Sunday, August 30, 2009

Welding, Grinding, and 5Ks

Ok, I know I said I would be timelier with updates, but unless you're reading this within a few minutes of me posting it, then you may have the same excuse/reason I have: you're busy.
I have a few moments of respite before my next semester starts so I thought I would throw my last big project for the house up here and maybe a hint of what's to come (hopefully). The last update left us half way finished with the gate. Well, I'm happy to report that it's complete as of the end of May. Right, right, that was 3 months ago and the start of my summer break from school, blah, blah, blah. I have my reasons (couldn't find the pictures being one of them).


The big thing I got out of the project was now I know how to weld. Well, at least I know some of the basics and my welds were getting better after having to do 24 of them per gate side. Three things I learned about wire-fed welding: Gloves are a necessity (not an option), the speed of the wire is your friend or a deeply despised enemy, and finally that the light from the welder WILL give you a sun burn so wear long-sleeves. About grinding: If you weld well, you don't have to grind. The more you need to grind your welds, the more practice you need welding. All-in-all a very worth-while skill to have and I'm very thankful from my Dad and Steve's help for the pointers and not laughing at me too much or at least so I couldn't hear.

There was much work with getting the frame of the gate constructed and welded together. The next step was to wipe it down and prime them and paint them the final color: white. Here is when another time thief conspired against me. Most times I had available to paint, it was too windy. Finally after a month or so of waiting I just started. I must say, waiting for a non-windy day for spray painting would have been much less maddening. After a couple of days of priming, waiting for paint to dry and then painting a couple of coats the gates were ready and that's when I call my Dad and Steve back to help. The process of removing the old gate when remarkably quickly (regretably so fast that I don't think pictures were taken) and next start the mounting of the gate portions to their respective hinges. We opted for welding the hinge to the gate as that is more permanent and sturdy than just a bolt. I took a few extra minutes to weld shut some holes in the hinges to eliminate any issue with standing water. After the gates were mounted, I took a small strip of wood and screwed it with non-rusting self-tapping screws creating a fascia board of sorts to which I could mount the fence boards. A short time later, the gate was finished!



In other, maybe less interesting, but still about me news: I've started back into the fitness after taking about 8 months off and thinking that since I was eating right and exercising that I could relax that train of thought. I must say that I was wrong. The weight does come back when you stop the exercise and eat what you want for a few months. It wasn't horrible, but I did notice it and for the past few months have been turning up the dial for the exercise and maintaining the healthy eating. The weight loss is slow, but steady (only about 5 pounds in 3 months), but I've lost about 2-3% body fat so there is some good progress there. Another change from my prior exercise regimn that I'm doing is that I'm doing my cardiovascular around my neighborhood and not at the gym. One thing I found out is that my normal jogging pace is about 20% faster outside than on the treadmill so I'm getting more out of my time jogging. I've pushed the distance and pushed for doing the shorter distances quicker resulting in interval training. Now, keep in mind, this is from the same person that hated any kind of jogging in high school and didn't know much about how to pace yourself for jogging distances. My HS mile times were routinely around 9 minutes. I'm up to 3.5 miles non-stop for distance. The recent heat waves have put a damper on my attempt to run it with any type of pushing for speed. Two weeks ago, I entered my first 5K run and had a few goals for this. Firstly, I wanted to finish and I wanted to finish without walking any portion. The second goal that I may have had little control over myself was that I was hoping to finish in the top 50% of the racers and in top half of my age bracket. I must say I was successful and reached everyone of those goals! In fact, out of the 58 males between 35 and 39, I finished in 18th place. You can see the stats (and pictures of me on the course!) here: http://www.afchalf.com/cgi/results.pl (Do a search for race bid 10146 for the 5K). Those results definitely aren't going to win any medals, but this was a very significant achievement considering what my health status was a few years ago. I drug Kari down there with me and she was very supportive and I loved having her cheer me on when I started and she looked so happy when I finished. It really gave me a boost of energy having her there. I hope she can make it to more of these events with me. I'm doing my next 5K in October for the Light the Night Against Crime and I've conscripted a couple of friends to run with me. Gradually I will be increasing my mileage and am working towards doing a half-marathon hopefully in April or possibly late January, if I can get the training down (10-weeks, hard work). Stay tuned for an update to a December charity request from me for another 5K; either in the form of joining me on the 5K or chipping in for a worthy cause.