The streak so far

So as of January 1st I started a running streak, meaning I would run a mile every single day for as long as I could. So far I've been almost perfect in my attempt. I had one day where I had some serious bronchial issues, spent 2 hours at the doctors trying to get a prescription for a steroid so I could breathe. That evening the steroid kicked in and I managed what was probably close to a mile of moving around the house, up and down the stairs, moving furniture. So in the truest sense I have missed one day in my streak so far. However, every other day has been accomplished. 

Two things that are interesting to see about this streak:

1. My pace is naturally getting faster. The other day I did 3 miles at just over 9 minute miles. That's faster than I've been in quite a while.

2. My monthly milage is higher than it has been in a long time. Even though most of the days I'm only running one mile, the cumulative total is getting very high. In fast, I'm only 8 miles shy of beating my highest month of running in 2013. I'm still nowhere near 2012 monthly totals, but it's a good start to the year. With only 6 days left in the month I'll need to do 2+ miles a couple days, but I think I have 2013 beat easily. 

So far I've been injury free, and mostly ache and pain free. The only issue is that sometimes my feet are tired, but considering I also use a standing desk at work, that probably shouldn't surprise me too much. If I need to sit at work a bit more that won't be the end of the world. 

So here's to keeping the streak alive another month!

Leaving big red.... for pink

I've been with many cell phone companies since I first joined the mobile revolution. Some random company with a 15 minute a month brick phone, Ariel (the pre-cursor to T-Mobile), AT&T (which became Cingular and then AT&T again), T-Mobile, and Sprint (under the guide of Qwest). Since 2008 I've been a customer of Verizon Wireless. Last night that changed. This past week T-Mobile announced a deal where they will buy you out of your current cell phone contract (Early Termination Fee) if you switch to them. So I started doing some comparisons.

The really unique thing about T-Mobile is that the cost of your phone is a different part of your bill than the cost of your plan. So you can see right up front what you're really paying for. Most cell phone plans subsidize your phone over the course of a 2 year contract, but you never see that cost broken out, and it doesn't matter what type of phone you buy. Because T-Mobile is up front in the pricing of their phones you can see just how much that iPhone will cost, and can choose something lower priced if you want. Plus, as soon as you've paid off the cost of the phone, you're done paying for it, and your monthly bill goes down. You could certainly upgrade to the latest phone model, but you don't have to, thereby reducing the cost of your monthly bill. It's a type of pricing that is more similar to how the rest of the world does it, or so we're led to believe.

The other part about T-Mobile that enticed me over was that data is not shared, but it's also not capped. So for members of my family who keep their phones on wi-fi almost all the time, I can go with a lower cost data plan, and if one month they happen to go over the 500MB limit, they simply get throttled down to 2G speeds until the billing cycle resets. Sure it's not a ton of fun to go to dial-up speeds, but the phone still works, and you don't get hit with overage charges.

So last night we spent an hour and a half at the T-Mobile store getting everything switched over. My only concern of course is the network coverage, but so far it doesn't seem to be much different than what I was getting with Verizon. At least in my general neighborhood. Once we do a bit of traveling around the state I'm sure we'll find some pockets of dead air, but I'm hopeful it won't be anything too detrimental.