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A great way to round up the weekend for these boys going 3-0 to cruise into and winning the Championships game! 🥇

Auto-generated description: A group of young basketball players celebrates with a trophy in a hallway, some wearing medals and uniforms

Auto-generated description: A smiling group of six people, including a young basketball player with a medal, pose together indoors

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Got 2 dozen donuts for the Birthday boy and his basketball team. Let’s hope for a Championship win as well! 🎉🥳🏀

Two boxes of assorted donuts are held by a person in a gym where a basketball game is occurring between teams in red and white uniforms.

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I might have over bought food but it all sounded so good. I know it might have been a mistake to buy food for a late lunch after a very active morning.

Various grilled foods are cooking on an open outdoor grill including skewered meat vegetable kebabs steak medallions wrapped in bacon and twice-baked potatoes

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Started early today as my running friend I could tell wanted me to help push him the extra distance and I had a hard stop at 11 AM. Granted he created a route that gave us some outs but I knew my role and even though longer than I had run this year he has a race coming up so we got the miles done.

Small wooden structure standing amidst dense green trees with two picnic tables nearby on a dirt pathway in a forest setting

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Wrong turns, hills and mosquitoes was the theme of this run. Legs felt the ski hills today and of course that was around the time I could find the trail I needed.  It was good to change things up today to a different location. Halfway through the run I stopped listening to the Timberwolves game 🥹.

Tall pine tree standing in a green field with a winding dirt path, surrounded by lush greenery and dense forest under a partly cloudy blue sky.

Lake reflecting sky at dusk surrounded by green grass and trees with a calm water surface and a partially cloudy sky above.

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Had to drop the vehicle off to get an oil change after my early morning meetings. So it gave me just enough time to run home as well as adding a couple miles as well. Not a bad day out today at all but the legs were feeling tired.

Railroad tracks stretch into the distance surrounded by trees and greenery beneath a blue sky with scattered clouds.

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JSON to RSS for Micro.blog

This started out long ago from a post I saw from Sven Dahlstrand (@sod) where he had posted or replied to a post that he created a JSON feed that included at the bottom of each post where you could reply in Micro.blog. This was a great news for me as I got to the point where I like to catch up every now and then on what is going on in my Timeline of Micro.blog but with out some sort of sync I wanted everything to just live in my RSS reader of choice. However, I was quickly sad that my current RSS process / application (FreshRSS) did not support JSON feeds.

So I turned to searching various rabbit holes on the internet until I found what I was looking for where you could hardcode a JSON feed into a PHP script (note you have to have this running on your own server) and then it would give me back a RSS feed. This was a great start and I appreciate all the help I found from the Dave Jones and his jsonfeed2rss.php script. However, it was missing the crucial part I now wanted thanks to Sven where I could actually click on some sort of link and get back to the Micro.blog post where I could leave a reply.

So I went to hacking together from what I could figure out how to get an JSON feed from Micro.blog to somehow give me a link to where I could get back and leave a reply if I wanted. I was able to figure it out and have been running that v1.0 since back in March 2023. The only downside was that I was hardcoding my username in the script so I couldn’t really share anything out at that point. Also, I found out the discovery feed was a JSON feed too but I couldn’t quite figure out how to get that to work either.

So I finally took the time to get the Discovery Feed to work not only the main one but also the emoji specific searches. However, I was still kind of stuck at using multiple copies of the script as I was still hard coding it. Easy enough solution, more digging and figuring out how to easily hack* together a passthrough so if anyone wanted to use it they could by just including the old get at the end of a link.

The only catch is you have to have the PHP script on a web server somewhere. If you are interested or find yourself in need of a JSON to RSS script links to both version are below. Also, the list to find available Micro.blog RSS and JSON feeds is included as well.

Versions of my Hacked together json2rss Script

**Micro.blog Support

05/24/2024 Update: I am going to write a little bit more on this topic I think as rereading it again as I just hit publish I think I could expand more but I wanted to keep this article intact. Since my phone issue (self inflicted last week) I have started really doubling down on only using the RSS side to consume and post to Micro.blog. More on that in another week.

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Was an interesting run with the changes in weather. It went from storming (thunder and lightning) to sunny outside with blue skies (see the picture), and then back to stormy-looking and cloudy when I finished. At least the run felt good.

Wooden bridge spans a small stream surrounded by dense green foliage on both sides in a sunlit forest clearing.

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It is going to be a pizza kind of night after a rainy cool day. 🍕

A pizza oven flames inside on a wooden table outdoors with a spatula lifting dough nearby. Items like a glass with lemon slices and an umbrella are on the table.

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Going to have a long day of sitting in the car today so I figured I would get up on the earlier side and put a couple miles in running. Found this nice little pond that had a paved trail all the way around it which was perfect.

Bare trees stand still in water surrounded by tall grass and vegetation in a wetland area during sunset with a clear sky and distant power lines.

A large green field with tall grasses and sparse bushes leading to a calm lake with dead trees standing in the water, under a blue sky with white clouds.

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Sun was shining and it was “nice” out overall for this run. I couldn’t believe how fast this little creek was running where sometimes there is very little water here. Looked neat enough I stopped to take a picture I guess. 📸

A shallow stream with clear water flows through a lush, tree-lined landscape on a sunny day, with underwater plants visible through the surface.

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The rain from yesterday finally stopped and allowed for some cooler weather today even with the sun out. Pretty uneventful but with my watch settings a little out of wack from the reset I wasn’t sure of my pace so this run was quicker than I planned.

Tree with green leaves overhanging a grassy field in the foreground dense forest in the background clear blue sky overhead

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It was a treadmill run today due to the rain… 😑

Made the most of it and got some elevation so flipped it at a 1/2 mile of 1 elevation and then a 1/2 mile at 7. Also, I somehow was not paying attention and stopped short of 6 miles at 5.99 miles. 😱 

This will haunt me for the rest of my life.

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I am not going to lie this is pretty darn refreshing…

Hand holding a can of Topo Chico Sabores Tangerine with Ginger Extract flavored sparkling water in a cozy room with a large thermos books basket Pepsi mat GoPro carrying case and AirPods.

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Was humid out this morning during this run. I am sure if I wouldn’t have gotten it in earlier it would get worse later today. However, I had some time in the AM before taking my son to the doctors so I took advantage of the time the best I know how.

Sun shining through the clouds over a dense forest of green trees and shrubbery surrounding a small pond.

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So proud of these girls for battling all weekend. They should be very proud of what they accomplished in this weekend’s tournament and this spring season! 🏒

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Got this one in before my daughter’s hockey game. She was up and ready to go and gave me a disapproving look when I said I was going to get a quick run in and told me I had 25 min to get back. I got back in 25:26 because I had to take a photo (of course) and slowed to get around a family.

A deer stands alert in a grassy field surrounded by dense greenery under a large tree with hanging branches on a cloudy day.

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Hills and Heat was the theme of today’s run. I even knew the heat was going to get to me but I pressed on and of course the sun was up high beating down on me. I was glad for the miles in the middle to be back at the Richard T Anderson Conservation Area.

A narrow dirt path winds through a dense green meadow surrounded by trees on a bright sunny day with a river visible in the distant background under a clear blue sky.

A path winds through a lush green hillside surrounded by dense trees with a river positioned below and the vast blue sky above.

Wooden footbridge stretches over a small path embedded in a lush green forest filled with thick foliage and trees under bright daylight.

Wooden steps ascend a dirt path amidst a dense forest with lush green foliage and dappled sunlight.

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Of course right before I jump on a call nothing connects… Come to find out we are having internet issues in the area. This is where I am thankful I have a little backup service for now that I didn’t disconnect from our camper. So all is good and meetings / work can continue today.

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100 days an counting...

Something I didn’t do when I decided to run a 5k a day was talk about or even mention it. Thinking back I believe I told only one person over coffee one morning. 😉

Taking a step back, my goal was at first a week, then a month, then a couple of months but I never was thinking 1 year being the goal.

However, it was never a goal when I started so maybe that is why I didn’t but I know at some point I got it stuck in my brain and I could have talked about it.

So 100 days of what, well 100 days of not having a drink of an alcoholic beverage. I should be clear on the why this is interesting and I am talking about it. Honestly, it is nothing special or big grand reason as to why, I just told myself I am going to give it a try and that is what I am doing. I have been building up some millage running and I guess part of me wanted to see if it would change how I felt or recovered during the week or after long runs. So 100+ days this is my current take aways both from a good or just interesting perspective from my own personal experience (in no order):

  • I noticed about 1 month into this I was very tired and exhausted, I don’t know if it attributed to this but I had a stretch that I was just tired for a good week or so straight almost like my body didn’t know what to do without. I won’t say I was addicted but I do wonder if like taking a week off of coffee (caffeine) sometimes you can get headaches.
  • I think from my fitness perspective it has made my longer runs 100% easier and possibly a faster recovery after the fact.
  • I have dropped 10 lbs from where I was hovering in all of 2023. Some of this I have changed some eating habits but I do wonder if that habit has been easier by not having some extra endless calories from time to time.

I guess I didn’t really touch on has it been hard ever, the answer to this is yes in fact. As I made the decision to just step away for a little while I was very cognizant that I had a week of business travel where we were with our consultants and had many dinners out. I don’t mind not having a drink but sometimes I think if the server came to me first as I was a more seniored person at the table most of the time I set the tone of not getting a drink and then everyone else followed. There was also a parent Hockey party that I feel like 100% of the time involves drinking so I did get a handful of questions as to why I wasn’t drinking anything. No one really cares but it is something to note that people do notice and you 1000% will get a question. This also was noticed but not really asked as we celebrated my birthday a while back and went out to eat with my parents. Finally, I have noticed as time as gone on and further reflection, I have kind of avoid the easy pitfall places like hockey “safety meetings” or catching up with someone after work for a drink. Both of those places I know I do not have to drink so it isn’t that at all. I think some of with this current habit change and seeing it though for a while it was easier to avoid them. I need to get this part out of my head though as I still need to be social with friends and colleagues if this experiment continues.

So that is all I have for now and as I sit over 100 days I am not going to say I might stop today or continue for another 5, 50, or 100 days. Just a reflection point for myself as it has been an interesting experiment.

This post has been sitting in my drafts since day 50 but it is well past that at this point. I think there is two reasons here: (1) I wrote it and was going to post it right away but got distracted and never really came back to it (2) I still was for some reason not sure about posting it out as I didn’t and still don’t have what that end goal is or if there is a reason to this experiment.