Looking for wood

So as a woodturner you are out driving around and see a pile of wood on the side of the road. First thing I do is look to see if it is large enough in diameter. I like it to be around 12 inches in diameter, then I look to see what kind of wood it might be. If it is pine or oak than I keep on driving. The other thing I am looking for is access. if it is on a busy street I will probably pass on it. I like it to be in a neighborhood where I can just stop and load some up in the back of my car. Many times I will be at home and will hear a chainsaw running in the neighborhood and will get on my bike and go ride around looking for whoever is cutting something down. I will then see what kind of tree they are removing. Most people will be happy to cut some of the wood however you want. They are happy to get rid of some of it. Plus they don't have to move it. I like knowing where the wood came from and the fact that I can make something either useful or pleasant to look at. Also like the fact that I am keeping something from the landfill. So next time you see me looking at a pile of wood on the side of the road cut me a bit of a break. I am thinking about my next project.

Knowing when to Quit

Sometimes knowing when to quit is a hard thing to figure out. Other times you know before hand when it is time. I am working on a hollow vessel that I started a while ago. I worked on it for several hours and then put it away for about a year or 2 ago. I finally got it out and started working on it again yesterday. I have no idea where I was going with it since I haven't thought about it in a while. I am trying to decide how far to go with it. I am committed to opening up the slots now that I have started cutting them I drew pencil lines on yesterday and figured I would think about the piece overnight and see if I still wanted to go that far with the carving. This morning I am still liking the idea. I am now trying to decide if I should keep the hard edges or go for a more rounded look. Many times when I go out to make a piece I have a pretty clear picture in my mind of what I want to make. This really helps me know when to stop. With a project like this I have no clear vision, I am just along for the ride. Hopefully I will know when I am done...

Saturday I did a 26.2 mile training run. It took a really long time. I was having a rough day. They say you have good days and bad days. I was determined not to quit no matter how long it took me. It took about 1 hour longer then I thought it would take. I even turned down 2 rides. My legs were very sore when I finished but I finished and was very happy that I stuck it out. The people I usually train with were long finished but I got the same satisfaction they did for finishing.

http://photos.jacksonville.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=27660007&event=930362&CategoryID=36903

I even look pretty good in the picture.

Having a clear goal helps you decide when you are done. Now I am going out to my studio to finish the Walnut Vessel.

Don't make em like they used to

We have an outside laundry room. And the light gets left on a lot. We were burning through regular light bulbs left and right. So they had these new CFL light bulbs that were supposed to last a really long time. I broke down and spent the $13 for on light bulb. That was a lot of money for one bulb. But the increased life and lower running cost made it worth a try. Yesterday with much sadness I went to start a load of laundry and the light had burned out. My light bulb had finally died on us. I replaced it with a new CFL bulb but the new ones are only supposed to last 8000 hours which is still a long time. In the picture on the bottom of the bulb I wrote the date I installed the bulb 12/31/2001. 8 Years on one light bulb. When I bought this bulb everyone was saying to replace all your old bulbs with CFL's like most people I wasn't going to throw away perfectly good light bulbs so as the old ones died I upgraded my lights it took a while but eventually we got them all changed out. The manufacturers have figured out that if they kept making the bulbs last as long as my first one they would eventually go out of business. So like everything else they wear out quicker. The good news is the bulbs are now cheaper. I can buy an 8 pack of CFL bulbs for less money, The bad new is I burn through all 8 and my original was still going strong.

Slow week training busy week turning

So I was pretty busy with my wood turning this week. I finished this bowl. It started out as a regular bowl, I then cut out all the leaves and then did some wood burning and finally airbrushed the color onto the leaves. I used transparent paints because I like to be able to see the wood grain in my finished pieces. I also mad a giant bobbin for a customer to wrap copper tubing around. Thursday evening I taught a pen turning class at Woodcraft. Today I started another leaf bowl. This is a technique I am definitely going to explore some more. I have several more themes I want to bring to life.

My training is coming along. I didn't get much running in this week but I am ok with that. I went swimming twice and Spinning once and I am going again in the morning. This morning I got in a 7 mile run in very cold and windy conditions. After last weeks 23 mile run I wanted to take a few days off from running. The marathon in about 6 weeks away and coming up fast. I am looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to warmer weather. I like training when it is warmer. It looks like at least another week of cold weather. I will just keep training.

23 miles

Yesterday we did a 23 mile group training run on the rail trail. It was very cold when we started at 6am and it never really warmed up. I had a little cramping in my leg and walked the last 4 miles with Shannon. We were both struggling a bit at that point. I did complete the full 23 miles. My legs are feeling better today. I am trying to decide if I want to do any training today or just take it easy. That is the furthest I have ever run before. Only 3 more miles to go to hit the marathon distance. In a month and a half we will be running a marathon. I started training for this August 1st so it has been a long journey. I have worn out 2 pairs of shoes since I started running about a year and a half ago. I currently own 2 pairs of shoes that I rotate on my runs. I would have never believed that I would have 2 pairs of running shoes. Basically I have one pair for shorter runs and the other for my longer runs. The first pair is lighter and with less cushioning the second pair is a bit heavier and has more cushioning. 5 hours and 23 miles is a lot of repetitions of your feet striking the ground. I may not be fast but I am out there putting in the miles.

Ironman Miami 70.3

Registration has closed for the half ironman event in Miami. The race is October 30th and it is already full. A Half Ironman is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run Do one after the other. I am hoping to finish my race in around 6 hours. Between now and then I will be doing a lot of training. I am going to continue doing the masters swim at the YMCA twice a week and continue working on my running. I am doing the 26.2 with Donna marathon in February and I am still training for that. We have 2 more long runs scheduled. a 23 and a 26 mile run. I will do these training runs in January and then start tapering for the marathon. I am doing the Tour de Cure bike ride in May as part of my bike training. It is amazing how much time and training goes into one of these races. For my marathon I have done about 400 miles worth of running. I will get in at least another 100 miles before the race. I need to work out a schedule for my training that covers 3 swim sessions, 3 bike sessions and, 3 running sessions. Some of these will be brick workouts. A brick is where you do a swim followed by a run or a bike followed by a run. Your legs feel like bricks the first 1/4 mile or so. You need to do a fairly quick transition to get the full benefit of this type of workout. I have a long way to go in my training. I may not be very fast but I know if I train properly I will be able to complete the race

New trick for counting

Tonight I went to Masters swim. Swimming involves lots of counting. Things like total yardage, Laps, Lengths, How often you breathe. Strokes per length. and sometimes some many strokes with each hand. We swim lots of laps, tonight we swam 160 lengths in a 25 yard pool. One of the exercises was 10x100. Each 100 yards is 4 lengths of the pool. So you count your lengths and then you rest 15 seconds between each set. Mike the guy I was sharing the lane with put his fins and paddles and float in a line at the end of the lane. After each set he would stack the items next to each other. After we swam 5 sets he started stacking the stuff the other way. It was quick and easy to keep track of how many sets we had swum. The simplest things work the best.