place of nathan.

This weekend I ran in my second 5K of the summer (also my second 5K in eight years), and although I came in 15th place (out of around 40, i think), I was somewhat disappointed in my time. I actually ran four seconds slower than I did last month, finishing at 23:12.
My time did leave me with an increase in motivation to work harder during my training. I know how to get faster, it just hurts in the process. So this week Isaac and I will kick it up several notches, and we will start training much faster. I am looking forward to getting my leg turnover up, and picking up the training pace. Tonight we’re planning to run six 5-minute repeats, at about 6:45 pace. (this is :45 faster than our current race pace). The first one or two should be pretty easy for us, but those last few are going to be killer…ouch.
But we know we need to run faster, run farther. I like having a goal, and I am anticipating reaching it…

fun stuff!

On another note, an old college teammate of mine, Jeff Nidlinger won the Spencerville 5K, coming sometime around mid-15’s, i think. I didn’t get a chance to talk with Jeff, as he didn’t spend much time standing around, and by the time I was finishing, he was running his cool-down already! But, congratulations to Jeff!
FYI, Jeff was faster than me in college, too! (although I wasn’t nearly this slow then)

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Tomorrow morning I’m running a 5K at the Spencerville Covered Bridge Festival. (Link - Warning–it’s very slow, and no, it didn’t get slashdotted, either)

My legs have been fairly sore this week, so I’m hoping for the best tomorrow morning! Wish me luck, and I hope to be able to post a photo or two tomorrow.

Have a wonderful night…I know I will!

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I am really looking forward to tonight.
Tonight is Date Night!

My wife and I have been very busy the past two week or so, and it will be a very nice change of pace to go on a date tonight.

I would tell you where we’re going, and what we’re doing, but it’s a date and i wouldn’t want you to get any idea about ‘coincidently’ having the same plans. (unfortunately, some people do that sort of thing!)

But anyway, I’m really looking forward to my hot date tonight with my wonderful wife!
Seriously–there is very little I enjoy more than a wonderful evening alone with Emily.

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I didn’t mean to wear pleated jeans today–honestly.

It just sorta happened.

I put on the (flat-front) jeans I’ve been wearing since early spring, and then tighten up my belt, and viola! I have pleated pants. My weight loss has caused my pants to fold in these ugly, aging pleats!
Disclaimer: This photo is not of my jeans, nor of me, for that matter!

Ahhh…the wonderful benefits of weight loss…pleated pants!

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One of the many things I’ve been working on which has kept me busy:

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Early this morning, while it was still dark, unsuspecting Matt Keller left for a bike ride.

In utter darkness, he met a rather large gator on the bike path.

Read his story here.

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So a lot of things are changing at New Hope in the next few weeks:

In order to support all these changes, I’ve been busy:

All this, in addition to my normal duties, of course.

I just was handed (literally 15 minutes ago) the final thing I was waiting on. After waiting for eight long weeks, I now can feverishly work to completion. I have just days to get things done now in order to have in time…

Good Luck to me!

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Today I got out an older pair of jeans from my college days. The jeans are smaller in the waist, and last year my waist had expanded enough I could no longer wear them comfortably.
But I am enjoying them today. They fit great!

These jeans are the only ‘designer’ jeans I have ever purchased–and ever will purchase at full price. I bought these Lucky Brand jeans when I was in college, maybe seven or eight years ago.
In that time, I have went through several pairs of jeans. My jeans just wear out. I wear a hole in them, normally in a very inconvenient location.
But these Lucky Brand jeans are different–they aren’t wearing a hole anywhere at all. They are very high quality.

Why is it that high, overpriced stuff seems to actually be a better spend of money? Why don’t these jeams wear out like all my other jeans have the past eight years?

Is there something to the notion of quality? does price affect quality, and how do we determine at what point we are no longer to pay the premium for higher quality?

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I use the blogging platform WordPress to power this blog. i am using a hosted install of WordPress, meaning I am running WordPress on my own server.

Wordpress also has a hosted solution, WordPress.com, which allows people to host their blog (with a WordPress.com subdomain such as toddhelmkamp.wordpress.com URL). This hosted solution turns two years old today, and has experienced nearly 400% growth, and is the fourth largest blogging site, behind Blogger, TMZ and Typepad.

There are some very cool stats talked about today over on Matt Mullenweg’s WordPress blog (the founding WordPress developer). Check it out.

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I have always, and still am, very slow to judge anyone, especially sports stars. Maybe I’m just too naive to what really goes on…

• I always thought Pete Rose didn’t bet on baseball, until he admitted it.
• I always thought OJ Simpson didn’t kill Nicole…although I’m not sure about it.
• And I thought Michael Vick was probably innocent of his dog-fighting charging, until he publicly admitted it yesterday and today will enter a guilty plea.

Now, Michael Vick has lost my trust and my respect, and he will probably never regain it. I’m sorry Mr. Vick, and I am very disappointed in Michael Vick.

Have you ever known people close to you who, time and time again, betrayed your trust and respect?
Once the person has done so many repeated bad things, you just find yourself being disappointed in these people.

Can you relate to that at all?

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lie is defined as: ‘a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth’
in this definition, a synonym is prevarication, which is defined:
1: a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth
2: intentionally vague or ambiguous
3: the deliberate act of deviating from the truth

Hypothetical:
A certain situation has six facts which make up the whole story.
you tell five of those facts, and nothing more.
the one fact you left out implied a different meaning to the whole story.

Question:
Is it a lie to tell five of the six facts which tell the whole story?
Or is it okay as long as you only tell facts?

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