Lassoing Some Savings

Key Words: Quasi-Oprah, Yasso, Squeezing of Furniture
Word Count: 607
Likely Next Topic: Travel Plans

Today was sprints on Lamar High's nice, 400m track. "Headband Man", the Fall sprint coach, is now advocating that we do Yasso sprints; the theory goes like this - take your marathon goal time in hours and minutes (e.g., 4:30), and do the sprints of a 10x800mx400m in that amount of minutes and seconds. So if I can do 10 repeats of 800m, with each at or under 4:30, then I should be able to do a marathon in quasi-Oprah time (about 4:30)! Runner's World had a Yasso article this month, and they said it isn't based on physiology, it's just a tough workout with some mathematical appeal.

So off I went, doing our 4x800mx400m Yassos, hoping for each to be around 4:15. As seems to happen when I run with Anna, I ran the first a bit fast, 3:56. I then forced some time off, and ran the next three in 4:20, 4:16, and 4:13. I think doing the Yasso will be a challenge in this heat, but I'm going to go for it; gotta build from four repeats to ten! The weather looks to be building up for rain on Thursday, but I hope to belt out a five or so mile tempo run if possible.

On to moolah, cheese, cash, green backs. As I stated before, my rent is going up $62.50 a month. Since this is a static or non-varying cost, it becomes a fun exercise to try and eliminate an equal amount of other static, non-varying costs. My philosophy is that I'll do this if I can do it without changing my quality of life; unless I'm saving up for a house or something big like that, I'm not switching from Shiner to Schlitz ... it ain't gonna happen. Jon pointed out that I could probably save this amount by taking lunch to work, and he's probably right. However, that requires pro activeness, and I know I'll fall off the wagon; better to make it something where I don't have to think. Thus far, I've eliminated my unused NetFlix subscription, $10, switched to Verizon, $8, and Comcast is indeed Comcastic, as my bill went down by $2. $20 bucks a month, a nice $240 a year, with no pain; Verizon is actually better than Cingular, life is better! The big enchilada of money savings is my storage unit; I pay $32.50 a month to store a couch, a dresser, and my kick ass fake ficus tree. So I went to the storage unit Monday, measured everything, and think I've found places in the apt. to shoehorn all my stuff. It will be a tight squeeze, but for $32.50 a month, I'll squeeze. So if I can get the moving van from the storage place on Saturday, I'll follow my 15 mile run with an hour or so of manual labor (and why do I wonder how I hurt myself).

This "squeezing of furniture" will get me close to my goal; a switch to DSL, which I may not have the heart to do, is the last step in saving the $62.50 a month. Regardless of that switch, I'm going to have to either toss or give away a Wal-Mart bookcase and trendy but somewhat broken desk to make room for the new stuff. If some wants this, let me know. Better yet, if some wants to pay me $10 a month to rent it, so I don't have to switch to DSL, let me know ASAP :)

Quality Miles

Topic: All The Miles From Here to There
Key Words: Incontinence, Virgin, Curse or Hex
Word Count: 599
Next Likely Topic: Saving $62.50 A Month - A Progress Report

Happy Birthday to Lynette who turned somewhere around 25 or so today (hee hee, welcome to the club :). I personally think that until at least until around 50, there's something good to look forward too. At some point though, the shadows of incontinence and apple sauce for dinner loom large; until then, many good milestones to pass.

No running since Monday of last week because of a) the nasty weather, b) a bit too much sympathy for my hammy in my right knee after sprints, and c) VEGAS BABY, OH YEAH! My return to gambling after a respectable hiatus went fairly well; I lost $36 over the weekend, and I'm quite sure I drank more than that, so I finished in the black. Too give a nod to timing and lady luck, my only winning session came at the craps table when I stumbled across a college kid who had clearly never played before ("What are these dice things?"). Legend has it that "Craps Virgins" will made loads of money for you, since the casino gods bestow them with luck to hook them into the game for life. This kid got his share of luck, as he was unable to do anything other than make me and everyone else money! So keep plugging away at whatever you are doing, you never know when a Craps Virgin will come along!

Back to running. I looked over the remaining weeks until Chicago; they are getting fewer and fewer. Since I have a short amount of time, and since I'm nursing my 27 year old body (you know 27'ish) through this training season, I'm going to focus on "quality miles". I don't really care how many miles I get in a given week, I just want some variety, and I want them to count for something. Therefore, the random four miler at Memorial that would likely do little than anger a body part is probably out, at least until I feel more capable. Instead, I'll try to cross train by doing things like riding my real bike, the stationary bike, or slogging away on the elliptical machine; these things will give me some aerobic kick, but none of them have proven to anger my legs very much. I would like to get in a speed run, a tempo run, and the long run every week. I could have ran today, but I started off this "quality over quantity" phase true; I rode my bike for an hour instead. The question of "How many miles do I need to run a week to get ready for the marathon?" is most appropriately answered with "As many as it takes." I could probably use another run every week, but I think this plan will surely get me to the starting line, and will hopefully have me healing up more as I get there.

I finished Harry Potter while on the plane to Vegas. Very good book; I think she ended it well. There were only a few times when I thought "Now that's mighty convenient" when some random thing would save some random person from a random curse or hex; I think she really did think things through and setup the final in a crisp way ... and in a way that will make people want to read the old books if they haven't! What will I ready now?!??

Swimming to Vegas

Not much running after sprints this week. Wednesday I was to run 10, but lightening put off my 6PM start, but created a nap starting at 5:45PM. When I awoke at 7:45PM, my chance had pass ... time to eat, no running that night. Actually could have ran last night, but opted for the bike instead as mother nature was supposed to be angry. A couple of weeks ago I had thought this weekend could be a running rest, and it has turned out to be so; hopefully a good thing. 250 pages to go in Harry Potter. Working on my dice throwing wrist snap. Hopefully will be a good weekend!

Modified Schedule

I ran sprints Monday night (6 x 60 seconds x 60 seconds; wanted to test the hammy with sprints, but not destroy it) and then went to the gym for a workout. I shouldn't have gone to the gym, I was blasted and didn't really want to, but off I went; running and working out must be squeezed in where they can be due to upcoming travel plans. Anyway, the run was going smashingly well, with me covering 200 meters in a normal 50 to 53 seconds when the hamstring started hurting. Today, the knee opposite the hammy, as has not been uncommon, is the only real thing in pain. Hopefully a Craig Biggio grand slam, some libations, and a night with friends (by the way, who corrupted Dave?) will heal what ails me, as I need to run 4 miles and then 10 miles over the next two nights. If I can pull that off, then I will have been true to my training program while still making time for baseball and Vegas.

Serious Hags musings to come, but not tonight. Perhaps another chapter of Harry Potter VII, then sleep.

HoustonFIT - Been a While

Topic: A Weekend Retrospective
Key Words: Yikes, Babies, Market Turmoil
Word Count: 637
Likely Next Topic: Running a Modified Schedule

My first HoustonFIT run in a while was yesterday; 12 miles. Though I had thought about breaking the route off to just run 10, I ran out with Anna and we made it to the GRB and back to mile 8 before things got a bit more challenging. I knew it felt like I was going to fast come about an hour in, and I had my thoughts confirmed when Anna stated, "I started out with the Greens, but thought they were a bit too fast." Yikes! The speed of the first eight miles, the weather, and a desire to not push the hammy too far too soon compelled me to bid farewell to Anna 80 minutes in and start running 5-1's for the rest of the way. Pretty slow going once the 5-1's started, but I finished without much leg pain, so all in all it was a success. Unfortunately, my toes took a pounding; I figure I'm going to lose a nail from the run :( Though I had thought the size 11's in these new shoes would be OK, I think I might step up to 11.5's in the next pair. I used my Endurolytes on this run and I'm happy to say ... I couldn't really tell a difference! Obviously, these things would only stop me from feeling real bad, so there shouldn't be a major "ah ha!" revelation. I'm glad though that they didn't cause any kind of stomach distress (they're are basically just salt and some vitamins; nothing to exotic). Don't buy them from a store if you are interested, because if you buy them online from Hammer Nutrition, they send you all kinds of extras to try as a gift for a "first time buyer".

Random thoughts and musings:

You ever realize that runners are like babies? At about mile 10, I thought to myself, "I better walk for a bit and have a bottle." Much akin to "You better give that baby a bottle or you're going to have problems."

My Harry Potter VII book hasn't arrived. I actually don't think Amazon promised delivery on Saturday, but it would have been nice. I wouldn't have had much time to read it, but it would have been nice to have the option. Should be here tomorrow; gotta keep avoiding reviews and random conversations about "Did you hear what happened to Harry ....."

I'm selling my stock, well, most of it. I was spooked by the drop on Friday, and I fear, more so than ever, that the market might become more prone to decline what with the mortgage mess that is still brewing. This is just my few little funds outside of my ROTH IRA; since my time horizon in the ROTH is still about 30 years away, a little turmoil in 2007 is easy to stomach. I've made good returns on what I've purchased since March, so I'm basically locking that in, and I'll probably move most of it to CDs. This may have taught me that, outside of the ROTH and my work savings account, that I don't have much tolerance for market turmoil. I still want to invest in some real estate funds, but I think the time for that is still far away. An energy fund though, with prices of oil looking like they might push to $90 a barrel by year end, might be a good play ...

Alaska picture time! Note the woman to the left and you'll see what I do when I'm healthy ... I BEAT CANADIANS to the finish line!!!

Thinking Negatively

Topic: A New Key to Chicago Success
Key Words: Hammered, Glycogen, Time in the Bank
Word Count: 324
Likely Next Topic: Why Wizards Don't Run Marathons

So I have a new plan for Chicago. As eluded to earlier, I'm going to try a negative split. In previous runs, I did exactly what negative believers said not to do; I put time in the bank. Example, marathon #2, I ran to the half-way point in 2:00:08, leaving me with a 30 minute cushion to make 4:30; I could run 11:27 miles the rest of the way and make my goal, surely I could do that, right? No, I couldn't. Instead, I was HAMMERED after the wall hit and average 12:08 miles over the back half; 3 minutes per mile slower on the back than on the front.

Negative split purists would say it is because I wiped out my glycogen stores too early; built up my lactic acid levels too early; had spells of anaerobic running too early. So if I want to run a 4:30 using negative splits, I should run a bit over the average that it takes, 10:18, for the first half, and pick it up during the second. However, 10:00 even sounds better (gives me a little bit of a bank of time!), and I'm sure if I shoot for 10:00, I'll probably have some 10:18s thrown in there near rest stops.

If I make it to the half running 10:00s, and I'm blasted, I'll certainly know I can give up on Oprah's time, and will have to fall back to some secondary time goal. However, as I stated many posts ago, only fools repeat the same steps and expect different outcomes. For the past two marathons I've trained fairly well, built up a bank of time over the first half, and crashed violently over the second half. As contrary as this idea seems, it's certainly one whose time has come.

Wednesday Runnin'

Topic: Six in the Mix
Key Words: 10k, Garmin, Negative Split
Word Count: 424
Next Likely Topic: More Running Myths Exposed!

Tuesday's recovery from the Monday six miles went well; left heel pain was my worst ailment. Come Wednesday, the legs went pretty nice. I had said I would run nine miles tonight, but of course, that's silly. I've been hurt for two weeks, and now I plan to run 30 miles over 8 days??? No. I opted to set a goal of seven, and maintain my speed limit of six MPH.

Leon went to the park with me, but we didn't run together very much; he did step his mileage up to five miles total though. I did my same out 2.5 miles and turn around, and things were OK until around four miles when my knee opposite the hammy got a little angry. Not bad enough to make me stop, but I did have some doubts about increasing up to seven miles. After much debating, I cross the six mile turnaround point and plowed on for seven. Then one minute later I turned around! A lot of reasons to turn around, a lot of reasons to continue, but turning around seemed best. I ended up doing about 6.2 miles (a 10k!) or so in 1:03 and change.

I'm pretty sure I'm about to buy a Garmin or Polar running watch. Garmin is naturally GPS based, while the Polar is accelerometer based. I actually think the Polar system might be more technically sound, since it doesn't depend on those fickle satellites, and it is surprisingly accurate (95% out of the box before before calibration). But you do have to wear a footpod, and I'm not much for extra gear. Anyway ... a late birthday present I suspose.

In the last post I said I was going to focus on running myths. I've always struggled with the traditional advice of "run a negative split, even if it's a tiny negative split", so I started looking for studies, advice ... anything other than folklore. There really doesn't seem to be much in the way of formal scientific advice, but the informal basis for the advice is admittedly sound. I have always said I physically break down too much to run a negative split, but maybe I physically break down because I run too hard early?!? I suppose I need to consider how I would implement a negative split in the run ..... chaos :)

Reclamation

Topic: Reclaiming my running health
Key Words: Slothfulness, Game Genie, Young'ins
Word Count: 680
Next Topic: Running Myths Exposed!

As I've previously pointed out, I shut it down last week; no running, and after Monday, no exercise of any kind. Slothfulness to the max. I realized that this plan was ultimately due to how I approach an injury. When my hamstring acted up, on some level I said, "I don't want to get injured, I better back off." Others would, on an equally subconscious level, say, "Man, I hope I don't get hurt trying to run through this." Said another way, is it more important to make sure you make it to race day, or make sure you give yourself every chance to have optimal performance? I would love to break 4:30 come October 7th, but would hate to be sitting in Houston nursing a torn hamstring. I'm completely comfortable with my decision as I think, regardless of my mental leanings, it was the medically correct thing to do. Ever thought about it ... run through, or nurse back to health, how do you lean???

Philosophy lesson over, on to the steps in my hamstring reclamation. First step, Friday night, drink plenty of beer since I couldn't run with HoustonFIT Saturday morning. Step two, sleep insanely late and only get up at 1PM because Jonathan happened to call. At this point, you might be doubting my plan, fearing that slothfulness got the best of me, but nay, at 4PM on Saturday I went for a swim at Memorial Park (OK, it was a run, but it was real humid!). Three miles, generally at about 9:30 pace, the hammy was better, though certainly not quiet. Step four, more beer on Saturday night (come on, it was my birthday weekend!). Sunday was the real test, and my freshly minted 31 year old body passed by not succumbing to any kind of sympathy injury; everything felt good. With that hurdle passed, my plan was to run six miles on Monday night, and around nine on Wednesday night. If I could get through that, then I would be willing to declare myself healthy enough to consider giving HoustonFIT a try this weekend.

I got a late start on Monday's run because Game Genie brought a movie over and got quite enamored with one of our many movie channels. So come about 7:30, I started my swim. Running six miles by myself is a mental challenge; I want to quit. To fight that, I came up with an inventive running path for Memorial. I ran clockwise to the 2.5 mile marker of the three mile course ... and I turned around! I knew that if I made it back to my car with 5 miles under my belt, I would be more than willing to run the half-mile out and back to complete the six. Three miles or four miles complete at the stretching center could have very easily turned the run into five, and I didn't want that. I was under strict self-imposed orders to run no faster than 10 min/mile, and I must say that at that speed, the hammy felt nice; relatively pain free, and when there was pain, it was brief. Over the last half mile I picked up the pace to around 9 min/mile, and the hammy hurt. That may have been mental, but it makes sense as speedier running recruits more effort from the ham. Anyway, I completed my bizarre course in 1:01:31 and unless I experience some problems tomorrow, I am going to continue on with my plan for a long(er) run on Wednesday.

In the vein of "keeping an eye on the progress of the young'ins in the Yellow group", I crossed paths with Brenda and the Chris's a couple of times at the park. Monday runs and I hear they are doing runs Thursday mornings at 6AM .... that's dedication that I certainly didn't have for my first marathon!

Come May, Run Away

Topic: Timing is Everything
Key Words: Foul play, Macking, Mojitos
Word Count: 619
Next Likely Topic: Drew Barrymore

Well I survived my birthday, though I hear Jonathan and Yuriy though I might have expired when I mysteriously wouldn't pick up my phone when the carpool arrived to pick up Leon and I. Naturally, like most old people, I was in the can .... foul play was not afoot.

On my birthday night, a group of us went out to eat and a smaller subset to Harry Potter V afterwards. I thought the boy wizard's fifth outing was a bit of a disappointment, especially since he ended up macking with the chick who was dating his rival who he saw killed and especially since he brought said rival's body back to school while holding the cup that ultimately got them him killed. Yeah. Sounds like a relationship with a sound footing, though hey, your young, the room of requirement is f'ing with you, and your rival "accidentally died at the hands of the dead dark lord" (yeah, right) .... so why not go for it and have some fun? Hopefully the seventh book will be better than the fifth .... one week from Friday.

I used my birthday as an excuse not to exercise yesterday. Tonight I used .... ahhhmmm .... my birthday, have I used that one .... to not exercise. I thought Tuesday - Thursday would give me a good chance to truly rest the hammy and see if it improves. And tomorrow is Friday; there's no exercise on Friday! If I'm not too fat to run, maybe I'll test the leg over the weekend.

Bad timing may be screwing over my Chicago marathon, but you've got to accept that these things will happen, and take the long term view that short setbacks are acceptable for the health gains and for the fun of training and competing. And of course, as mega rich Oprah's financial planner would tell you, the stock market takes the same kind of attitude. Today's rally of the market (up 2%! that's huge) is interesting due to some age old stock advice: "sale in May, run away, return in November". This adage says that the stock market is generally down over the Summer, and most crashes happen in September and October, so you should simply sale ALL you stock come May 1, sip some Summertime mojitos and margaritas, and pile back into the market come November. Of course, there are years, perhaps many, where this works. There are also fee and tax obligations (particularly if you do this outside of an IRA) that no one likes to mention (dumping all your stock and buying come November could run you 100s of dollars in transaction fees alone). And by sitting on the sidelines, you would have missed on one of the largest rallies in memory ... Wall Street's belated 2% increase celebration of my birthday (my birthday didn't officially happen until after the markets closed on Wednesday, I understand the delay). Admittedly, tomorrow will likely bring a pull back, as greedy folks look to lock in profits. And also, the market might suck it up for the next few months, making those on the sidelines happy campers indeed. Still though, today's market move reflects the potential folly of trying to time the market, and I think it's applicable advice to most parts of life. If something has a positive long term return you should keep at it, even if a certain time looks bleak, as you never know when things might turn around.

I must admit, this whole being lazy thing is kind of cool. I could get used to it :o)

The Shelf

Topic: 30 Years and 364 Days
Keywords: Groin, Monterey, Harley
Word Count: 582
Next Likely Topic: The Next 30

My sympathetic achilles stayed that way for Monday, so all I did after Saturday's run was a trip to the gym on Sunday and Monday for upper body workouts, and I also did my full stretching routine (calf, quad, standing hamstring stretch, groin, "backside burn" [lie on your back with one ankle crossed at your other knee, pull that knee backwards towards your chest], sitting hamstring, quad, calf ... holding each for about 15 seconds) and spent about 10 minutes on the bike. The leg really doesn't hurt bad during occupational use, but it does feel a bit "off" high in the hammy and high up the accompanying achilles ... no basketball or hills workout tonight, I'm on the shelf. With my "night off", I'm going to study up on hammy injuries and make up my mind on whether to wait this out, or be proactive and get some therapy. Boston Rob from work says go straight to therapy, as Koala healed his hammy with one session of elctro-stim and hard-core deep tissue massage. If I decide to go therapy, I might as well go for it now. I still don't know how I did this to myself .....

Mother's have a funny way about them. After a brief discussion of my ailment on Sunday night, she asked "How many of these marathons do you intend to do?". She followed that quickly with "I don't know if maybe you're shooting for a certain number ...." In other words, I think she was asking, on the cusp of my 31st birthday, if I've decided to give up this folly of youth and stop abusing myself!

Her question is extra valid as tonight brings me to within 12 hours of completing exactly 30 years of living (I was born around 6PM .. I was a late sleeper then and the trend has continued). The weird thing is I certainly can tell a physical difference in myself, specifically longer recovery times, but other that pains I can specifically associate with my old knee injury, I don't think I perform any worse now than at 21. Actually, I'm probably a better athlete, by most any definition, at 30 years and 364 days than at 21. [insert trip to washing machine, loading of the dryer, getting a glass of tea, andddd I'm back] You know, right now, I kind of want to go find a little snot nosed, punk ass 18 year old and whoop him in tennis!!!! Maybe run the Spots hill course a few times and revel in his hill induced wheezing!!!! (not that I could do that, with my old and busted hammy) Andy accused me of going through an early mid-life crisis what with the new haircut and goatee ... maybe I am! Maybe I'm aging gracelessly!?!! Maybe I need to go buy a Harley, ride to Monterrey, pick up my Mexican bride (it never fails ... marriage follows a trip to Monterrey), and complete my early mid-life crisis?!??

Sounds like I need to spend some time tonight waxing philosophical about another year passed (and waxing requires beer, so it's a good thing all in all). With no physical activity, I'll certainly have the time, and should even be able to spare some time to price that Harley (o:

A Sympathetic Leg

Topic: A Training Crossroads
Key Words: Chicago Success, Knuckleheads, mental/physical breakdown
Word Count: 464
Next Likely Topic: Verizon Wireless Saved My Budget

I named a few last time, so here's my complete list of keys to Chicago Success:

1. Accelrade
2. Endurolytes
3. Glucosamine
4. Increase my mileage
5. Run at a heavier weight so I'll have more strength
6. New shoes to help my knee
7. Tag along with the 4:15 pace group on race day

Number 4 is key, and I'm now afraid I may not be able to execute it. To that point, here's the weekend's run:

I decided 10 miles with the Fall group was too much for the recovering hammy, so I decided to go from 3 miles on Thursday to 6 miles on Saturday. The big debate was whether to modify the Fall group route or run the 6 mile route with the Knuckleheads; I decided the Knucklehead timing would let me meet up with the Fall group and the seminar afterwards, so off I went. We ran up to Dunlavy and then I took McDuffie back down to the park; 1:00:34. The hamstring felt much like it did on Thursday; discomfort high on the leg, but it was bearable. Parts of the run (particularly hills) caused some pain, while there were periods where it was relatively quiet. I tried to run without giving to my left leg, but I don't think I succeeded very well. Today, the hamstring feels the same as always, but my achilles on the leg is quite angry; sympathy injury from giving to it I suppose. I'm stretching often, icing, and I'm going to look into some therapy; maybe that will help.

I'm worried that I'm going to have to break off from the Fall schedule. Unfortunately, next week is 11, then 12, then 15. If I can't make the next run due to the hammy, I don't see how I could possibly justify jumping back into 12 and certainly not 15. I had hoped the Fall schedule and trying to run 4 times a week would meet my goal of increasing my mileage, but now that's in limbo.

Even if I have to break off from the training, there's still value in Chicago. The HoustonFIT orientation reminded me of the value of finishing the race, regardless of your time. Beating Oprah may be in limbo, but finishing marathon #4 is still worth something to me.

More Then Vitamin Water

Topic: Nutritional Changes
Key Works: Butt crease, 4:1, Landmark study
Word Count: 487
Likely Next Topic: Seven or so steps to success

Tonight was time to test the hammy. Three miles at Memorial, and I was determined to finish the loop barring serious leg pain. In summary, things went pretty well. The leg pain returned, but it was much higher up the hamstring than it had been the past two runs. For most of the Spring I had a pain at what I call the "butt crease-hamstring interface", and I was able to tolerate it fairly well. As long as the pain stays there, and subsides a bit, I think I'll be back in business. Maybe not 10 on Saturday, but I hope to be there soon.

As promised last time, on to nutrition.

They say that if you repeat the same steps and expect different results, you're an idiot. For the last two marathons I've trained the same way and haven't broken 4:30. There are at least seven or so things that I plan to do differently for Chicago (I'll post a full list soon), but several of them fall into the category of "Nutrition".

After a decent amount of reading, I'm convinced that Accelerade (with it's 4:1 carb to protein ratio) is good thing to give a shot. I've been using the drink mix for all of the Fall season, and once my GUs are gone, I'm going to get some Accelerade gels and use those on my long runs. In theory, the stuff will help endurance performance, and maybe most importantly, will speed recovery from long runs.

I've ordered a bottle of Endurolytes. Atwell and a co-worker of mine use the stuff for cramps and swear by them. I decided to give them a shot after David (Jamoosh) told me that he didn't use them for cramps, he used them for stomach issues and just to feel better late in the run; the first two marathons he used them he PR'd. Two of my three marathons I've had some bad stomach issues; if I can avoid those problem I think I can go a little harder late in the run. As a caveat, I'm a little reluctant to jack with my electrolytes too much, as that can make you real sick, but I hope to ease into taking them, and figure out a good way to train with them in hot Houston and intelligently take them in cold Chicago.

Two marathons ago I took glucosamine. Since then, the government has released it's landmark study that showed the stuff might work for some, and it is generally tolerated and thought to be free of side effects. This time I'm taking the glucosamine/chondrontin combo (the kind most commonly taken) as I figure it can only help the knees and ankles stay healthy.

Building Hags 2.0 ..... from the inside out!

Advice From Your Elder

Topic: Top Three Things I Learned on Summer Vacation
Key Words: Bayou, Uncle Sam, REITs
Word Count: 889
Next Likely Topic: Nutrition

Sometimes when I miss runs, like I did on Saturday morning, I get too hype to make them up (I hear the Transformers Movie is making people overly hype). That lead to my plan to run on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, but thankfully I opted for the stationary bike and some time in the gym instead. Today I am almost over the food poisoning (stomach is still not fully receptive too food), so I thought it was time to test the hamstring; 3 miles via Buffalo Bayou. I made it 4 minutes into the run! I'll say I'm kind of pleased because the pain was slow to come on, and more of a tightness than a bruised feeling; I think that's progress. I was under strict self-orders to shut it down if the pain became constant, so shut it down I did. Come Wednesday or Thursday, it's getting 3 miles one way or the other, but until then, I plan to stretch it frequently and try to exercise it without doing anything too stupid. If I doesn't heal up, I might be running with the Yellow Fever come Saturday instead of my Fall crew.

As promised last time, onward to finance.

When I travel, as I've done a lot lately, I tend to read financial magazines. If I were to start a brand new career path, I would strongly consider financial planning; it's one of the things I geek out on. Not to say that I'm good at it, I'm just fond of it. Here's a few musing, after digesting those magazines, that I think are helpful:

Stop Giving Money To Your Relatives: Here, your relative is your Uncle Sam; stop getting a tax return! (caveat - in some situations, particularly part-time or work while in school, automatic withholding makes that hard). If you get a $1,000 return, you gave the government a free loan. Right now, you can get a one year CD that would pay you 5.15% APY, so you basically gave the government $51.50 for free! This was one of the "Seven Common Money Mistakes" in one of the money magazines I read, and one I fight with people about all the time. You can adjust your withholding (W-4 Form) to have a good chance at coming in at zero come April 15.

The Future Ain't What It Used To Be: There are more and more people saying that stocks, instead of returning their normal 8-10%, will likely only return 6-8% over the next 25 years. That's certainly not been true of late, but it is a possibility. That either means you'll need to work longer, spend less in retirement, die earlier (o:, or make more on your investments. I'm going to try for the later. To do that, I think we'll all need more exposure to foreign stocks. With modern information flow, mutual funds managers in New York can make a killing off of emerging markets in remote places like Bangladesh and Alabama; I think the folks saying stock returns are decreasing are discounting this fact. As I've stated before, I'm a big fan of the DODGX foreign fund; it's been returning about 20% a year for a while now! In addition to more foreign exposure (something our parents didn't have) we need less exposure to bonds (something our parents were told to do). If you're going to live longer, you can stand the markets volatility longer. Also, many bonds currently return less than similar length CDs! That's financially screwed up, and should certainly change over time, but perhaps the hey day of bonds are gone. Companies somewhere, of some size, will continue to grow at 8-10% a year. We all just may have to broaden our horizons, and accept more risk, to find them over the next three decades.

Time to Buy A House or Ten: One article I was reading advocated that young folks should do two things - max out pretax savings (check), and invest in a house (ooohhhh, ouch). I have no intentions of buying a house, but real estate has, at times, made people money; what to do? As I've stated before, I think a house, as an investment, is financial folly; but a house because you like your neighbors, not because you plan to install granite and sale it for a mint in ten years. Instead, I'm going to look into what are basically real estate mutual funds; REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). What I like about these are they are much more diversified than your one house, and they are generally taking a beating since we are in the midst of a housing slump. Though you can't time the bottom of the housing bubble, sometime in the near future will probably be a great time to buy the better of the beaten up REITs, and thus, finally get a piece of the real estate market everyone wants me to get. And since most of my housing expenses are split with Leon, maybe I can get him to split that too!