sunday - a day late

funny how i must have just done this day's blog in my head, but it is monday now; yesterday i went out early to run and gail was going to come out later and meet me which she did. i ran the loop around king edward park over to the made up track and ran 32 x 100's. was a good workout and i was surprised to see that my legs were almost ok, though i knew i would pay for it soon. had debated taking the day off, but decided to keep going until i really needed it off. ran 5 sets of 6 and then two relaxed. each set was two working on breathing, two using the right leg and two with the second 50 yards faster. a made up workout for sure, but a good way to get some faster stuff in and made it easy on the head this way. the last two were just relaxed to see what pace i could do those in without really trying. for those reading this who have not done any form of speedwork, you would find that once you start a workout your legs sort of get locked into a pace. the last two were incredibly easy just over 7 minute pace. to be sure these were just 100's, but i use my own plan for training which has served me well over the last thirty years and simply adjust for age and circumstances. always liked individualizing plans for runners rather than stock workouts for everyone.

gail had come out and done some of her own workout and then headed home. i stayed out long enough to run the trail down to north hinksey and then back again so i could get 10 miles in. another 60+ week. all good, and have about 3-4 weeks to go to really get going with the longer track stuff. will do a time trial soon.

the rest of the day was pretty normal. we had breakfast and took a quick read of the sunday paper. reading about the election here was interesting and it seems like gordon brown and his party are in big trouble. about time to start thinking of what the people want i should think. the newly elected mayor in london really showed how weak brown's party is. hope it goes that way at home. the press here seems to attack everyone and they have a mu more aggressive style of interviewing than in the usa. there we only attack democrats.

gail went off to watch show jumping and then to write some more of her book and i went up to hit some balls. so-so day doing that, but got some good chipping in. someday will be nice to get back on a golf course. i have learned some new short shots and will eventually get the speed and distance down. for now i chip towards the river and then away from the river.

after dinner we took a long walk up around the neighborhood and the thames. all in all another ok day. and one less to go.
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Fact of the Day - from scotsman.com

Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on this day in 1979. She was the longest serving Prime Minister in the 20th century, and remained until she resigned and was replaced by John Major in 1990.

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from crooks and liars-
i keep looking for passion and even anger in the dems, but they show so little-lt

Glenn Greenwald will be hosting the Book Salon over at FireDogLake to discuss Arianna Huffington’s latest, Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe right now at 2:00 pm Pacific/ 5:00 pm Eastern. From the Amazon Editorial Review:

Huffington makes the case that America has been hijacked from within by a radical element—the “lunatic fringe” of the Right that has taken over the Republican Party. Despite holding views at odds with the majority of Americans, these zealots have given us an endless war in Iraq, a sputtering economy, a health care system on life support, a war on science and reason, and an immoral embrace of torture.

But they haven’t done it on their own: they have been enabled by a compliant media that act as if there is no such thing as truth and are more interested in cozying up to those in power than in holding them accountable, and by feckless Democrats who have allowed themselves to be intimidated into backing down again and again.
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Did You Know? - forgot where i saw this-lt
Scottish stonemasons were hired to build and carve the sandstone walls of the White House. Painters then covered the walls in 1798 with a whitewash to keep water and ice from seeping inside the walls and breaking them apart. So it was white from the beginning
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from crooks and liars blog

For the last 2 weeks the Republican Party and a GOP front group, Freedom’s Watch, has been pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into deceptive TV smears linking conservative Democrat Don Cazayoux to Rev. Wright via Obama. But last night Louisiana voters just scratched their heads and voted against the Bush Regime/McCain agenda. This is a district (LA-06)– centered on Baton Rouge– that has a PVI of R +10 and gave Bush 59% of the vote in 2006. Cazayoux took 49,702 votes (49.20%) to extreme right-wing Republican Woody Jenkins’ 46,741 votes (46.27%). This ups the Democratic margin in the House 235-198. You think the congressional Republicans are nervous? Keep this in mind– when Alf Landon only got 36.6% of the vote in 1936 so many Republican members of Congress were defeated that only 17 senators were left standing!

UPDATE: DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen and Speaker Pelosi congratulate Don.

Van Hollen: For the second time this cycle, Republicans were reminded that ‘all politics is local.’ House Republicans tried to nationalize this election, illegally coordinated with Freedom’s Watch, used false and deceptive special interest smears, and funneled nearly a million dollars into a district that Republicans held for more than three decades. Don won by focusing on the concerns of LA-06 voters – good paying jobs, affordable health care, and better education.