Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Happy Birthday Jay!

Projected Finish Times

The other day I ran 7 miles in 56 minutes, right at 8:00 minute mile pace. I was fairly impressed with myself, especially considering the major hills on this particular run. I entered the run into the RunnersWorld.com Training Calculator and here are the results:

Based on a 7 miles race at 00:56:00, your projected finish times for the following distances should be:



the mile 7:07
3000m(3k) 13:47
3200m(about 2 miles) 14:45
5000m(5k) 23:40
8000m(8k) 38:58
5 miles 39:12
10,000m(10k) 49:21
ten miles 1:21:44
a half marathon 1:48:49
a marathon 3:46:52

Well I know I can run a mile much faster then 7:07, and I've ran a 5k faster then 23:40...but I doubt I could run a marathon in 3:46 right now, or even a half marathon in 1:48...Should I give it a try?

The Distance Finish Times calculator calculates a predicted time at a distance for you based on a time you provided for another distance. It uses the formula T2 = T1 x (D2/D1)1.06 where T1 is the given time, D1 is the given distance, D2 is the distance to predict a time for, and T2 is the calculated time for D2.
The formula was developed by Pete Riegel and published first in a slightly different form in Runner's World, August 1977, in an article in that issue entitled "Time Predicting." The formula was refined for other sports (swimming, bicycling, walking,) in an article "Athletic Records and Human Endurance," also written by Pete Riegel, which appeared in American Scientist, May-June 1981.


You can access the training calculator here























Monday, October 27, 2008

Avatars

What do you think of my little running Avatar on the right?

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Must read blog!

Brittan Smith, Harvard long jumper extraordinaire, will be keeping a blog on gocrimson.com about her senior year on the track team. Her first entry is a must read!




Brittan's blog entry here

Speaking out

I remember the morning of September 11, 2001. It was my sister's 3rd birthday and I was driving to school with my mom and we turned on the radio. It was then that we heard that the world trade center had been attacked. We thought maybe it was some "spoof" radio show, we couldn't believe it, it was so incredulous. When I got to school and everyone was talking about it I couldn't believe it was real. We watched the news all day at school. Shocked.

I remember when I first heard the announcement of the Patriot Act. I went into the basketball team room at lunch to listen to the announcement, it was scary. Very ominous and scary to think about the ramifications of enacting such legislation without restraint. I remember telling myself, this is bigger then the attack on the twin towers, this act goes against the fundamentals of our country.

I was in high school when the Iraq war started, I remember heated debates my senior year about WMD, the UN involvement, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and George Bush. I wasn't really part of these heated debates because I didn't fully understand the international situation, I didn't feel that I was educated enough to argue. I did know that I opposed war in general, and that Osama bin Laden was not purported to be in Iraq, so it didn't make sense to invade Iraq.

I can't say I really had a judgment about Colin Powell, except my surprise that he was a Republican and the sense that he was a puppet for Bush and Cheney. I can't say that I listened to Colin Powell's speech to the UN at the time either.

I do have an opinion on him now, and it stems directly from his quote earlier this week on Meet the Press, in which he confronts the ugly intolerance displayed by the Republicans constant association of Senator Obama with the religion of Islam:
"I'm also troubled by…what members of the party say, and is permitted to be said, such things as, 'Well you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, 'He is not a Muslim, he's a Christian, he's always been a Christian.'

But the really right answer is, 'What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?'

The answer's 'No, that's not America.'
Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion he's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America."


Thank you for saying what has been needed to be said for some time now.

For the video and complete transcript of Colin Powell's recent interview, click here



Words to live by

"I think most people understand that if you're not caring for your family, then you're probably not the kind of person who's going to be caring for other people."

Senator Barack Obama on why he chose to visit his grandmother in Hawaii with less then 2 weeks left in the presidential election.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

"Dear Talula" film

"Dear Talula" is an documentary produced by and starring Lori Benson about her experience with breast cancer. Lori was 38 at the time of her diagnosis and had a little one-year old girl named Talula.

The documentary came across as incredibly authentic, delving into the complexities of learning about treatment, losing your breast, the experience of facing so many unknowns, and the complications of being a mother all at the same time. I highly recommend taking the time to watch this 35 minute film.

www.DearTalula.com

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Laguna Beach


About to enjoy lunch at Las Brisas

Good company

My Grandpa and Aunt Mary Ann relaxing this morning

Saturday, October 18, 2008

On my way to my Grandparents

Look at my pretty plane!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Statistics and such

  • 98% of small business make less then $250,000, which means that 98% of small businesses will get a tax break when Senator Obama is elected President of our incredible country
  • Earmarks account for 1/2 of 1% of the federal goverment's budget
  • Transportation accounts for 30% of US energy use
To put some rumors to rest: Obama is NOT instituting a single-payer health care system. Given the political history of health care that would be bound to fail. Taxing the employer-based health insurance we currently have is dumb, and yes, the projections that this plan of McCain's will allow over 20 million more American's will lose their current insurance is probably a 'best case scenario' projection.

PS. When John McCain used figurative quotations when talking about women's health with regards to partial birth abortions, he made me so angry. Senator McCain, way to blow off women's health rights with your pathetic attempt at sarcasm and complete belittling of women and health care providers. This is another example of your campaign's lack of understanding of women and what we think. We won't just vote for a woman because we're a woman, and yah, those that don't want abortion to be legal still want to be able to choose to live if their situation comes to the dire decision to terminate pregnancy for their own health and not be sent to jail. You really know how to push my buttons!

19 more days until I can vote for Barack Obama!!!!!!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

BreastCancerTrials.org Press Release


UCSF Launches Nationwide Clinical Trial Matching Web Site for Breast Cancer

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., October 14, 2008 /PRNewswire/— The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care today launched BreastCancerTrials.org, a free, non-profit, clinical trial matching service that provides nationwide information for individuals diagnosed with or at risk for breast cancer.

BreastCancerTrials.org is the only clinical trial matching service dedicated exclusively to breast cancer, with an online database that includes information about clinical trials taking place at more than 1100 medical facilities across the country. The site is an outgrowth of a successful regional pilot initiated by the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and patient advocates. The nationwide launch of BreastCancerTrials.org is made possible by a grant from The Safeway Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Safeway, Inc.

"BreastCancerTrials.org is an exciting, win-win development for the breast cancer community," said Laura Esserman, M.D., Director of the UCSF Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care and the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. "Every advance in our understanding and treatment of breast cancer has come from clinical trial results. The more we can empower our patients to find out about and participate in trials, the faster we will be able to complete trials, and the sooner this new knowledge will translate into better care and outcomes for all patients."

By making information about trials easy to find, BreastCancerTrials.org hopes to make consideration of clinical trial participation the norm rather than the exception. By helping patients find and evaluate trials for which they may be eligible, and by encouraging and facilitating patient enrollment in trials, BreastCancerTrials.org intends to increase the rate at which new treatments and procedures are made available to all breast cancer patients, as well as those at heightened risk for developing the disease.

"I made the decision to enroll in a clinical trial because I wanted to explore all of my treatment options," said breast cancer survivor and BreastCancerTrials.org user Isabel Hemming of Los Angeles, California. "Through BreastCancerTrials.org, it was easy to find several trials that were seeking women with the type of breast cancer that I was diagnosed with, and -- after talking to my doctor -- I was able to identify one that I was eligible for. I hope that my participation in the trial may one day result in improved treatment for other women like me."

BreastCancerTrials.org users enter a detailed health history, which matches them to trials that are specific to their personal health situation. Information on whom to contact for further discussion about a trial and additional criteria for enrollment is also provided. Individuals can use BreastCancerTrials.org on a one-time basis or store their health history on secure servers for continual matching to newly listed trials. Information stored on BreastCancerTrials.org is never sold or shared with external parties.

According to the Clinical Research Roundtable at the Institute of Medicine, very few patients are currently aware that they are eligible for participation in research studies, making recruitment challenging for trial sites.1 By helping individuals evaluate trials as a routine option for care, BreastCancerTrials.org hopes to increase the rate at which new treatments and procedures are developed and made available to individuals at all stages of their disease.

About BreastCancerTrials.org

BreastCancerTrials.org operates as an independent non-profit corporation.

BreastCancerTrials.org was initially co-developed as a regional pilot by the National Cancer Institute and the University of California, San Francisco Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care (COE-BCC), an integral program of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, and a core program of the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health and the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. With the success of the pilot, BreastCancerTrials.org was incorporated as a separate non-profit corporation dedicated to the continuing delivery of this service.

For further information, visit the site at www.BreastCancerTrials.org.

About Breast Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society's Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2007-2008, breast cancer is a progressive and potentially deadly disease that will affect about 182,460 women in 2008. About 40,480 women will die from breast cancer this year, and there are about 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. Additional research is critical and necessary to ensure that the millions affected by or at risk for breast cancer receive the proper treatment they need, according to ACS.

About the University of California, San Francisco

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For more information on UCSF, visit www.ucsf.edu.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Get out the vote! (part 2)

We gave a kid a free Obama sign because he didn't have a
dollar....Look where he put it! Amy and I have been registering tons
of people!!!!!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Playing around

I just learned how to send blog posts directly from my iPhone!

Medicins Sans Frontieres


I started reading Hope in Hell last night, an inside look into the humanitarian relief organization Doctors without Borders. Here are some of my reactions to the first 100 pages:
  • I didn't realize that MSF employed twice as many local health workers as so-called expats.
  • I was sickened to hear about some of the trauma they treat and the causes, children shot in the hands by soldiers, amputees from mortar attacks, extreme dehydration and malnutrition.
  • I think the burn out rate for these health workers would be really high. It sounds like their living conditions are okay, but the work is basically 24/7, and you never have enough resources
  • The work interests me, perhaps not being directly in a war zone, but the refugee camps, the community clinics they are building, this is something I'm drawn to.
  • It also terrifies me at the same time
  • Being a surgeon in this situations would be really helpful to a lot of people, you could save a lot of people's lives.
  • Reading these personal stories of doctors really inspires me, one of the most compelling reasons to become a doctor is exactly what doctors do every day in MSF, they can save people's lives with their intellect, skill, and technical knowledge.
  • My statement still stands that there is nothing more privileged or cool in the world then having these skills and using them for good.
  • Most of all, I was deeply saddened. Saddened that this type of organization is needed. Saddened that so many people are in such brutal living conditions, unfairly and unjustly, with no fault of their own.
www.msf.org
A reason that MSF is able to stay independent is largely thanks to individual donations. If you're interested in donating, learn more here

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Olympia

I'm watching Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia right now. 80 years ago they sure focused a lot more on the field events! I watched the finals of the womens javelin throw just now, not to brag or anything, but, I WOULD HAVE WON THE 1932 OLYMPICS!!!!!! By like a meter. How cool is that???? Jesse Owens is about to win the long jump, really really cool.