This was a long, slow, distance (LSD) run.

For details, check out the Garmin Connect link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25891745

Put in a solid 8-miler on Thursday with my friend, Brian, including five hill repeats. My left Achilles tendon keeps nagging me but hasn’t flared up yet. I’m praying it will hold up for another month of stress.

This has been an interesting trip and I don’t think I’ll plan anymore visits to the East Coast in the middle of winter. The weather is too unpredictable and it seems there are always problems. If not outright cancellations, then at least delays.

Last night (Tuesday), I got stuck in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I had an appointment in northern West Virginia this morning but the snow started to come down hard and we decided to play it by ear. It became a dilemma because I had a flight out of Dulles in the afternoon.

When I got to my hotel and called US Airways, I learned that my flight had been canceled (not sure why Expedia didn’t notify me). They offered a flight out of Richmond on Friday, but I had no desire (or enough clothes) to spend another two nights and it was becoming increasingly clear that I wasn’t going to make it into WV. So I got my flight re-booked from Charlotte to Portland, via Phoenix.

That meant a 300-mile drive this morning and fortunately I made it! It was not pretty getting out on the freeway and the first two hours were miserable. A bit of adventure in February. I’m glad to be west of the Rockies. Almost home!

Today’s trip was about as perfect as they come. I was very nervous yesterday, with the reports of airport closures all over the Northeast. Looks like the snowstorm stayed away from both Chicago and Charlotte. Both flights were on time and arrived early.

The second leg (from Chicago to Charlotte) was particularly enjoyable, since I managed to upgrade to first class. To make it even better, the guy across the aisle from me looked familiar. When I saw him read a book on running, there was little doubt. Unfortunately, a woman to my right was blocking us, so I never had an opportunity to introduce myself.

As we left the airplane, I had to chase him down. Sure enough, it was Joe Friel, the well-respected triathlon coach and author. I’ve been a big fan of his ever since I started racing, and have used his training methods to improve every year. I admit that I was a bit start struck. Cool moment!

On top of sore muscles and an achy Achilles tendon, I had to deal with 40 degree-weather and pouring rain during the entire run. It was a rather miserable affair and I’m glad it’s over. I was so cold at mile eight that I decided to pick up the pace to get home faster. I would normally stick with my long distance training pace but not today. Oddly, I felt much stronger during the last five miles than the first ten. That’s probably a good thing!

Feeling comfortably sore and tired now and should be able to sleep like a baby tonight.

The kids are spending the night at their grandparents’ house, so Xan and I took the opportunity to go on a date. A happy hour meal at McCormick & Schmick’s in Bridgeport Village, followed by a movie. Xan has wanted to see Up In The Air with George Clooney ever since she saw the first preview. I give it a B.

A couple of months ago, after trying to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, my VAIO laptop stopped responding and I took it to the SonyStyle store where I bought it. The technician there couldn’t fix it on site and had to send it down to California. Turns out the hard drive was bust and had to be replaced.

After a couple of weeks it came back and I haven’t had any hard drive problems since then. But the technicians in California didn’t reassemble the computer correctly and the hand rest is loose. I took it back to the Sony store and was told that a technician would come out and fix it.

A few days went by with no call from any technician. I called Sony (always a nightmare) and they had no record of an “event” being created. I called the Sony store again and it turned out the event didn’t register… Finally, they got it right and said that now I really should expect a call.

Sure enough, the outsourced service technician called a few days later to set up a repair appointment.

He comes by and is ready to begin his repair, then opens the package with the replacement part, only to find a bezel for the lid. Nice… Not his fault, though. He doesn’t work for Sony and isn’t responsible for their messing up the order. He was visibly upset and irritated with Sony and called in the correct replacement part (I overheard his conversation with Sony).

A few weeks go by with no news. I finally received a call this week from another outsourced technician and he stopped by a couple of days ago. When he showed me the touch pad he came to replace I started laughing. I told him my touch pad works just fine and explained that this was the second time Sony has messed up the replacement part order. This guy made the same call the other guy did and apologized profusely. Again, not his fault; it’s all Sony.

Yesterday: A phone call from Sony tech support. Would I mind sending my computer back to their repair center? It will be a quicker fix because the part is on backorder… I’m not sure why it would be quicker to send it down to California, unless they have the spare part there. But if that’s the case, why can’t they send that to the technician here in Oregon?

I can’t part with my work computer for two weeks and respectfully declined this offer. The laptop works, but I want it fixed before it breaks apart completely or starts absorbing dust on the inside.

I’m usually don’t go into rants but this pathetic performance by a major company deserves at least a small amount of publicity. As a consumer, you’re basically powerless when dealing with arrogant players like Sony. Hopefully, someone from Sony will see this and realize that potential future customers might read this post when they research Sony products. My last post about the graphics card received hits from around the world, so obviously there are people who are interested in this topic.

If you are thinking about buying a Sory (pun intended) laptop, my advise to you (based on my experience) is to stay as far away as you can. Stick with another PC maker.

The install was somewhat goofy. Here are the steps I took:

1. Used the uninstaller to get rid of the existing driver. You should have an exclamation point showing in the Device Manager after this.

2. Ran the new installer and was asked to reboot. Upon reboot, there was no progress. The light on the switch was off and the card didn’t show up in the device manager.

3. Ran the installer a second time. There was a lot of screen flicker during this step and I was prompted to reboot. I then got a message that my Windows was not genuine! I have no idea what this was all about but simply clicked cancel and haven’t seen this message since then.

After this step, the card showed up in the Device Manager and and the light on the switch came on. I still wasn’t able to use the switch with the computer turned on.

I then tinkered with some other drivers to get my function keys working. Lo and behold, after this, the switch for Stamina/Speed also works with the computer turned on.

I now have my computer working exactly the way I want it to! It’s been a long process and I still think it’s absurd that there’s not an easier way to do this. Sony’s website gives no indication which drivers have to be installed in Vista mode to work, so you have do some searching on the internet.

I just completed a good 12-mile run. The weather was perfect: around 50 degrees and overcast. I loaded up my Fuel Belt bottles with Powerade and water and a couple of GU gel packs. The Fanno Creek Trail was mostly dry but still very muddy in the tunnel under Scholls-Ferry, so my brand new running shoes got all messed up.

It probably wasn’t the brightest idea to break in a pair of new shoes on a long run but they’re the same kind of Under Armour that I just replaced, so I figured the risk was limited.

This marks the end of week 4 and I’m very encouraged so far. A few aches and pains here and there, but that’s to be expected. Week 5 is a recovery week, so next Sunday’s is a 9-miler. Then it’s time to build up the distance again.

Navy’s Song from Fredrik Eriksson on Vimeo.