.  I got myself a stopwatch to time myself because it was one more stat I could track.  Now that the article validated for me what I already knew (I thrive on competition), I’m rocking out with my new wicking socks out and embracing it.

What type of workout personality are you?  How do you embrace it and make it work for you?  How do you get over your weaknesses?

I do believe the spam is behind me.  Comments are open for now, testing the wonders of Akismet.  I still have tons to figure out about wordpress, but this should enable me to write in the blog and not scream with rage when my inbox fills up.

Thank you to Zliten and Manu for the help!  Regular ramblings will commence shortly, as I have tons of drafts waiting to see the light of day….

So the sinking feeling I had in my stomach when I saw 300 new emails was right – the spaminators found their way back to my site.  Comments are again disabled unless you log in, which is problematic in and of itself.  If anyone CAN comment here, please let me know, by, uh, commenting here.  For now, enjoy sheer cuteness (and get this song stuck in your head all day):

PS. Cat – the jalapeno bacon was just store brand at our local grocery. I’m pretty sure it’s just law in Texas you have to have a jalapeno flavor of everything. Seriously, that was the best bacon evar. 😉

EDIT: Ok, think I tweaked the setting so new users can be added. Thanks for the tip, Cat. 🙂

EDIT2: Not so much. Will play around with it when I can. Argh. Spambots need to go to a special place in hell. It wasn’t even as interesting as last time. It was 300 messages about viagra. Not even creative!!!

I mentioned a lot of these things in yesterday’s monster training recap, but I wanted to elaborate more.

1.  Saturday was an awesome day.  Well, it didn’t start quite so awesome but ended up lovely.  I didn’t go to bed until WAY late and had WAY too much to drink and woke up 4-5 hours later nursing a hangover.  However, I cooked us breakfast (batter blaster pancakes, two slices of jalapeno bacon, and hand grated hashed browns) and we set out on our epic day anyway.  Half an hour in, I felt great.  There is nothing like some moderate exercise and sunshine to cure all ills.  We rode down from our casa to Run Tex (12 miles), did their 4k walk, ate lunch, did the 4k walk BACK to the bikes, and then rode about 3 miles home before deciding AC was better than dripping sweat and rode the bus.

I kept thinking – if you told me 2 years ago that I would be taking a 12 mile bike ride to do a 5 mile (round trip) walk, I would have probably thought you crazy.  Now, if you would have said that the reason I was walking and not running it was because I had already done 4 runs that week for my half marathon training…I would have thought you COMPLETELY crazy.  Amazing how a year or 2 changes things…

2..  For some reason, it took until last Saturday’s ride to click, but I realized that I spend a lot of time in my workout clothes.  Especially since we started riding the bikes.  I had planned on getting SOME sort of new workout attire before the next race because I felt like a shmuck in what I was wearing (and it was my best workout clothes), but I really needed to replace pants and shirts I was wearing 50-100 lbs ago for regular workout wear.  It’s amazing how spiffy you feel wearing workout clothes that fit you and match rather than thrift store sweats and stuff that’s 3-5 sizes too big.  I also picked up a running skirt.  I’ll let you know what I think of it after I utilize it later this week.

3.  I chopped my hair!  If there’s anything that random people might have identified me with over the last 10 years, it’s “that chick with the long hair”.  My hair has been some flavor of length between small of my back to dangerously close to being sat upon, but it is now just a smidge under shoulder length.  I definitely used to hide under it.  Back fat is trivial when your hair covers it!  I might not keep it this short but now that it’s starting to heat up, it’s nice to have a ponytail that doesn’t even touch my shoulders.

Funny story about how it happened though – Zliten is my hairdresser (yeah, my hair is that low maintenance) and I asked for a trim.  As he was cutting it, a big strand curled up and he accidentally chopped it super short, so we just evened it out and now we both think it looks awesome!

4.  I am experimenting with different breakfast stuff.  I’ve been on oatmeal every day for a few month and just need a break.  I’ve been trying out different bars and also seeing whether more protien or more fiber is better for me in the morning.  This week, I’ve tried Luna Bars (tried chocolate peppermint and have a chai tea in queue) and Fiber One (have a box of chocolate mocha).  The Luna bars are about 180 calories, 5g fat, 9g protien, and 3g fiber.  The Fiber One bars are about 140 calories, 4g fat, 9g fiber, and 2g protien.  So far, I think I prefer the Fiber One bars, they filled me up more for 40 less calories.  I’m going to expand into some higher calorie bars and see if they take the edge off enough to eat into lunchtime calories, and I also want to see whether fiber or protien is more important in the morning.

Expect a full post on this sometime soon, but I’m open to any breakfast suggestions.  The requirements are:

-No prep beyond a microwave.  I would be grabbing this and bringing it to work.  I am also anti batch cooking for a week of leftovers for the most part but if it sounds REALLY good and is pretty easy I could be swayed.

-No eggs.  It can have eggs IN it, I’m not allergic, but I can’t be able to taste them.  About the most egg I can handle is egg whites in eggdrop soup and not-too-eggy french toast.  Omlettes and quiche are way too eggy.

-It has to be reasonably filling.  I plan on eating this on an empty stomach around 10am and I don’t want a peep out of my stomach until 12:30-1pm.

-Under 300 calories.  200 preferably, but I’m open to more as long as it rates high on the point just above (fillingness).

5.  I think I’ve settled on what the half marathon plan will be.  At first, I was thinking running 5 laps around my neighborhood would do me just fine.  Then, I started reading about this guy, Joe Hale.  I mean, the besides the obvious inspiration on raising a whole bunch of money for a charity he cares dearly about, and the obvious OMG he’s running way further than I can fathom – it really made me realize that I wanted to run an official race.  So today I started looking into the Seattle Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, and I got as far as looking into booking the weekend trip on travelocity – it’s just too expensive.  It’s definitely on the list for next year because I’ve never been and it would be a GREAT excuse to go.  Maybe even by next year, I’ll be running the full marathon!   Maybe.  I’m not entirely sure if I’m that insane.

After doing some additional googling, I found one a bit more reasonable – Carraba’s Classic Half-Marathon in San Antonio.  Instead of a flight/hotel/food/entertainment budget for a 5 day 4 night trip (which believe it or not was hundreds cheaper than a 3 day 2 night trip…) and 100$ race entry fee, I’m looking at an hour and a half drive, a one night hotel stay (which was 150 bucks for the jacuzzi suite and just goes down from there), and a 24$ entry fee.  Plus, there is also a nature walk Zliten can do instead of just sitting there waiting for me to finish!  It’s much more appropriate for a first race, me thinks.  Unless I decide I hate it though…I foresee more weekend trips coresponding with races.  Sounds like a great way to see more places.

Now, to get through the rest of the workday and attempt my first official tempo run tonight!  Pictures today courtesty of my new haircut because I am vain and want to see my mug plastered all up in this post.