the personal blog of Greg Bassett, IT Security, Travels & Endurance Sports

Category: Uncategorized (Page 31 of 32)

Maintaining balance

Work has been a bitch lately; Confusing, frustrating and nerve-wracking. The result is that my workouts have disappeared, I’m gaining weight, drinking too much and feeling miserable.

The sub-4hr marathon at the end of April is a pipe-dream. I’m going to run the race, but without any expectations of a PR. JFR and try to have some fun.

I really want to take on IMLP again in 2008. In order to do that, I need to get back to a happier place in my life. I think that it’s a pretty simple equation.

Work Less+Train More=Less Stress.

That is going to be my new mantra.

Umm. ok,… yeah, I like it…

I love NatGeo.. Really

It’s been a part of my life since I was knee high to a piss-ant. So I’m Sooooo lovin the web right now: toxic toad caught in Australia

And my nomination for quote of the year:

“It’s huge, to put it mildly,” Graeme Sawyer, coordinator of the group…told the Associated Press. “The biggest..are usually females, but this one was a rampant male. … I would hate to meet his big sister.”

Really now, what more could be said?

A blinding glimpse…

I found the ‘7 Habits’ a bit hard to comprehend.

Hard to read, difficult to fully “get” and requiring a great deal of work to effectively implement in my life. So when I see other stuff by “The Stephen” I usually run off to a quiet room to read each sentence, and contemplate on the meaning.

Such was the case when I saw the recent Forbes series on “Work-Life Balance” and the lead article is by “The Stephen”. I took my laptop to a quiet place.

Imagine my surprise when I’m hit with an article of such sobering clarity that it feels like I’ve been shot in my forehead by diamond bullet…

class=”mainarttitle”>Work-Life Balance: A Different Cut

Many people simply conclude that they are not disciplined enough. My response to that idea is that it’s usually not a discipline problem at all. The problem is more often that the person has not yet sufficiently paid the price to get very clear about what matters most to them. Once you have a burning “yes” inside you about what’s truly important, it’s very easy to say “no” to the unimportant.

I’m sending this article to my boss in the morning…

Brain Droppings, Part 1

Lots to blog about, but very little time to organize thoughts, so here are the quick & dirties:

CISSP Exam – Oh. My. God. Completed in 3.5 hours, and I was in physical pain afterwards. I have no real clue how I did on the exam. Most people who have taken say that this feeling is normal.

GTD – Been playing with lately. Very nice basic GTD implementation. I think it is an excellent tool for GTD noobs like me. Much more on this later.

M.U.S.S. Status – Bugger! The bike is back ordered until 30 March. I’m getting a bad feeling that I won’t ever see this bike.

SSSweetness

Killer deal at />
I’ve been looking for a good quality SS bike. Can’t pass up a 37% discount!

I’ll probably throw a short shock on the front at some time. I’m also thinking about throwing slicks on it, and riding this with Weazer on the MS-150.

CISSP Camp – Day 1 & 2

Here I am in the Poconos, at the beautiful ‘resort’. The class is very good, but very, very long. 8:00-4:30, with a 1hr break for lunch, then 6:30-9:00 for more review. This will go on through Friday. Saturday is a 9:00-5:00 review, and Sunday is an 8:30-2:30 exam.

One weekend, shot to shit.

At least I’ll have the CISSP when I come out the other side, assuming I don’t go completely mental first.

We are staying in “villas” which are really nothing more than smallish 1bdr condo’s. They are ok, but a little seedy. The bootcamp covers breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is a pretty good selection of ready-to-eat or heat-n-eat stuff, but all name brand goods. Lunch is at an italian restaurant attached to the hotel. Yesterday was a buffet of so-so italian food. Today; Pizza Hut pizza and wings.

Eh….

For dinner, we are on our own, but with only a short break, before study session resumes, we are limited. Sunday & Monday I just cooked up dinner at the “villa”. I figure that will be the modus for the rest of the week.

I decided that I’m only going to be able to spend 1hr each day training, and that will have to be in the morning, so I’m just hitting the treadmill at the fitness center. If I’m able to be consistent with this, I’ll get close to 40 miles in over the course of the week. That would be pretty cool.

I suppose it beats working for a week, but just barely.

Bike lust


After pulling the trigger on my own “sick build”,
I was surfing around for bike stuff and stumbled onto this:
American Handmade Bike Show
Really, REALLY cool stuff here. Add this to my list of “must do” shopping sites when I hit the “Mega Millions” tonight.
“to dream, the impossible dream!!”

Runnin’ & Freezin’

As overdressed as I was yesterday, I felt under dressed today, probably because I wasn’t wearing a skull cap, and just a regular running hat. It was windy, cold and a couple of snow squalls passed through. Still got almost 14 miles, in 2:19, and felt really good at the end of the run.

I got my stats from the Nike+iPod site, 101.12 miles, avg 9:34 pace since the beginning of the year So far, so good!

Just Brickin’

If it is Saturday, it must be brick day. After nearly a week off nursing a groin/quad strain (oww!) I finally got back out to train. I had planned to ride a quick Mountainville loop with BB and PB. When I got to PB’s house, he informed me that the ride was scheduled for Sunday… Doh! I felt like a real dumbass.

So I call up Hootus and make my way slowly over to his place. We got on the road right at 9:00am. As soon as we left I knew I was overdressed. I wore the heavier tights, long sleeved shirt, jersey & jacket, plus beanie and heavy gloves. After a couple of miles, the beanie had to go. When we got to Kinnelon around 18 miles in, the long sleeved shirt had to go.

When we passed back through Boonton we saw the temps had already hit 56. You can almost, almost, smell spring in the air. The ride came in just a hair under 40 miles, 2:22

Once we got back, I hopped in the car and sprinted over to Giralda Farms for my run. It’s been over 3 years since I ran my 1st 10k there, and I wasn’t sure about the route. So I just ran two loops around the campus, in my bib shorts and short-sleeved jersey, and still worked up a good sweat. SWEET!!

Ended up with a 54 min 5.97 mile run. The workout was only scheduled for a 1:15 bike and :45 run, but it felt really good to go longer, especially with a full week of rest under my belt.

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