Tara Costa from the Biggest Loser

Tara ran a 4:23 NYC Marathon. That's pretty impressive, given the fact that a little over a year ago, she was weighing nearly 300 pounds.

Tara Costa's website.

Time for some Dirty Six!

How about this for a race? I'm thinking about signing up and it's close to home.

My Bounty

Katie sent me my prizes for winning the Biggest Loser Fantasy League and for the Half Marathon Challenge. My wife collects disney pins on the small quilt she made, so I added the two pins to it. You can click on the photo to see the pins closer.

And I also got some spices and seasoning from Maryland.

Thanks Katie!

precipitation, rainwater, drizzle, rainfall, raindrops, driving rain, mizzle, Scotch mist

Mile 1253, Chandler, AZ - And all day long. We don't get to run in the rain much around here, so I suited up and went for a quick run before dinner. It went smoothly, but I hate sweating inside a layer of clothing. I did about 2.3 miles. The garmin doesn't like it when it's overcast, so I had to figure out the mileage when I got home.

Ken from Detroit sent me a tee for winning the Biggest Loser. Here it is. On the back it says, "Getting Foot Traffic in Detroit Since 1983." Pretty cool tee. If you haven't checked out Ken's blog, you should. He's a great guy that helps train Team In Training athletes up in the big mitt.

He's, also, participating in the Race Across Arizona.

Speaking of the Race Across Arizona. I did my first 2.3 miles that can go toward that journey. I'm 2.3 miles from the Mexico border. There tends to be quite a bit of walkers in this part of the state, however, they tend not to be US citizens. I only need to go 407.7 til I get to Utah.

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Running Schedule:

February 17: Lost Dutchman Half Marathon

March 1: Ostrich Festival 5k
March 9: Valley of the Sun Half Marathon

March 29: Laughlin Half Marathon

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Biggest Loser Prizes

I got two tees for winning the Biggest Loser Fantasy League. One from Jeff over at FormerlyFatRunningGuy and one from Emil (Bob) at In Pursuit of a Half Marathon. Both of these blogs are worth reading. Jeff's tee is from the Dazzle Dash race in Columbia, Maryland. Emil's tee is from his home town of Cadillac, Michigan.

Dan from Obrats sent me a reward for having the winning team in the Fantasy Biggest Loser League. TastyKakes from the east coast. These Philly treats can be very addicting. If you haven't been to Dan's blog, you should check it out. It has an all new look to it. I googled Obrats and his info was in the first 9 found items. My blog was the tenth one. He, also stuffed the box with sports pages. I do love to read out town newspapers. I didn't know that high school bowling was such a big deal back east.

Garmin 405!

Coming soon to a store near you is the new garmin. Does anyone want to buy a used garmin 305?

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Running Schedule:

January 26th: Run for the Islands 5k

February 17: Lost Dutchman Half Marathon
March 1: Ostrich Festival 5k
March 9: Valley of the Sun Half Marathon
March 29: Laughlin Half Marathon

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The Biggest Loser Final

What a great final. Contestants lost from 30-50% of their body weight and many of them looked absolutely fabulous. The twins took home all the money. Jim, who was eliminated early, lost over 51% of his weight and took home $100,000. His twin brother, Bill was the last man standing and lost 49.1% of his body weight. He won $250,000.

Because Bill lasted to the end, I ended up winning the Biggest Loser Fantasy League. Here's the standings:

320 Pat's Pounders - Bill,Isabeau Amy, Phil

312 Bob's Waddlers - Neil,Isabeau Kae, Phil
311 Jeff's Former Fatties - Neil,Isabeau Jez, Amy

286 Marcy's Meatrolls - Neil,Hollie Kae, Jerry
267 Hunter's Hopeful's (Margie) -Hollie, Bryan, Ryan, Amy

266 Wim-sical - Isabeau, Bill, Leylye,Jim

250 Dan's Eliminating the Excess - Hollie, Phil, Amy, Ryan
248 Tiggers Hate Honey - Isabeau,Nicole David, Jez
209 Katie's FIRMin8ors - Julie Ryan, Phil, Patty

205Ken's Weight and See - Isabeau,Bryan, Phil, Lezlye
188 Chubikins (Runnergirl) - Ryan,Kae,James,Amy
149 Pokey's Potbellies - Nicole David, Amy

Thank you to all that played. It was the first ever fantasy league for Biggest Loser and it was learning on the fly. I'd love your feedback on how you would change the competition for next year. I think the final four getting so many months to lose more weight kind of gave me an unexpected advantage. Hat's off to Bob and Jeff. There teams did fabulous and they picked great players.

The Greatest Running Shirt Ever

What did I find on my front porch, but a "Tumbleweed Running Club" T-Shirt. You may know that several of us run on Saturdays here in Chandler, AZ. Lisa or Javamom, as many of you know her by, was kind enough to make us, club shirts. What a wonderful Christmas present from a great lad

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Lost in the Dark Rainy Nite

Mile 1124, Mesa, AZ -My wife had a quilt guild Holiday party and my daughter had a youth group meeting at church. I had to get some running in. It was overcast and colddddd. About 47 degrees.

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So, time to tape Biggest Loser, take my daughter to her meeting and run in Dobson Ranch. I told my daughter to call me if the meeting was going to finish early. I figured I had about an hour to get a good run in. I headed south along the lake and around two miles I decided to start heading back, but I was going to go a new route. One I knew.

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Then I got the call. My daughter telling me the meeting was over. I told her I was a mile and a half away and I would be there shortly. I gave her my car keys before I left, just in case this happened. She's 14. I figured she could wait in the car. Listen to tunes. She got in and got bored. Made shadow puppets on the car ceiling. Read the owners manual and used it to make up celebrity kid names (I'm not sure either). Then tried to turn the radio on, which set off the security system. She had to get the youth leader to help her turn it off. The youth leader was still surprised that Emily was there. She waited with Emily.

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Back on the run, I decided to take a short cut. This isn't good when there's a lake in the way. If you look at the map, you'll see in the circle the loop I took that didn't get me anywhere. I started near Guadalupe Road and then ended up back there when I thought I was a mile north. I called Emily to say it would be a bit longer. I had my Treo that has mapping software in it. I used it a bit, but it's not real clear and the lake got in the way. And it started raining. It's amazing how I can be on a major road that I've driven on a million times and not know north from south. I was confused and wanted to get back to the church. I guess I should have said a prayer at this time, but being a guy I didn't want to ask for directions, not even from him. I got pretty disoriented, but I knew that Guadalupe ran west/east and if I ran one way I would either get to Dobson or the 101 and then I could go north. But, I wanted to find the short way, not the easy way.

As you can see it took me over 5 miles to get back and over an hour anyway. If Emily didn't call me I would have gotten back around the same time anyway. Oh well. It was a good run and made a little more exciting because I was worried that I was keeping Becky, the youth leader there waiting for me. I knew she wouldn't leave Emily alone. I thought about calling my wife. I knew her party was ending around the same time and she could go over and wait with Emily. I found out when we got home, that Amy's party was in Dobson Ranch and I ran right past it.

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I finally got home and Emily had a good time telling her mom about her adventures with my Honda Pilot. I then got to watch the Biggest Loser. I really am getting into this show. I like all the contestants.

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So here's what we know. Isabeau, Bill, Hollie and Julie (all Black team members) are in the finals. I have Isabeau and Bill on my fantasy team. Neil is gone. Which hurts the fantasy teams lead by Bob and Jeff. Bob has a 26 pound lead on me and I'm the only one that can catch him. We both have Isabeau, so she's cancelled out. I have Bill and Bob doesn't have anyone else. The finals are next week, but I believe there's a four week spread between this weeks weigh in and next weeks. It was taped up until next week. The four finalists had to go home and lose weight on their own for the final four weeks. Then they weigh in. If Bill can lose 6.5 pounds per week, which would get him down to 178, then Bob and my fantasy teams would tie. If Bill loses more, I win. If he loses less, Bob wins.

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Can Bill lose the 26 pounds? Make your predictions here.

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Now, who's going to be the Biggest Loser on the show? So far Isabeau and Hollie have lost 24% of there body weight. Bill has lost 36%. Julie has lost 23%. I think Bill has a pretty good shot at it.

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Now Neil being eliminated this week is a blessing in disguise for him. The eliminated player who has lost the most weight gets $100,000. Neil has a great shot at that. If he was in the final four, hew would have been behind Bill at 32% of body weight lost.

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So, I predict that Bill will win the Biggest Loser prize of $250,000 and Neil will edge out Kae to win the $100,000.

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Running Schedule:

January 13th: Rock N Roll Full Marathon

January 26th: Run for the Islands 5k

February 17: Lost Dutchman Half Marathon

March 1: Ostrich Festival 5k
March 9: Valley of the Sun Half Marathon

March 29: Laughlin Half Marathon

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A Season to Run

Mile 1071, Chandler,AZ -I don't have all your addresses, so here's a Christmas card from The Monahan's to all our running blogging friends. Can you guess how I made the christmas card above?

Saturday was spent hauling christmas boxes out of the garage to the living room and then putting the plastic tree together, hanging the lights that I can never seem to get all lit on the tree and putting christmas decorations all around the living room. It looks really nice and I'm glad I did it. But, I haven't been in the living room since and that's where all the decorations are. I can't even go buy a gallon of that peppermint chip ice cream and sit in their watching the lights go on and off.

So, I did the next best thing. I decorated my blog. I hope you like the picture of the running santas from Las Vegas. This Saturday they are competeing with liverpool, England to see who can set a worlds record for the most running santas.

Oh yeah, I got a 10 1/2 mile run in with the gals - Karen and Lisa on saturday morning. It was a good run with lots of talk, but we didn't get lost or run over, so not much to mention. It was cold, but no snow, just a bit below 50 to start.

Tonights run was done all by my lonesome. I ran around the neighborhood and then over to Desert Breeze Lake, around it 1 1/2 times and then back home for 5.27 miles in 59:01. A pace of 11:11. It's funny, my garmin data is stored on software from two different compaines- Garmin Training Center and SportsTrack. I get two different readings. SportsTrack is always a few tenths of a mile better.

The Biggest Loser Fantasy League

I guess because of the writer's strike we get 2 hours of BL every week. I'm liking it a lot. Bryan, I'm sad to say has been voted off. He impressed me a lot. There's just 6 players left.

Last week I made a math error. Since Kae was eliminated I forgot to give Bob her last few pounds. Of course, those pounds meant the difference between 2nd place an first for Bob. Jeff is in second and both of them have the same two players - Neil and Isabeau. There's no way for Jeff to pass Bob. If Neil gets eliminated than I might have a chance to pass both of them. but, it looks like the fantasy league will finish with Bob first, Jeff second and me third.

Click on the BL fantasy league to get the up to the minute standings.

The Biggest Loser Week 11

So, now Kae is gone and we are down to 7 contestants. All have lost incredible amounts of weight. Neil and Bill have lost over 100 pounds each.

As far as our fantasy league is going, everyone has one or tw0 players left except for Team Chubikins lead by Jennifer. She's out of players and has finished the league with 188 points. Jeff and Bob lead the league but have the same players, Neil and Isabeau. Which means Bob can't overtake Jeff, unless one of them makes a trade. I'm in third and I have Bill instead of Neil. The only way I can win is if Bill loses 24 more pounds than Neil over the last weeks of the show. Which could happen if Neil gets eliminated soon. Hunter's Hopefuls and Marcy's Meatballs still have an outside chance. I doubt anyone else has a fat chance of winning. Sorry bad pun.

Here's the standings after Week 11(players eliminated are in grey):


237 Jeff's Former Fatties - Neil,Isabeau Jez, Amy,
235 Bob's Waddlers - Neil,Isabeau Kae, Phil,
213 Pat's Pounders - Bill,Isabeau Amy, Phil,
208 Hunter's Hopeful's (Margie) - Bryan, Hollie Ryan, Amy
206 Marcy's Meatrolls - Neil,Hollie Kae, Jerry,
195 Dan's Eliminating the Excess - Hollie, Phil, Amy, Ryan,
192 Tiggers Hate Honey - Isabeau,Nicole David, Jez,
188 Chubikins (Runnergirl) - Ryan,Kae,James,Amy
159 Wim-sical - Isabeau, Bill, Leylye,Jim
154 Katie's FIRMin8ors - Julie Ryan, Phil, Patty,
152 Ken's Weight and See - Bryan,Isabeau Phil, Lezlye
142 Pokey's Potbellies - Nicole David, Amy

The Biggest Loser Week 9

Jeff passes Bob for the first time and Margie jumps up in the standings.

So what do you think about The Biggest Loser this year? Who's your favorite and who do you think will win?

And how come they can lose 5-15 pounds a week and I can't lose 1. Just one a week and I'll be happy.

The Biggest Loser Week Six

139 Bob's Waddlers - Kae, Phil, Neil,Isabeau
135Jeff's Former Fatties - Neil, Jez, Amy,Isabeau
133Dan's Eliminating the Excess - Phil, Amy, Ryan,Hollie
128 Chubikins (Runnergirl) - James,Ryan,Amy,Kae
125 Pat's Pounders - Amy, Phil, Bill,Isabeau
120 Tiggers Hate Honey - David, Jez, Isabeau,Nicole
117 Katie's FIRMin8ors - Ryan, Phil, Patty,Julie
114 Marcy's Meatrolls - Kae, Jerry, Neil,Hollie
114 Hunter's Hopeful's (Margie) - Bryan, Ryan, Amy, Hollie
94 Wim-sical - Isabeau, Bill, Leylye,Jim
93 Ken's Weight and See - Bryan, Phil, Lezlye,Isabeau
78 Pokey's Potbellies - Nicole, David, Amy

Bob keeps the lead and Jeff passes up Dan. But, Phil the player got eliminated and that's going to hurt many of us. I can't believe Bryan voted for Phil. This is where Phil and Amy needed to team up and eliminate Bryan. Oh well. Hope everyone enjoyed the show. Like they say, 'it's a game'.

The Biggest Loser Week Four

Biggest Loser Fantasy League Standings

The Twins Bill and Jim lost 24 pounds total. Neil gave us 11 pounds and the Red Team could only muster 9 pounds combined. Speaking of which, does anyone want Amy? I'll trade her for anyone.



Did you see the Subway commercial? The Blue Team went to eat their and they showed the menu and talked about how great it was during the show. Did Subway pay for that? I hope so.



This week everyone gets to pick another player. Pick someone that will lose a lot of weight, but will also be around to the end. As the weeks go by, we are all going to start losing players. If you go below 2 teammates, you can pick someone up off the free agent list. That means the player must not be on another team. Julie and Hollie are the only remaining free agents.



But, this week you can pick anyone. I'm picking Jim.

Edit: you cannot have more than two men or two women. I goofed and changed from Jim to Isabeau.

total pounds lost for each contestant:

Bill 49

Jim 47
Neil 46

Phil 45
Jez 37
Kae 34

Ryan 33
David 31

Bryan 27

Isabeau 26

Nicole 21
Amy 19

Hollie 19

Julie 15

The Biggest Loser Week Three

Dan takes the lead in week 3, while Marcy falls way behind. Several teams are down to just two contestants, but after next week we all get to add a player. I've got some big questions and the latest standings on the "Biggest Loser Fantasy League" link to the right. Click on it and comment there, inquiring minds want to know.

The Biggest Loser Week Two

Week two is in the books. See the standings and results at The Biggest Fantasy League post.



For those not interested in this show, can you guess which sports team stayed at this hotel for spring training?

Any Guesses?

The Longest Yard

Actually 15,840 yards. That's what I ran today. I got up at 5:10 am to get my long run out of the way before it got hot. It's 97 degrees as I right this. My plan, as you can see on the map, was to run to Desert Breeze Lake, then past the Intel Plant, down the Gila Springs running trail and lake, down to the path that runs through Twelve Oaks and then north along side the Stellar Airpark. I needed to add a little bit to this run so I did the 'ladder' for the first time. You can see that part of the run on the map. It's a series of switch backs (without the elevation gain) near my home. All in all, I got in my 9 miler in 2:11 and some change. I hadn't run for this long since my last half marathon back in March.

This time, however I walked almost 40% of the time. I don't know why, but I felt tired after 2 miles. I thought about turning around and just doing a 4 miler. I'm hoping cooler weather will allow me to go further. I kept going and did walk breaks often. I ate some shot bloks and that seemed to give me a little bit more 'get up and go'. They say the long run is about time on your feet. If that is the case, then I got time on my feet and my 10 miler in two weeks won't be as difficult. Hopefully, it will be cooler.
The Biggest Loser Fantasy League: Week two is almost here. Most of you have picked your next two players. If you haven't you need to before Tuesday. My picks are going to be Bill on the black team and Phil. We don't know how much the black team lost the first week. So, if anyone picks someone on the black team and we cannot determine how much they lost each week, I will take an average. If you want to see who picked who, go to the link to the right of my posts titled 'The Biggest Loser Fantasy League'.

Do You Know What This Is?

I like to read beth's blog Fake Plastic Fish, a blog about our consumption of plastic and one persons quest to eliminate as much plastic from her life as possible. She's also a runner that just did the Disneyland Half Marathon down in Anahiem earlier this month. She talks about plastic things that we really don't need and will probably end up in a landfill for the next few centuries. Here' one I own. Do you know what it is? Hint, it's a kitchen item that we use, but could live without too.

About a month ago I got read of the word verification and braced myself for the onslaught of spammers. None. That's right, no mass mailings to my blog. I'll let you know if things change, but you might consider dropping your word verification. You might get more comments.

The Biggest Loser Week ONE

Who's winning - Dan's Eliminating Excess.

For complete standings click on "The Biggest Loser Fantasy League" here or at the right under my blogroll.

Now it's time to pick two more teammates. Remember you cannot have more than 2 of the same sex.

The Biggest Loser is on Tonight

It starts tonight. However, I don't think there will be a weight loss announced. If there is, you will be credited with it. We have 12 teams playing. Watch tonight and start thinking about who your other players are going to be. I will create some kind of spreadsheet to track all this and so I won't have to retype the results every week.

But so far we have:

Pat's Pounders - Amy
Marcy's Meatrolls - Kae
Wim-sical - Isabeau
Jeff's Former Fatties - Neil
Dan's Eliminating the Excess - Phil
Bob's Waddlers - Kae
Ken's Weight and See - Bryan
Katie's FIRMin8ors - Ryan
Tiggers Hate Honey - David
Chubikins (Runnergirl) - James
Pokey's Potbellies - Nicole
Hunter's Hopeful's (Margie) - Bryan.

Fantasy Biggest Loser Update

Our League consists of:

Pat's Pounders - Amy
Marcy's Meatrolls - Kae
Wim-sical - Isabeau
Jeff's Former Fatties - Neil
Dan's Eliminating the Excess - Phil
Bob's Waddlers - Kae
Ken's Weight and See - Bryan
Katie's FIRMin8ors - Ryan
Tiggers Hate Honey - David


Hopefully, we will get many more league members. Jeff asked what are the stakes? Good question. He suggested that the winner gets something from the other teams. I like this ideal. The item should not be too expensive, it should be something from your neck of the woods. For instance, he lives in Baltimore the home of Underarmour; so he would send some UA stuff. Again, not to expensive. I live in Arizona, so I could send a minature cactus, a scorpion in a paperweight or maybe some running gear with an arizona theme. You get the ideal. I will assume everyone's ok with this plan. If not, let me know. Again, this league is for the fun of it, more so than the loot.

Bob's Waddlers had a couple questions. You can lose a player. So when picking, choose players that can lose lots of weight, but also will stick around. You can trade players to other teams. I might trade a 'higher loser' to Bob for someone I feel won't get voted off. You can also trade for a player that no one has. Let's say no one picks Amber. You don't want Kae anymore. You can make that trade with the 'free agent pool', as long as you are trading an active player. You have to trade guy for guy and girl for girl.

All teams must have at least two players. So if you go below that you are allowed to take a player off the free agent list. If there's no one on the free agent list, then you are out of luck. Towards the end of the show, when there are less than 5 contestants, everyone will be shorthanded. What happens if they bring someone back, like they did last year? If that player was on your team and you have not replaced them, you get all their weight loss. If a player is sent home, they are still on your team. They just aren't counted and cannot be replaced from the free agent pool unless you are down to one player. You can trade them. If I was down to two lousy players and I wanted someone from the free agent list, I could trade with J-wim for a 'player sent home' and then since I only had one active, I could release one of my 'players sent home' for a free agent. Hope that makes sense.

If you haven't figured this out yet. I am making up the rules as we go. I'm sure at some point I will make a rule that doesn't work with another rule. If so, let me know. I will try to be as fair as possible. If you would like your weight loss shown next to your teams, I will show it. I will not count it and you do not have to list your weight. If you do list your weight, weigh in as close to the show day as possible.

Finally, talk smack, have fun and visit each other's blogs. All of you have great blogs. Blog about this league and get fans. If you have fans and want me to list them, I will. I will, also send a 'press release' to NBC and the Biggest Loser. This might just be the first fantasy league for them.

If you haven't joined our league or want to know more about it see the previous post.

KENDO

Last night Tyler and I went to our first Kendo class. It is a Chandler Recreation Department class on Japanese Swordsmenship. I am part Japanese (yes, theirs lots you don't know about me) and Tyler (like all teenagers) likes to play with weapons. We practiced in a junior high wrestling room with the mats. We learned the first Kata. Sensei Mark demonstrated on me. It was a series of attacks that I was supposed to block with my sword. Eventhought I knew where the attacks would be, I had a tough time of it. Since, my sensei did not stop, I kept getting hit. Left, right, high , low. And I paid for this class?

It was a good workout. My left knee was in agony the whole time. I tried to run afterwards, but could only manage about a mile of run/walk. I got 2 hours of Kendo practice in and about 15-20 minutes of run/walk in. I broke a sweat, so that counts as a workout and so I am now at 57 days. If I reach 100 days I plan to revise my workout minimum.

Fantasy Biggest Loser

Who wants to play "Fantasy Biggest Loser"? The premiere starts next Tuesday. There are 18 contestants listed on the Biggest Loser website. Each person will get to pick 2 guys and 2 gals. You'll need to pick one person before the show even starts. Go to the website and pick from the pictures. No info at this time. After the first show you'll get to pick 2 more teammates. After the fourth show you'll pick your final player. You get any weight they lose while they are on your team. You can also trade teammates with other teams. But you can only make 3 trades during this season and only players that are still on the show. So, you can't trade Manny that got kicked off for tony that's still on. You must maintain a 2 guy/2 girl split at all times. Both teams trading most leave me a comment 24 hours before the next show. More than one team can have the same team member. So, Amber could be on several teams.

If you want to play, you need to pick your 1st teammate by Sunday, September 9th. The winning team is the team that has lost the most weight.

I'll start things off with picking Amy (my wife's name). My team name will be Pat's Pounders.

If you think of anything I haven't let me know and as commissioner I will make a ruling. If you can promote this on your blogs I'd appreicate it. It would be great to have over 10 teams.

Did the streak continue?

Last night Tyler and I went to our first Kendo class. We got to make a shinai (pictures following) and then I had a 9 pm appointment to list a home (Realtors work strange hours). So I was in trouble of not exercising. The entire drive home I was contemplating whether to run or just ride the exercise bike. I got home at 10:30 pm and jumped on the bike. Not sure if the bike's clock works correctly. It kept beeping and reset at one point. I got at least 37 minutes in, so that counts for day 56. The downside was I was hot, sweating and I had trouble sleeping. I felt like I was sleeping in a sauna. Tonight will be difficult too. I need to run and Tyler and I have another Kendo class. At least this time the class will be about the sport and not making the practice sword. I'll run after wards.