Tramps...There are a couple of fans in the computer. From your description it sounds like you may be losing one of these. If it is the cooling fan on the processer your computer won't run long before you start experiencing problems. If it is the one in the power supply, your power supply will over heat. Many have a thermistor built in and will drop the power to the PC before catastrophic failure.

You can reomve the PC cover. The heat sink fan for the cpu should be accessible. This is usually a clip on fan and can be replaced. The power supply fan may be located inside the power supply housing and not so accessible. If you can get to the fan shafts you can apply a drop or two of 3 in 1 oil and buy some time.

There may also be a 3rd circulation fan.

No run for me today. We were receiving a badly needed rain. Way to late for the crops but still badly needed.

Sounds like our third runner is on his way, so we'll be headed out in a couple hours...

Thanks Slo, that's helpful.  I'll have to take a look in the case tonight.

My laptop fan is really noisy, making all sorts of clattering sounds sometimes. So far so good, but it's about 5 years old now and is on almost all the time, too. I figure it's on borrowed time.

Got to our hotel last night right as everything was closing. My dad and I prowled around a bit looking for something open that looked good but couldn't find anything. So the hotel gave us a number for a sandwich shop that was open till 2 a.m. and delivered on a bicycle. Less than 15 minutes later I had a turkey sandwich delivered to my door. It was just right and very good. And only $7. Wow, sure don't get that sort of thing in Fairbanks!

Tried to get up early this morning for a run, but the best I could do was leaving the hotel at 7:30'ish after slipping a note under my folks' door that I was going and had my phone. 8 miles on the Burke-Gilman Trail, which is just .5 mile from our hotel. Cool rails-to-trails "trail" which is really a very wide bikepath with LOTS of bikes, some going very fast. I can see that if i lived in this area, I'd want to bike commute as much as possible. And the drivers here are so nice, stopping for you as you approach the road crossings. Geez, at home pedestrians cross the road even at crosswalks at their own risk of peril. Seattle drivers always amaze me. 

Anyhow, run was very nice, legs still tired from Ester Dome on Saturday. I missed my long run last week, but find I don't really care. Yesterday was a full day without it, and I don't think my future depends on a 14 miler, really. I do, however, need to get on track with mileage, with a 20 miler scheduled for this coming weekend that I have to do, even if I walk the last 5 miles. 

Thanks for the comments on the dance competition. While I'm glad it's over, I think I'm also feeling a bit of the let down similar to after a big race you train so much for. It will be nice to have my lunchtimes back for mid-day runs, but that dance stuff was fun. 

Erika, nice dancing!

Roch, I hoped you waved at my place when you passed Good Hart.  Did you stop at the Good Hart General Store?  Speaking of my place ... it's been sorta like "The Money Pit" this year.

Tramps, it's not usually a good sign when a PC starts making noise - especially if the noises are louder, different, or new.  A backup of your hard drive is in order, if you don't already have one or do them routinely.  If you do as Slo suggested, while you have your desktop open and out of its case, you might want to take it outside and spay it down with one of the those "Compressed Air" cans.  Blow away all the dust and assorted other gunk that has likely built up over the years.  It may not help with the noises but it's good for preventing fires, etc.

Just make sure you do this outside.  Don't ask how I know this.

Saturday morning I ran 9 miles - the most I've run in a while.  When I was half way through, I met up with another Triathlete/runner (who's faster than I am) and he pulled me along to the next mile and a half at 7:47 Tempo pace.  That felt good to open it up a little and to see that I was able to maintain it for a while.  Sometimes I think I'm not getting enough running in with this Tri training.  But this MLR was encouraging in that regard.

Today I biked with what was to be a VO2 max workout.  Warm up, then 10 x (30 seconds all-out, 30 seconds rest), and a cool down.  The all-out bits weren't long enough to really get into the VO2 range, but I think I got close on the last few.  I suspect this is sorta like doing striders while running, but on the bike.  It felt good to open it up on the bike too!

Bill

It's always fun to hear from Avenger Doggie, sounds like you got lots of run run running this weekend.  Ribs, we went geocaching once when we had a bunch of nieces and nephews camping with us.  The State Parks here have programs where you can check them out for the day.  We'll have to try it this weekend when we go camping.  Bill, what Tri are you training for?  Erica, I still haven't watched your dance, but will do so tonight. 

I had another great run, for me anyway, tonight.  I set my Garmin for 13:00 pace and 4.7 miles (around the lake).  My best pace this year was 13:10 on my 7 mile "long" run.  Saturday's pace was almost 14:00 so I was a bit unsure if I could do it.  I did it!  12:43 average pace with splits (pace) 12:28/12:19/12:48/12:58/13:08.  I'd really like to get down to 11:00 by the time I run my first race since 2006 in 4 1/2 weeks.  I feel great about the progress I am making on limited mileage.  Tonight is the first time I made it around the lake in less than an hour! I even had 12 seconds to spare.

Starr in MN