13.1 Miles of Fun

Training For Your First Half

OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon

The 34th Running of the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon takes place on Saturday, May 8, 2010. The Mini has sold-out for the past seven years, with 35,000 registrants in 2009, and an additional 4,000 participants in the Finish Line 500 Festival 5K. The Mini-Marathon is the largest half-marathon in the U.S., and overall, the fifth largest running event in America. The 2009 event sold out on December 26, 2008.

YES......... Dan and Bob have officially signed up for the 13.1 miles of fun!!! Beth? Donna? David? Who else will join the fun? Will Dan be able to run the entire course? Will Bob beat his previous time? More to come.... Dan

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	2 m run or cross	3 m run + strength	Rest	30 min cross	4 m run
2	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	2 m run or cross	3 m run + strength	Rest	30 min cross	4 m run
3	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	2 m run or cross	3.5 m run + strength	Rest	40 min cross	5 m run
4	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	2 m run or cross	3.5 m run + strength	Rest	40 min cross	5 m run
5	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	2 m run or cross	4 m run + strength	Rest	40 min cross	6 m run
6	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	2 m run or cross	4 m run + strength	Rest or easy run	Rest	5-K Race
7	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	3 m run or cross	4.5 m run + strength	Rest	50 min cross	7 m run
8	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	3 m run or cross	4.5 m run + strength	Rest	50 min cross	8 m run
9	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	3 m run or cross	5 m run + strength	Rest or easy run	Rest	10-K Race
10	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	3 m run or cross	5 m run + strength	Rest	60 min cross	9 m run
11	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	3 m run or cross	5 m run + strength	Rest	60 min cross	10 m run
12	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	3 m run or cross	2 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Marathon

Amazing Dominos!

Will came by this Sunday afternoon and played with some dominos! We captured his table filling domino action and created a fun video. Will added some cool animations and effects to the video to make it even better! Cool!

Amazing Dominos from Dan Lund on Vimeo.

Will created this amazing video! Wow! That's Amazing!

Trebuchet

For Christmas, I received a table top trebuchet. A trebuchet is similiar to catapult but uses a counterweight instead of tension. During the summer, Fletcher was over at my house with his son, Will. While we talked, Will became excited by my little trebuchet. He busily launched nuts and rocks down the driveway into the street. Being an excited boy, he wanted to build a bigger one! Bingo! Now I had a reason to build a bigger trebuchet! Over the course of the summer, with the help of Will and his cousin, the trebuchet slowly took form in my garage. As the weather began to cool and pumpkins began to show up in the stores, we had a sudden rush to finish our project. Last Saturday, the trebuchet emerged from the garage and was placed on the sidewalk for its first launch! We carefully loaded it with weight and placed a football in the sling. We watched as the weight dropped, the sling moved, and the football sailed ten feet in the wrong direction! AHH! After some fine tuning, our fifth attempted sailed 90 feet in the correct direction! A Success! The video below shows the launch and the outcome. Unfortunately, the video was focused on the trebuchet (so we could watch and see what was going wrong!) so I'll post an updated video in a few days with a wider angle!

Caryn's Bridal Shower

Baby Jack Will Hate Me When He's Older

I think the title says it all! Enjoy this special moment!

Future Cub?

Some random footage taken of Sarah catching and throwing a ball during Baby Jack's party in July. - Dan

Dr. Thal's Presentation - Original

This is the original footage of Melissa Thal's public defense at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Please Enjoy.

-Dan

Dr. Thal's presentation

Dr Thal Public Defense from Dan Lund on Vimeo.

Melissa Thal's final presentation of her work at University of Alabama Birmingham.

Backyard Update!

The spring and summer has been filled with rain and more rain. The farmers down here are rushing to plant and in some cases replant crops due to the rain. For my little backyard, I was finally able to find some free time between rains to finish the backyard. A big thank you to my friend John and his truck! Both were a huge help getting this project done. I hope these few pictures show you the changes my backyard went through over the past few weeks.

Before - The backyard had two silver maples in the corners of the yard. My neighbors behind and to the side of me had put up four foot fences the previous summer. Running the lenght of my yard is a cement drainage ditch. The ditch never bothered me until the fences went up and it stood out even more. (The flower pots sitting in the yard are there trying to help me visualize the location of the future plants.)

A Little Progress: I was lucky to find someone digging out a basement close to my house. For a few bucks, we (John, his truck, and me) were able to get four truck loads of dirt to raise the beds and level the ground. As we picked up the first truckload of dirt, I thought one or two loads would have been enough, but I think I could have easily used close to ten truck loads of dirt to give the beds more dimension. - Oh well.

I created five small beds in the backyard. The corners are filled with arborvitaes, ninebarks, grasses, and liriope. I might squeeze a rosebush in the middle for an early season boost of color.

A Little More Progress: The three beds in the middle of the yard have a mixture of trees and plants. The tree to the left is a Eastern Rosebud. The tree to the right is a Althea Rose of Sharon Tree. Both are flowering trees that should be amazing throughout the summer. In front of each tree is a small rose bush. The center area has a Ninebark and grasses along with some yellow flowers (I forget the name.)

Finally Done Photos - I finished adding the watering system throughout the five beds. Jim had given me the system for my garden a few years ago. I extended the system straight across the backyard so that I won't have to water all the grasses and plants throughout the summer. I added over forty bags of mulch to finish the job.

I will post some more pictures later in the summer once the trees bloom. - Dan

Baby News

Most know, and some have noticed the blog's new widget. Dan and I are expecting again and are so excited. I had my first doctor appointment today and things look great so far. Heart beat was pounding at 170 bpm. My doctor filled out the paper work and referral form for the High Risk specialists; now we just have to wait and see if they take me in. As of right now, no restrictions or concerns, but we will know more if we see the High Risk specialists. 

Thanks for the prayers and happy thoughts!

ATV Riding

Check out the video of the Mexican coastline! I loved passing the "fire fighters" sitting on the roadside with their "truck!"


ATV Riding in Costa Mesa, Mexico from Dan Lund on Vimeo.

Zipline in Belize Video!

Here's a quick video I made while traveling from tree to tree during our zipline adventure!

(This is a large file, so you might want to click play and then pause it for a few moments.)

Cruise 2009

Western Caribbean Cruise - Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize

On our spring break, Dan and I took an incredible cruise! An early morning drive to St. Louis had us on a plane by 7:30am headed towards the Big Easy.  Once we arrived, we headed straight for Bourbon Street.  Nasty!  By 5:30pm, we were on the Norwegian Spirit as it sailed out of New Orleans. 

Our first stop was to Costa Maya, Mexico where we enjoyed riding ATV's down a coastal road. The trip had us traveling 15km along an oceanside road through some small villages! The view was incredible and the adventure was fun! 

In Santo Tomas, Guatemala, we were hoping to enjoy a sunny beach day but had overcast instead. The resort we went to was beautiful and fun anyways; who doesn't love a hammock and a nap on the beach?

The Aerial Trek and Cave Tubing in Belize City, Belize was so amazing. After a short drive to the rainforest outside of Belize City, we arrived at the national park where we would be enjoying this adventure.  We sailed from station to station high up in the trees.Dan was even able to take a flip movie of our trip down the lines!  The workers commented that Dan was only the third person to "bounce" off the ground as he traveled down one of the lines!  The tubing through the caves was relaxing and stunning!

Our last stop was to Cozumel, Mexico where we took a tender to the main land and explored some ancient ruins of Tulum. 

We ended our trip with some extra time in New Orleans.  After disembarking the cruise ship, we enjoyed a nice Easter brunch at Emeril's resturant.  Although we didn't see Emeril, we had a great meal!  From there we went to the National World War II museum.  The museum is filled with personal narratives from soldiers, short videos on the key aspects of the war, and large displays of newspapers, artifacts, and information. 

 

We had a great time; can't wait for our next trip!