Taking a Day Off

Yesterday I took a day off - I originally had a small run planned, but I never got to it.

Beth and I took the family and joined my Father-in-law on his sail boat for the Tall Ship Festival here in Dana Point, Ca. It's a fun event. All these replica period ships get together just outside the breakwater and have a 'mock' battle at sunset. This year we invited our neighbor's that have two young children, the boy LOVES pirate ships so it was a no brainer.

The weather was nice and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Us joining the 'fray'

Tall Ship Califorian - I spent 3 months on this ship in HS.

Califorian scaring the seagulls.

Got to love the local wildlife

Other that the sail - I did get in a nice run on Saturday night, nothing big just 2.2 miles at a 9:47 pace. That's a little fast for me, but I wasn't running with the stroller so I decided to pick up my pace a little. Legs feel pretty good, but my conditioning is horrible.

Tonight I'm planning a 3.1 miler at an easy pace - nothing fast this week except a little mile TT I'm scheduling for myself on Saturday. I want to see if I can break my 8:44 PB. That should give me a good gauge on where I am and what I need to work on next.

On the stock front - I'm trading several different potentials this week - (WLP) Wellpoint Inc. is a healthcare company that has been getting good scores since March of this year the stock has steadily climbed from 30 to 50 per share and the company is most likely the strongest in its sector. Even though the Phase 1 and 2 scores aren't anything to write home about, the cash flow in the company is strong. All current patterns are still Bullish and the stock is still climbing. I bought at 52 per share and I'm looking to sell at about 58. Currently I'm about a third of the way there. (+54). So if you are looking for a Healthcare play - I'd recommend WLP as a short term investment (less than 6 months) - if Obama get a health program into place. If not this could turn into a keeper.

Keep Steppin'

Bob

Morning Outing

This morning was interesting - I took Cade for a run in the jogging stroller. I don't know how people do that every run. It's really tough and kind of unnatural - your arms are up, and you really can't swing them very well while holding the jogger. Oh well I'll get better at this.

2.73 miles on a hilly course pushing Cade in 32:11 I'll take that today. I'm still going to log another 3-5 miles later today so I'm just glad to get out and run.

The market is going crazy this morning - I'll have to keep a close eye on a few stocks. More later after my night run.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Hello Again

Well it's been about three months and I'm back. Getting used to being Mr. Mom, and learning a new 'trade' has been exhausting. Abby went back to school today, so I'll have a little more time to get some runs in during the week.

Today was nice to get out again. Overall I put in about 5 miles today and I feel great. Tomorrow I'm planning about 8 miles all together. We'll see how that goes. I guess a summer of cleaning and taking the kids to the pool didn't hurt my conditioning that much. In fact I think I could have gone much faster than the 9:52 pace I logged today for my basic run.

Since I'm now spending time doing stock market trading I'm going spend a little time here charting my success and failures. If you do some investing yourself feel free to use some of my research for your own investing if you want. If you are not interested at all in this stuff feel free to skim over this since I'll still put plenty of running thoughts in this blog. If fact the blog will still be 90% about running.

Today with the market being up - I was limited on my buys, but I did buy a stock BJ (yeah a pretty funny name, but it's easy to remember.) For the West Coast crowd, BJ's is a whole seller warehouse store very similar to COSTCO. This company is put into the same group as TJMaxx, COSTCO, Big Lots, etc... After doing some research, I chose to invest in BJ's about two weeks ago, and cashed in last week making a profit of about $100.00 on an investment of about 3k. With that in mind, I took advantage of a small pullback in the stock mid morning and purchased the stock again. We'll see how it preforms.

Well I have to get caught up on some blog reading - three months of reading in fact. (It's going to be a late night.)

Keep Steppin'
Bob

July 3rd, 2009

It's been a while since I've posted but I do have a great reason. I'm now Mr. Mom for our household since the 12th of last month. Yeah that's right, I was finally laid off. Don't worry though Beth went to work full time the following Monday and we're doing ok.

Being home has been a huge adjustment for the whole family - the kids being out for the summer, with Mom not being home has been a almost like a shock all of us.

As for the running - I've slacked a little but not too bad, Last month I logged about 80 miles and tomorrow I'm running my first race of the year. I'll post a race report sometime over the weekend.

Got to get caught up on my blog reading - more later.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Padre Game

I've got to admit San Diego has a great stadium. Unfortunately, their team is really bad....

I got the company tickets to Wednesday night's game, which I almost didn't take because I go into the office at 4 am - and I know that I wouldn't be home until about midnight but because of all the political stuff in the office right now I figured to take advantage of this offer and I've always wanted to see the 'new' stadium in San Diego.

Armed with four tickets on a school night, we left the kids with my sister (she spent the night) and had Beth's parents join us since they are HUGE Padres fans. The extra bonus was my father-in-law drove so I was able to rest a little.

The Stadium is beautiful - with a nice and intimate feel to it. It help being on the field level seven rows up off first base though! The seats were perfect, so I had to take some pictures with my crappy cell phone........

It's nice being on the field.

Supposedly there were 15k in the stadium - I'm guessing only 10k were actually there though.

Downtown building - by the stadium - Yeah I was walking....

On the running front - I'm still taking the week off. My legs are feeling better, but overall I'm still feeling worn down. Starting Monday I'm planning to pick it up again and really push myself over a four week cycle finishing with my race on the 4th.

Beth with her Mother

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Summary - Month End May 2009

I'm a few days late posting this, but I've been busy with life stuff. Running is slacking, mostly because of how I'm feeling physically lately. Nothing really important just a little run down.

Last month's numbers looked pretty good - 41.6 miles for my final week and 99.6 mile for the month........Wait..........99.6? WTF?!? I did it again? How and I possibly get any closer to a 100 mile month? Oh well, anyway both are PB's for me so I can't complain and my overall mileage goal was only 77 miles so I made that also.

For June's goals I'm playing it rather safe - 79 total miles total, but I'm really trying to get ready for a 4th of July run right now. Other than that it's been quiet.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

My Wife Signed Me Up.

Well Beth was tired of me being a slug and signed my up for a 5k on July 4th. I've got to get my training up now.

I'm basically taking the week off right now though. My body feels pretty tired over the past three-four weeks of training. We'll see how I feel at week end.

On the personal side - Beth and I get to go to a Padres game later this week, I got the company tickets (which are supposed to be good). Hopefully I'll get a few pictures of the ballpark - I've never been to the stadium there (I'm a Dodgers fan) so it's going to be nice to see what the park is like.

Keep Steppin'
Bob