Remember that “professional” does not mean “craftsman.” The definition of professional that’s always stuck with me is litmus test of “did he get paid to do it.”
For example, no one is paying me to fix my car, or else I would do a better job than bending stuff back into shape with pliers. I guess my solution was kind of crafty, but a real pro would buy a new switch and charge you for it. It minimizes his time at your expense.
I was stringing up some Christmas lights and when I went to plug in the timer there was a pop and the circuit tripped. After verifying the power was indeed off at the breaker I took out the outlet and saw this:
Food truck is here, I'll just jam all these wires in and be on my way. Click to enlarge
Explanation: those screws that pinch into the wire are energized. When you touch the hot wire to the ground wire it trips the GFCI. In general you don’t want that screw touching anything and you don’t want a strip off a foot of wire when 3/4″ is all you need to wrap around the screw or you get a lot of extra lightning rods sticking out of it like this:
Matching char marks on hot and ground
The reason why there are two black wires is one comes from the panel or outlet closer to the panel and the other goes to the next outlet. Neutral/white is on the other side and never the two shall meet. I trimmed up the excess wire a little bit, but there was still too much wire in general and the outlet was really flimsy (one of the screws to hold it in was a freaking drywall screw) so I mummified the whole thing in electrical tape:
It was 30 degrees out when I took this, no time to center the picture.
I was careful tucking the wires back in so nothing would touch and now I have Christmas from 5-10pm every night:
A picture of the Christmas lights this powers would have been more interesting
So remember, just because a professional electrician wired it doesn’t mean it was done right, or that he gave a damn. If I had to wire outlets all day I would probably be pretty sloppy too, as it is I just have to fix one and fix the crap out of it. My FiOS is on that circuit, if it trips I don’t have internet and the house suddenly gets very small and boring.
Time:
1 hr in the cold, so felt like 2
Money:
Spent – $.02 in electrical tape
Saved – I have no idea what an electrician cost, and without internet I wouldn’t be able to find out.
Recently I posted about how to plan a long run for your marathon training. With some planning you will have an awesome run that you will anticipate instead of discourage you. Now that you’ve decided to go out and run all morning the next hurdle is the logistics of how to prepare and what to carry. 20 miles brings a lot of challenges that don’t exist at 5 miles and here’s what I do to make it.
I don't know what happened. The runner just ... disappeared.
The Soft Stuff
Shirt
I realized pretty early on in my running that you need to wear a polyester aka “Tech” shirt when running. With a regular cotton shirt you come back carrying every drop of sweat from the run in a hot mess around your chest. Very uncomfortable.
Shorts
I like the kind with lining and pockets. The lining isn’t necessary if you are going to wear Under Armour, but for short runs I just wear the shorts so I have ones with lining. I’ve never tried those short-shorts with the super high cut on the sides that you see serious running dudes wear. I just can’t bring myself to do it.
Underwear
I’ve got a pair of under armor and a couple of Nike Sport. Any brand will do. Not necessary for all people, but if you have thighs that are … generous … you’ll like the reduced friction of these. I don’t bother with these for runs up to 5-8 miles. You can try to just apply a shit-ton of Body Glide to your butt (almost literally) but it can be too much and the stuff wears away anyways.
Socks
Here is one place that I brand name-drop because I think it makes a difference. You gotta go with Thorlos. They are smartly made with thin fabric on top, thick cushion fabric on toe and heal. It took a while for me to decide to shell out for a $12 sock, but I’m glad I made the switch. I was having a lot of problems with blisters when I used my “athletic” socks that came in the hundred-pack from Costco. I’d get little linear blisters along my big toes. No problems since using the Thorlos. I’ve tried other non-cotton running socks, like Feetures but they didn’t work nearly as well. The Thorlos are kind of expensive, but I only have 3 pairs and rotate through them – they’ve been holding up well for more than a year of >300 sweaty miles.
Shoes
There’s a lot of hype about shoes. I used to run with cheap $40 shoes from Sports Authority. They were fine, but as I ran more frequently I noticed general foot pains. I usually take my worn out shoe to the running store and let the shoe guru do their incantations and bring out a new shoe. Make sure to run around in it a little bit and if it’s the slightest bit uncomfortable at 20 feet you will be cursing the shoe gods after 10 miles and planning arson after 20 I’ve been on a different brand almost every time, but if you like a shoe get it again if it’s still available. Then you can compare old to new. There’s a noticeable step up in quality from cheapo shoes to the $80-100 shoes. My guess is that anything past that is hype. Don’t listen to 90% of what the shoe guy says and don’t try to marathon in your vibrams. Your Achilles tendon thanks you in advance.
Not pictured: the duffle bag I run with to hold all this junk.
Load up the pockets
Gels
My latest strategy is 1 gel per 4 miles, so 6 for a marathon. I used to do it by time: every 45 minutes or every 30 minutes but sometimes I royally screw up my pace and if I’m out for an hour longer than I planned I’m out of energy at the end, but I don’t run farther than I planned. The dosage and the brand have taken a lot of experimentation. Expect it to take a lot of trial and error for yourself. I used to love-love-love Stingers and thought it tasted the best. Now I’ve decided it’s too viscous late in the run when I get dehyrdated and I’m also blinded by the marketing about protein so I bought a case of Accel Gel which I’m digging. I normally go caffeine free until the last gel.
Sweat Proof Bag
Maybe you don’t sweat. But I learned the hard way that salt water doesn’t do your mp3 player any favors in your pocket so now I keep my phone, drivers license and a bill ($20/10/5) in a ziploc in my pocket. If I’m running to a bar I throw a credit card in there. I only carry the phone if I’m going a long way, like > 10 miles and there’s possibility I’ll get lost or quit and call in a pickup. It’s a lot of extra weight. I don’t carry it during a race because there’s race support the entire time. Also helps to put a paper towel in there if you have a forehead like mine that channels sweat directly onto sun glass lenses.
Garmin
A big Garmin watch is the new calculator watch
The Garmin 4runner was the best gift I never knew I needed. The GPS completely changed running for me. As an engineer I always want data and this gives it to you. If you are getting one the heart rate monitor is a must as well. The feed back between the two is great during the run and for analyzing it afterwards. This is the only real piece of gear I use for biking or running. Everything else is low tech. It really deserves its own post.
Asthma medicine (not optional for me)
I don’t want my biennial asthma attack to strike me down on the side of the road. People would totally think I’m a wuss. If I’m running a distance that I could hobble back to my house I won’t carry it, but greater than 10 miles and it’s in my pocket.
Optional
Nothing's cooler than Body Glide, look he's wearing sunglasses indoors.
Sunglasses
I have dainty eyes so I always have to have them if it’s at all bright out. I get a lot of sweat on them so I sometimes throw a paper towel in the plastic bag to clean them off since after 2 hours there is no dry fabric on my body.
Body Glide
I apply this before hand, I don’t run with this. This is less optional. The option is how you want to chafe proof yourself. The more you sweat the sooner you’ll need it, but by marathon distance everyone needs a lot. The longer the run the more places you have to put this stuff. In ascending order of length of run here’s how I apply Body Glide:
0 miles -> Nothing -> 8 miles -> just under armour -> 10 miles -> crotch (upper-upper thighs) -> 13 miles -> crack, nipples -> 15miles ->under arms at sleeve opening-> 20 miles plus -> EVERY WHERE
These are cumulative so at 14 miles I have under armour, body glide on my nether region and nips. Recently I’ve been doing bandaids on the nipples for 20 miles and beyond and that works better. The body glide wears away after a few hours and if it’s cold out go straight to band aids.
Don’t know where to put it? Skip it for a long run and you will know exactly where. You aren’t going to get scars, it’s just uncomfortable for a day.
5 Hour Energy
Super optional. I took one of these in the last marathon and felt nothing because I was completely out of gas, but in my 23 and 21 mile runs leading up to it I chugged one of those things with 3-4 miles left and I felt like battery acid was pumping through my veins and I mean that in the greatest way. It’s like squeezing a balloon. Air comes out faster, but not if it’s empty. Take it too early and you might crash. I have a weird relationship with caffeine because I don’t drink sodas normally and only use it extra long training runs or bike rides so it gives me the jitters.
Triathlon Bib holder thing
Can alternately use this to hold a couple bells so other runners can hear you and get out of your way (like a cat)
Super mega optional for race day. I don’t like pinning the bib to my shirt. It’s not that my shirts are that precious. When you pin the bib to the shirt that rectangle of shirt can’t stretch like the rest and I always seem to get it a little uneven and the slight tug bugs me over the course of the marathon. With one of these belts it’s nice that you can move your bib up higher or twist it or adjust it any way you want while running. If you already have one for a triathlon then it’s nice to get one more use out of it, but probably not worth buying just for one marathon.
Isn’t that a lot of junk to be carrying?
Kind of, the load of gels gets lighter along the way. The under armor shorts help out a lot in this regard. They allow the bulky phone to slide along your thigh with less friction and keep pokey edges of gel wrappers from poking as much. I’ve never had a problem with the stuff swinging around violently once you get to a steady pace. Plus, I only carry all this stuff for the longest of runs. The morning 5-miler is “The 4 Sh’s”: shirt, shorts, shoes and shocks. Plus Garmin.
NERD! Don’t kid yourself. It’s a fanny pack. I’d like to be one of those guys who doesn’t care about what they look like and doesn’t judge people. I almost am, except when it comes to running fanny packs. I can’t bring myself to try one, because I’m sure I’d end up liking it. They seem like they are mostly for carrying water (or recovery drink) and as I said before, a $5 bill weighs less than 5 bottles of water, so run with the bill. One thing that I think would be nice on race day is the belt that has little loops to hold your gels, but it still looks kind of dorky.
I hope this list isn’t so long as to intimidate someone from going out to run right now. These are all things you figure out you need along the way. Happy Trails.
I recently went through the loss of my father. I observed that the condolences I got fit into three broad categories. I’m not editorializing about any specific person and no one ever said something out of line, but somethings people said were a lot more appreciated than others. Since death is an uncomfortable topic there’s less info on the net. Here are some of my comments in case any one needs help with what to say to a bereaved person at a funeral or what to write in a card.
There are not a lot of Gangsteads. Most of them are at this plot in Iowa.
Good – Sympathy story
Example “I know how you feel, when my grandmother passed away it was terrible”
I know you mean well and are just trying to relate, but there are better things to say. Yes other people die all the time, but right now the person you are talking to is going through a lot of grief and this has the effect of reminding him/her that their pain isn’t unique or special. It’s also kind of a downer, talking about one death is hard enough.
Better – Generic condolences
Example: “I’m sorry for your loss”
This is perfectly acceptable, especially if the deceased is a relative of someone you know, but did not know personally (i.e. a coworker of yours who never met your father). Try to phrase it so that the person doesn’t have to say “thank you”. If you aren’t the best story teller or feel the need that you have to say something then go this route.
Best – Story about the departed
Example: “One time your dad noticed my drive way was flooded and he fixed my water heater. What a great guy!”
When my dad passed away these were the kinds of things I liked to hear. This usually comes from people who knew the deceased, but not necessarily you (i.e. a coworker of your parent that you haven’t met before). Not all stories are good to share, but light-hearted ones can really help in a dark time. They really help to keep the focus on the good long life and not just the ending and death. I appreciated these types of stories the most, both at the funeral and I even got some email stories from some of my dad’s friends that were really great.
The examples were all paraphrases of stuff I heard from my dad’s funeral and not direct quotes from anyone.
