Monday, October 31, 2005
My nephew and I ran in the "Run Like Hell" 5K yesterday morning. I had been worried that it would rain on us, but that morning showed nearly-clear blue skies. It was a bit chilly and windy, but once we got moving we warmed up.Max had planned on wearing his Hallowe'en costume in the race; he had his aunt put together a Link costume (from the "Legends of Zelda" games). However, he changed his mind since he didn't want to get his costume sweaty, and just wore the hat.
I, knowing how much I sweat, did not wear a costume. I did, however, unusually for me, wear the event T-shirt. Just tryin' to fit in.
The route was touted as "fast and flat" but there was at least one long, low-grade hill, and it took it's toll on Max. I stuck with him, and we finished with an unofficial time of around 37 minutes.
My nephew is thinking about trying out for track or cross-country next year. Even if he doesn't go on to compete, I'm happy to have a running partner and glad to see he's doing something he enjoys. I'm proud of him!
I did, however, feel sorry for the half-marathoners. Their route ran along Front Ave., then all the way out Barbur Blvd. to Terwilliger, and then up and down the West Hills before finishing back downtown. I'll be interested to see what kind of time the winners in that race turned in.
In other news, my nephew has his own blog now. Go check it out; it's called all about every thing and every where.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Long run today. That was the plan. Weather didn't exactly cooperate, so I headed for the gym. Woke up late, close to noon, so instead of running on a really empty stomach (might be OK for a short easy run but 7+ miles?), decided to have a light "breakfast" around noon, then hit the gym about 2-3 hours afterward.
Wore my Adidas, and a long-sleeved tech shirt, mainly to prevent my copious amounts of sweat from flying all over. Especially on a long run, I sweat in gallons, it seems. Blech, but there it is. I come from hairy sweaty people.
The nano wasn't charged! Frustrating. I couldn't run that far on the treadmills without music, though, so I used the larger older iPod. It doesn't take to shocks very well, so I set it on the shelf on the treadmill. Worried about pulling it off the shelf, but those worries were baseless. For music, I chose the Gorillaz second album, "Demon Days". Most excellent running music (and I'll have to add that to the nano; it's not on there and should be).
The plan was 2 miles at a brisk warmup pace (aiming to average a 10:00 pace), then push myself hard for the next 3 miles, aiming for a 9:30 or better, then cooldown at whatever pace felt good for another 2+ miles. I tried to talk myself into committing to 7.5 miles total, but it just wasn't happening.
First 2 miles seemed challenging but do-able. My speed bounced around, but I finished in just a hair under my planned 10:00 pace - 20:00 and 2.01 miles. Took a quick break for water, then got to moving.
And... I hit 5.0 total miles in 49:00! Which means for the middle 3 miles, I kept a 9:40 pace! Not as fast as I had hoped, but still satisfying. I'm going to work on this...
I finished the total 7 miles in 1:12:00 or so (the treadmill stops showing seconds after an hour, how annoying), so I slowed down considerably on the cooldown. But, y'know, that's what cooldowns are for. I'm still happy with the workout.
It's much easier for me to push on the treadmill, for a lot of reasons. And I know that this doesn't always translate into speed on the streets and trails. But long runs are more about building up my aerobic capacity, that elusive VO2 max that elite athletes are chasing. I know I'm not ever going to be an elite athlete, but I know that I've come very far in the past couple of years, and even though I'm over 40 (I'll be 41 in December), I think I can look forward to a couple more years of improvement before time starts to take its toll. So I've still got some personal records to set...
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Ran in the gym tonight. Wore the Asics. Forgot to bring the nano, dammit, so I was musicless. The session was a repeat of last week's speed work.
One mile warmup (around a 9:50 pace), then four repeating sets of 4:00 fast, and 2:00 recovery, then one mile cooldown.
This week I wanted to push my speed up faster than last week, so I set the pace for the fast sections at 8:40, which felt plenty fast to me. I tried not to let my recovery pace go slower than 10:00 during the first two, but by the third one I had to slow to a walking pace for about 30-45 seconds, and, sadly, that was enough to counter any distance gain I may have had over last week, because by the end of the 24 minutes of speed work, I had gone the exact same distance, 2.55 miles. Bummer.
But on the bright side, I impressed myself during the fast sections. 4 x 4:00 at 8:41 pace equals 1.8 miles. I think, on a good day, I could do 2 miles now at that pace, without the recovery breaks. Or, at least, that I'm close to being able to do that. And that means, with more training, I might be able to do a 5K at that pace... it's foreseeable, at least. Wow, a 27:00 (or less) 5K time? On my short little legs?
So far my best 5K time has been a 9:27 pace... That would be so cool to break a 9:00 pace, on an officially-timed race, after my 41st birthday.
It's something to look forward to.
Bank of America, even though they're a huge soulless corporate bank, still rocks. They give a very good impression of caring about me above and beyond the normal predatory "caring" corporations have for their customers these days.
Proof?
Well, how about their Keep the Change promotion? I just signed up yesterday. I've gone over it and I don't really see how it helps them, other than encouraging their customers to save money and keep that money in BofA, which, of course, they can use to make more money, but that's what banks do.
It works like this: First, you've got to have a checking account, a debit card, and a savinngs account with BofA (there's the lock-in). When you make a purchase on your debit card, the amount is rounded up to the nearest whole dollar, and the "extra" amount is then credited to your savings account. So, for instance, my Starbucks breakfast this morning was $5.30, so BofA will transfer the $0.70 that would make that an even $6.00 into my savings account.
On top of that, BofA is going to match all of my "Keep the Change" transfers for the first 3 months. After that, they'll match 5% of my transfers every year, which is like getting an extra 5% interest on that money. Of course, there's fine print; they only credit the matching funds annually, so I won't be getting lots of compound interest on that money. But what the hell; it's still money I wouldn't ordinarily see.
You see how it works; it's like a change jar for your debit card. I already save my pocket change daily or thereabouts. This is just going to accelerate that savings. I think it's a great idea, and it's just the latest example of why my bank rocks and rolls.
Egad... this sounds like a commercial, don't it? But, honestly, I can't think of anything cynical to say about this promotion.
Do other banks have similar programs? I'm curious. This is the first I've heard of something like this.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Oh, before I forget:Running tonight. Treadmill. Wore my Adidas. 3.09 miles in 30:00 exactly, for about a 9:42 overall pace. Started at 9:50, kept increasing the pace over the distance, ended up doing the last, oh, third of a mile faster than a 9:00 pace just to see if I could. And, apparently, I could.
Did my new, high-steppin' stride (or at least lifting my knees more) and, man-oh-man, is that noisy on a treadmill. Oh, well, was listening to Bad Religion on the nano, so I just turned it up until I all I could hear was the punk rock.
Words... fail...
There's a sequel to "Underworld"... due in January.
"Underworld: Evolution" (Warning: site requires Flash)
Let's hope the fact that they didn't have a number in the name means it's going to be good.
And by "good" I mean lots of pictures of Kate Beckinsale in tight black leather/vinyl.
It's all good.
Guess I'll have to buy the unrated version of Underworld. Y'know, just to refresh my memory...
...oh. Oh, right. Now I remember.
How long until January 20th, again...?
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Late last night, after I got home, as I was plugging in my trusty 3+ year old G3 iBook, I noticed a strange thing. It wasn't charging up. Normally, when it's plugged in, there's a light on the plug that lights up orange when it's charging, and green when it's fully charged. The light wasn't coming on at all. I knew it had been working earlier that day, since I had left the house with a full charge. Sometime during the day, it had stopped working.I wasn't sure, however, if it was the adapter, or the iBook itself. The power plug was a little loose, and the thing was 3 years old, after all. It might have finally given up the ghost. Perhaps tearing it apart a couple of weeks ago had loosened something..? I didn't know. I just put it to sleep and figured I'd worry about it in the morning.
In the morning, I verified that it still wasn't charging (I had gone to bed still feeling the effects of two vodka martinis, after all) and that it wasn't something silly like plugging it in to a dead power strip. It wasn't. So, it was off to the Apple Store in Pioneer Place.
To the surprise of no one, I'm becoming a regular there, and the technician (oops, sorry, "Mac Genius") who had helped me before, Brett, was there today, too. He plugged my iBook into the store's charger, and the little orange light came on. He tried it on my charger, and, like before, nothin'. Reset the power manager after a reboot, same thing. All of this took less than 5 minutes, but covered the basics, and confirmed that it was, indeed, the power adapter, not the iBook.
"Is this still under warranty?" Brett asked.
"No." I said.
Brett immediately replied with "I have no problem giving you a new power supply."
I thought he meant that they had one in stock and that he could sell it to me. I was prepared to pay for a new adapter - after all, I had had to pay only $56 over the course of 3 years for repairs on the thing, and that (the keyboard) was damage I had done and out of warranty, too. I did have to send it back once for a video issue, but Apple covered the cost of that repair and had my iBook back in my hands within 3 days. So I was perfectly willing to buy the part to fix this problem, even though I suspected it was going to be around $100. Still worth it. "How much is that?" I asked.
Silly me. "Nothing," Brett explained as if to a child. "It's free."
Oh! That's so cool! "You guys rock!" I said.
"We do what we can," he said, falsely modest.
Sadly, there went my excuse for replacing my ancient iBook with a new sexy PowerBook...
Saturday, October 22, 2005
I know I planned to do my 7.5 mile loop, but, well, I changed plans in mid-run, and instead took the 7-mile loop, which is a huge disappointment to myself, but there it is. It's not that much difference, especially because I did a longer run last night than I had originally planned. But, also, because I misremembered the finish line, I ended up only doing about 6.6 miles total, which brings my total for the week to 21.59, which is still more than I had last week so I'm happy about that.I stopped three times for water, which is included in my overall time, which also makes me feel good, as you'll see. When I punched the stop button at what I thought was the finish line for 7 miles, it read 1:08:32.8. Sixty-eight minutes? Did I really do a sub-10:00 pace for 7 miles? I kept going over it in my head as I walked back home. It seemed too good to be true, especially considering all the walk-breaks I took during the run. Could I possibly have been going really really fast when I ran, which averaged out the walking? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I must have stopped early. But even if I'd stopped a half-mile early, that was still better time than I thought I'd have. I figured I'd turn in a 12:00 pace. Ugh.
So, it's a pleasant surprise to me that my final average pace, water and walk breaks included, was 10:23. Not too shabby for being old and out-of-shape for most of my life.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Wanted to run tonight after work. The weather was perfect, the perfect running temperature, the sun was shining. I had been looking forward to it all day, all the dreary long work-a-day work day. I wanted to stay downtown, so I knew I was running the Waterfront loop. I couldn't decide how far to run. I had planned on 4 miles, a couple of days ago. I knew that once around, from my starting point at SW Columbia and back to that starting point (I know the exact seam in the sidewalk that is my starting and finish line) was 2.87 miles, as near as I can measure in Google Earth. So I knew that once around was not long enough. I had to extend it somehow.
I knew that tomorrow I would be running my 7.5 mile loop, in my neighborhood. So twice around seemed a bit too long. My crazy double-figure-8 loop was, what, 4.7 miles? That would be good. But, y'know, I've already run that loop this week. I could just add the back-and-forth across the Hawthorne Bridge at the end, but that only makes 3.5 miles, give or take.
So. Twice around it was.
Used my inhaler, good ol' albuterol. Wore short sleeves, shorts, my Adidas, my lucky hat, my watch. Queued up the nano to Foo Fighters, again. Stretched out. And decided I would push myself this time, keep a faster pace. I also set the goal of aiming for a faster second half - negative splits. Hoped I didn't get interrupted by any bridge openings - that's the suck.
About a mile into it, I shifted to a stride where I lifted my knees more than I had been. I'd been doing this slow shuffle, hardly lifting my feet at all. But when I tried raising my knees on the up stroke, it felt... easier. Thinking about it, I think that I was using more muscles to do the same work of propelling myself along, which made it seem easier. I kept going fairly brisk (but not race-pace) for a very long time without slowing or breaking stride to walk at all, for the first 44 minutes, which felt amazing to me after having been so slow these past weeks. And after a brief (30 seconds - I timed it) walking recovery, I was able to continue on again at the same pace.
The best part is I started doing that stride because my heel started hurting again, and lifting my knees caused me to strike more towards my forefoot, which seemed to ease the pain of my heel.
My first half I did in 28:17.99 (9:51.6 pace), my second half I did in 29:27.0 (10:15.7 pace), for an average of 10:03.7 pace, which feels pretty good for that distance (5.74 miles total). I know I can do better, but that's a good recent pace for that distance.
I'll do the heat/ice treatment tonight, and again in the morning before I run, and definitely afterward, but I'm betting that my new stride will have another positive effect on my heel pain. Here's hoping.
Friday Cat Blogging!
What is it about cats and bags? And Smacky barely fit into this particular bag... but that didn't stop him.
...and here's some more!
Waaaaaaaaay more cats over at the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday; the 83rd edition will be hosted this week by Mind of Mog.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
My right foot, heel, and ankle feel fine this morning. Apparently the alternating hot/cold treatment is working, because I ran hard last night. True, I ran on a treadmill, with all of it's attendant cushioning. But even in the past, running on a treadmill would aggravate my foot pain - not this time, though. I will continue to apply the hot/cold treatment for another week. Maybe I can heal up entirely.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Tonight was speed work night. I went to my gym after work, changed into my Asics, shorts and a sleeveless shirt, hat, iPod nano queued up to Green Day's American Idiot, and hit the treadmill.Quarter-mile walking warmup, then another mile at a 10:00 pace, some stretches and I was off.
4:00 at 8:57 pace, then 2:00 active recovery, repeat four times total. This week I didn't slow to walking speed at all, in fact my slowest pace during recovery was 10:35, and that was on the very last recovery period. It was a challenge but I just zoned out and tuned out the monkey chatter voice in my head that tries to talk me out of things. I finished this phase with about 2.55 miles but did not notice the elapsed time.
During my last recovery period I felt a chill sweep over me, like the temperature dropped in the gym. I immediately took notice, since normally I'm pretty over-heated even through my sweat. When I picked up the pace a little bit for my last mile of cooldown running (does it make sense to speed up for a cooldown run? I don't know but I still have the "gotta go fast" hang-up) I warmed up a little but then when I walked my absolute final quarter-mile the chill came back.
Not sure what my goal for next week will be - longer fast intervals (5:00 at 9:00 pace)? Faster intervals (4:00 at ~8:30)? More intervals (5 cycles of fast/recovery)? Not sure... I'd like to work on my turnover, so maybe the faster intervals would be a good choice. I'll decide... later.
Total miles this week: 9.28 so far (does not include the half-mile walking bookending my running tonight).
I've felt like a cold is coming on all day, maybe for more than a day, and I've been around sick people, so maybe I'm due for a cold. Bleah. I didn't like the cold feeling after my workout at all and hope it's not a fever. Maybe it was just cold in the gym. Maybe it was just because I was wearing shorts and the sleeveless shirt. Maybe... Damn, I hope so.
Did I mention the heat/ice therapy for my foot? Oh, right, yeah, I did. Well, I did two separate treatments last night. The guy I'd talked to on Sunday suggested a 3:1 ratio of time for warmth vs. ice, so I did 45 minutes with the heating pad, and 15 minutes with the ice, then an hour or so later, I did 30 minutes warm and 10 minutes ice. And my heel, though a bit tender during the day, did not feel bad at all after my run. Of course, it's worse in the morning, so I'll watch it tomorrow and see how it feels. I'm going to do at least one more treatment tonight before I go to bed.
Next run will be Friday, probably at least 4 miles, then a long run, 7.5 miles on Saturday. Aiming for a total of 20+. If I also work in a short run Thursday or Sunday, I could have 24 miles, which would be my longest week ever. I think. I'd have to go back and check but that seems correct to me now.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I used Google Earth to measure my running route from last night, the one I'm now officially calling the "Crazy Double-Figure-8 Loop", and it turns out to be 4.73 miles.Which makes my average pace a bit better: 10:54. Whew! If I had actually be as slow as I thought last night, I'd have to go out and shoot myself. It was still slow (too slow for eggnog) but I can live with that better.
Monday, October 17, 2005
You have to watch out for those shifty llamas.
Been feeling slow and fat lately, so I wanted a hard workout. I figured if I could be speedy and go the distance, I'd earn a tasty eggnog milkshake for dinner from Mike's Drive-In. But I'd have to really earn it.
I decided on my crazy double-figure-8 loop modification of my normal Waterfront/Esplanade loop, which I guesstimate at 4.2 miles, give-or-take (I'll check the actual distance and post it later). The weather was good, not too warm not too cold, overcast but not cloudy and definitely not raining. Wore my Adidas, shorts and a sleeveless shirt and my lucky Adidas hat. Running music was Foo Fighters.
And... I kept a steady pace, never significantly broke stride (I had to stop very briefly twice to cross Front Ave., and once right around the 3.5 mile mark I accidentally stopped to walk for about 10 steps before going back to a jog). I felt like I could maintain that pace forever, and, truthfully, I probably can, but it wasn't the hard race-pace workout that I intended.
I finished in 51:34, though, which is definitely more towards the slow-but-steady and not in the hard-workout area. So my pace was a turtle-ish 12:16. Argh. So sad, I'm so sad, and not just because that means I didn't really earn the eggnog milkshake. I really want to be faster. I'm not sure what's holding me back.
So, a salad and some soy milk for dinner tonight. Yay. Tomorrow I'll rest and then Wednesday I'm going to find some speed drills to work on.
In other news, I felt a sharp pain in my right foot stepping off the bus onto the edge of a curb. That's the foot that's been sore. At the race yesterday, I was talking about my heel pain (plantar fasciitis?) with a therapist and he suggested hydrotherapy. I expected on some numbness this morning, caused by all the hills I ran yesterday, but it wasn't there. Oh, and I'm now wearing slippers with a fairly supportive sole; I read that it helps heal plantar fasciitis if you make sure to give the foot support in the morning right out of bed until it's warmed up. So maybe that helped me. We'll see. But then I stretched it out, painfully so, tonight getting off the bus. Argh. Again, rotten luck lately.
Dear iLounge:
I don't care that you've taken the "iPod" out of the site's name... well, technically just the "Pod", but still...
It doesn't matter.
You still need bandwidth. How am I supposed to get slightly-less RDF'ed versions of Apple's press releases if your site won't load?
Respectfully,
A concerned surfer
I and my 13-year-old nephew ran in the First Annual Run for the Cheetah 5K yesterday and had a great time. I didn't really expect a lot of people, but there were about 500 entrants, according to the announcer guy. Also, it wasn't raining, which is always a plus.
There were, however, hills. The course was an out-and-back loop, starting at the front entrance to the Oregon Zoo, going northerly uphill to Kingston Drive, then down, down, down hill, before turning around and coming back uphill.
My dad showed up to get pictures, but because we were faster than I thought we'd be we came in before dad got there. Oh, well, next race.
This was my nephew's third race, and he did great. We stuck together, and we crossed the finish line in 37:07, give or take (I had some technical problems with my watch), but I'll be sure to post the official time when the results go up. Which will probably be soon because it was a ChampionChip timed event.
He makes a great running partner and I hope that he's caught the running bug enough to keep it up. I think the next one we're going to do together is the Run Like Hell 5K on October 30th - probably not in costume, at least for me...
Friday, October 14, 2005
Two words:See MirrorMask
Need more words? Neil Gaiman's got you covered for story.
Direction and visuals? Dave McKean's on top of that.
Overall production? What, can't you trust Jim Henson Productions? Sure you can. Crazy kids these days!
Did you like "Labyrinth"? Of course you did. David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, trippy puppets, goblins and monsters. What's not to like?
Now picture that on acid, and not the bad brown stuff, the good stuff, and imagine what could be done with CGI these days.
Oh, yeah. You want to see it now, don't you? Don't you?
G'wan. Get out of here. These talented folk deserve your money.
First rule of men's rooms: men don't talk to each other, or acknowledge each other, unless they're on equal footing. And even then, the topics of conversation are quite limited. And really, only at a urinal. If someone's in a stall they might as well not be there.
I'm at the gym, in a stall (see above), and a guy gets in the stall next to me. Loudly calls out something that just doesn't register with me. Because I'm in a stall. I'm invisible, or should be.
He repeats it, and I make out his words: "Hey, do you know when the Notre Dame game is on tonight?"
It takes me several minutes to process, as I wait for his buddy or whoever to respond. When no one does, it dawns on me that HE'S TALKING TO ME.
"No, sorry. I have no idea." Is this appropriate conversation for strangers that are supposed to be invisible to each other? Is this guy crazy? Wait, sorry, all humans are crazy, so of course the answer is yes, but it's the wrong question. Is he one of the obviously crazy people? Evidence is collecting, and signs are starting to point to "yes, yes he is, get out now."
"That is going to be the game" he continues. I fall silent, because, well, there's really no response to this, for all the reasons I stated above, plus the fact that I simply don't care about college football.
We both fall silent for a bit. Then I hear ringtones, ringtones that are playing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer".
And the guy answers the phone.
More evidence.
He chats with the caller, while sitting on the pot. I'm even more stunned, but also... I'm thinking I should flush the toilet or make some noises in an effort to call attention to the guy's location. Y'know, to alert whoever is stupid enough to chat with this obviously crazy person that he's obviously crazy.
The guy tries again to find out when this Notre Dame game is, and from the one side of the conversation that I can't avoid hearing it's clear that this game is not taking place tonight, or at least the person on the other end believes that adamantly. The guy is not entirely convinced, but then tries to get the person he's talking to to go to Montana with him next week. The dangers of being alone in the vast open spaces of Montana with this insanely unsocialized man are apparent, though, and the other person declines. The conversation ends.
My services in noisemaking turned out not to be needed. The other person is safe for the moment. I am still in inadvertent contact with this guy. And the final piece of evidence is revealed.
Because the guy starts muttering under his breath.
It's a Popeye kind of muttering, where I can't make out all the words. It's practically Tourette's Syndrome muttering (Tourette's is not always curse words; sometimes it's just pre-verbal sounds, or even tics and gestures, at least that's my understanding), but one word in about 5 or 6 floats out; I make out "dingbat" and "dickhead" mixed in with the inarticulate grunts and chuckles. I see that he stands up, all the while muttering, and finally he breaks into a bit of sing-song muttering, with a rhythm, or at least a cadence. And then, he's gone.
Friday Cat Blogging!
No new pictures this week, but here's a couple of pictures from relatively recently:
...and here's some more!
Waaaaaaaaay more cats over at the Carnival of the Cats which goes up Sunday and will be hosted this week by Where The Dolphins Play.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
I wanted to add this to my previous post but I forgot.After my run last night, I decided to make use of the sauna. I just wanted to relax in the steam-y heat, let it open up my sinuses and lungs and permeate my sore muscles. Just a nice quiet time after my run. Ahh.
When I got there, some guy (tattooed, bleach blonde hair, fake tan, toenails painted hot pink) had gotten the temperature and steam up really high. It felt great. It's usually not very warm in there. I was going to ask him what he did (open the door until the steam came on? Pour water over the sensors?) but then I remembered that I didn't want to talk to anyone and went back to ignoring him.
The guy (I'll call him Blondie) had a bottle of what looked like flavored water and he kept dousing himself with it, and rubbing it through his hair. It had a faint lotion-y smell, but that could have been my imagination.
Then a girl came in, brown hair, thin but she had a receding chin, wearing a red bikini, having just left the other sauna, the one with no steam (I've just realized that I don't remember what it's called; is it the sauna, and the one with steam is the steam room?). She and Blondie talked about the sauna, and how it wasn't very warm, cool, in fact. I kept ignoring them. Then Blondie left.
The girl pointed up to the ceiling, covered in droplets of water just waiting to, um, drop, and asked me if I thought that that was human sweat. I was mildly disturbed to think of it like that, not to mention being all ignore-y, so I mumbled some response about it being just condensation. She started to describe a micro-climate of clouds of human sweat, a cycle that just repeats.
Then another guy came in, dark hair and shorter than me (which makes him pretty short) and he climbed up to the area where Blondie had been sitting.
"Ugh" he said (he actually pronounced the word), "This is awful!" He looked down at his feet, and slowly shifted from one foot to the other. "Someone had been putting lotion on here. Can you smell it?" The girl and I shook our heads. "That's... that's so... ugh."
"Maybe it's just sweat," the girl said, with a faint tint of hope to her voice.
"No." The guy (I'll call him "Ugh") was adamant. "It's not. It's lotion. I've seen it all the time. Not only is it disgusting, it's a safety hazard." He slid his feet around. "See? It's slick right here."
I mentioned Blondie, who had been dousing himself, but I suggested it was probably water. Oops. I was getting pulled in to the conversation again. I scooted over to make room, and the girl scooted over closer to me. "You can sit here," the girl said. But Ugh didn't take us up on the offer. He sat near but not in the puddle of lotion/sweat/water.
After a brief, blissful moment of silence, the girl (I want to call her Sweat but it just doesn't seem right) started up again. She asked Ugh if he'd been in the sauna. They chatted about how it wasn't very warm for a moment, and Ugh, cynical Ugh, complained about the maintenance staff and how the facilities guy wasn't fixing it.
Then Sweat (see, it just doesn't fit) said, "I wonder if, because the other room has all that wood, that it absorbs all the sweat, and then the heat causes it to get, um, deposited all over the room, making a cycle..." She trailed off, lost in wonder. Then she sniffed and shook her head. "Because," she said ruefully, "I know I just get drenched when I'm in there."
Again, I was getting pulled in. I didn't know what this girl's deal was but for some reason I felt compelled to counter her mental image. "I don't know if this is the same thing, but I know that when buying a cutting board," and here I framed a flat square in front of me, "they say that a wood one is cleaner," and here Ugh and Sweat started nodding in agreement with me, "because it absorbs the food particles and bacteria and locks it in. Where a plastic one, the bacteria just stays on the surface until you clean it off. Maybe it's harder for the sweat in the other room to get pulled out of the wood in there."
Sweat looked around. "But it's the same in here. This tile is hard; the sweat just lays on the surface..."
Ugh and I looked at each other. "Oh, I'm sure they clean this room out" I said.
"They have to!" Ugh agreed.
Ugh looked up, and we could make out the shape of Blondie standing at the door. Ugh immediately began talking as though continuing a sentence from before, as Blondie walked in: "...as I was saying, what I really hate is when people put lotion on in here, it gets all over, makes things slick, and, well, disgusting. You know?"
Blondie looked sheepish. I smiled at Ugh's tactic but felt embarassed for Blondie, being the target of Ugh's passive-aggressive tactic. The four of us lapsed into silence. There was now a tension in the room.
Dammit, I came in here to relax. Before anything could escalate, I got up and left. There was no relaxation in there to be had.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
OK, more running stuff:Ran at the gym tonight. One mile warmup and cooldown at about 10:20, and in-between I did four sets of 4:00 at 9:00 pace and 2:00 of "active recovery" (around 10:30-11:00 pace). Total miles were 4.45, giving me 7.93 miles so far for the week. I ran in my Adidas.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Ran tonight. It was a gorgeous fall evening, still warm and bright when I got out of work, so I ran outside and downtown, around the waterfront. I wanted a bit longer than the 2.8 miles or so of my normal loop, but not the full twice-around distance, so I planned on adding the Hawthorne Bridge, east and then back west, to finish on the same side of the river. I figured it added almost a mile, and Google Earth tells me that the distance I ran was 3.48 miles.I was strong and steady the whole distance, not breaking stride to walk or pausing for water. I wasn't especially fast, but concentrated on maintaining an even pace. The last mile felt a bit slower because I had to dodge around so many people! Lots of pedestrians and cyclists on the bridge last night!
It felt like about a 10:00 pace or so, and I watched my posture and my breathing. I ran in my Asics. I like the Asics over the Adidas; I've gotten used to the feel of the gel, it's not as wobbly-feeling as it was at first. I ran in a short-sleeved shirt (this year's Run Hit Wonder shirt, bright orange; only saw two others wearing the same shirt tonight) and shorts. Also used my inhaler before, one shot.
My final time was 37:33, for an actual pace of 10:47. I swear it wasn't that slow, though.
Tomorrow I'm doing some kind of speed workout. If the weather holds, I'll go home and do hills in Sellwood Park. If not, I'll hit the gym and repeat my treadmill interval workout from last week. I also plan on running Thursday, and Friday I plan on running in to work. Saturday, rest day, and Sunday is a race, the Run for the Cheetah, which I'm doing with my nephew, just for fun.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Lately, it seems, my hobbies (that is, the things I do by choice, not because it's my duty or obligation) boil down to:- Running
- Sleeping
Sunday I planned on going for a run, along with cleaning up my apartment and going out and being social, but, well, only one of those got done, and since I'm complaining about doing nothing but sleeping and running I'll bet you can figure out which one. My run was 7.5 miles, and, knowing that I wasn't all that energetic, I should have left my watch at home, because I was sure to be disappointed no matter what my time. For the record, I ran the 7.5 miles (with frequent walking-breaks) in 1:24:46, for a pace of 11:18. I know, I know, for longer runs it's OK to go slower than shorter runs, but, dammit, I've done that exact run in much better time and under worse conditions (hot and muggy). Oh, well, I'll do better next time.
But, yeah, the sleeping. I napped both Saturday and Sunday, and above and beyond the napping slept for at least 12 hours each night. I even ended up sleeping in this morning and not getting in to work until 1:00 PM. Sleep is practically my second hobby.
I'm not even sure it's depression; more like a general apathy towards anything that's not sleep. No motivation. I'm not sure what's keeping me running other than perhaps a psychological inertia.
Meh.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Two thought-provoking articles I have read recently, and I'd like to share. Later, I'll post my own thoughts on them, but for now I just want to preserve the links.First is an article entitled The Christian Paradox that appeared in Harper's that discusses the contradiction between what Americans profess to believe, i.e. Christianity (per the article, America is the most religiously homogenous of all the rich nations), and what Americans think that belief means. America is the most Christian nation, by professed belief, and the least Christian nation, by their actions. The contrast is startling.
Asking Christians what Christ taught isn’t a trick. When we say we are a Christian nation—and, overwhelmingly, we do—it means something. People who go to church absorb lessons there and make real decisions based on those lessons; increasingly, these lessons inform their politics. (One poll found that 11 percent of U.S. churchgoers were urged by their clergy to vote in a particular way in the 2004 election, up from 6 percent in 2000.) When George Bush says that Jesus Christ is his favorite philosopher, he may or may not be sincere, but he is reflecting the sincere beliefs of the vast majority of Americans.
And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.
*****
Ours is among the most spiritually homogenous rich nations on earth. Depending on which poll you look at and how the question is asked, somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian. Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish. It is true that a smaller number of Americans—about 75 percent—claim they actually pray to God on a daily basis, and only 33 percent say they manage to get to church every week. Still, even if that 85 percent overstates actual practice, it clearly represents aspiration. In fact, there is nothing else that unites more than four fifths of America. Every other statistic one can cite about American behavior is essentially also a measure of the behavior of professed Christians. That’s what America is: a place saturated in Christian identity.
But is it Christian? This is not a matter of angels dancing on the heads of pins. Christ was pretty specific about what he had in mind for his followers. What if we chose some simple criterion—say, giving aid to the poorest people—as a reasonable proxy for Christian behavior? After all, in the days before his crucifixion, when Jesus summed up his message for his disciples, he said the way you could tell the righteous from the damned was by whether they’d fed the hungry, slaked the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited the prisoner. What would we find then?
Second is a post by Sam Harris that speaks directly about atheism as a rational response to and observation of the world, and the damage that non-atheist beliefs do to the social fabric.
As Sam says:
There is another possibility, of course, and it is both the most reasonable and least odious: the biblical God is a fiction. As Richard Dawkins has observed, we are all atheists with respect to Zeus and Thor. Only the atheist has realized that the biblical god is no different.To paraphrase Sam, no one ever needs to state that they are non-Zeusians or anti-Thorians - that would be silly. But somehow, seeing clearly that none of these supposedly-powerful beings exists puts me and others on the fringes of human society. I am immensely sad that this is so.
Both of these thoughts are heavy on my mind lately, as I watch the leadership in this country, well, fail to provide leadership, all the while firmly avowing their supposed "faith" in the teachings of a certain Jesus of Nazareth, as handed down by his followers over the past 1800+ years and as selectively redacted, amended, and translated over the ensuing centuries.
I know that, since religious faith is so strongly irrational and contra-logical, that none of this will discredit Christianity or religion in most people's minds. And that makes me saddest of all.
In discussing this last night with a (theist) friend, I was challenged about what I have done or do to justify my bitterness towards fundamentalist religion (indeed, I'm bitter lately towards all religion). I expand my answer slightly from my conversation with my friend:
I try to educate others about the damage religion has done and continues to do.
I vote and donate to and eventually will campaign for the politicians that promote rational thought over faith-based "solutions".
I try not to directly support, patronize or purchase from companies or organizations that directly promote religious-based ideologies - but I realize that that's a near-impossibility in a nation and a world that's overwhelmingly theistic.
I know I could do more. I know my answer is inadequate. But hopefully it's a start.
Friday Night Cat Blogging!
Smacky, hiding that he's trying to get close to me, hiding in my bed (see how he blends in with the other black clothes?):
And Smacky, later, eschewing consciousness, curled up in the blanket on my couch:
...and here's some more!
Don't forget to check out The Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat, dog, and assorted animal blogging, and if you're reading this on Sunday or later, check out the Carnival of the Cats, which is hosted this week at Ginasrantings!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
One more running post:Ran at the gym tonight. Wanted to do a speed workout, so, after poking around the blogs and Runner's World, came up with this one, that I thought would be OK for a treadmill:
Warmup (1 mile easy), then do one set of 4:00 at 5K pace followed by 2:00 of active recovery (jogging or slow run, not walking). Repeat at least 4 times (the suggestion was 4-6 times; I figured for my first speed workout in several weeks I'd aim for 4 sets). My best 5K pace was 9:27, but, because of the treadmill settings, I did them at 9:22 pace. For the recovery I set it around 11:06.
Just because I wanted to keep the times in even minute increments, instead of a mile warmup, I did 10:00 even, then started my sets. By the end of the second set, I was sweating even more than usual, but still not out of breath. I did all 4 sets and took a quick stop for water, then finished my 2:00 of recovery, then did a nice easy jog of a mile to finish, then cooled down with a quarter mile of walking.
Total running miles were 4.35, giving me 12.1 for the week so far.
Next week, if I do this workout again, I'll aim for 5 sets total. Or I could do 4 sets at a faster pace, like around 9:00. Choices...
Tomorrow is a rest day, then Saturday I'll do my long run for the week, 7.5 miles, for a total of 19.6. Next week I am aiming for over 20 miles, which I will probably do by extending the long run another mile.
I'm a text-aholic.
I kept spending a lot of money on T-Mobile because for the past year or so they didn't offer unlimited text messaging, and there's just no way I could hold myself to just 1000 texts per month. And, damn, they added up.
Just as I was thinking about switching to another carrier, T-Mobile finally offered unlimited. Yay!
Several of the folks I text with complain because I actually type out full words and sentences. For some reason, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I just can't bring myself to use text-speak, except for common phrases like "LOL" or "TTYL". For the most part, I write as if I'm writing an email. I get charged (used to be charged) per message, not per character. And my thumbs are strong, strong like ox.
One of the things that allow me to type full words and sentences is T9 text input (I was surprised that they had a web-page, too). It's a feature that predicts what you're trying to spell, pulling from a stored dictionary and matching number input to letters and words. It's kinda cool, actually.
But there are common words that would use the same number combinations; for instance, "if" and "he" both use 4-3. So the software, I believe, lets you choose from a list when it's not sure which word you're looking for. And the most frequently-used word is at the top of the list.
However, sometimes it's just off. For the longest time, when I would try to enter the word "at" it would give me "bu" as the top choice. I would have to scroll down the list to choose "at". What the...? "Bu" isn't even a word! There were a couple of other instances like that, but the others used actual words, just not ones I normally use. It got frustrating, especially considering how much texting I do.
So, yesterday, I sat down with my phone to fix several of the more frustrating examples. I knew that if I consistently chose a word a number of times, the software would then move the word I want to the top of the list, making my life easier.
The really odd part is that different words took different numbers of times for entry before it consistently chose my intended word. But at least it's done.
...is that weird? So be it.
Ran at the gym last night. Wanted to do 4 miles, and I did do 4 miles, although slower than I'd like and I did have to take a quick water break at mile 3, but I swear I only was off the treadmill for as long as it took to walk briskly over to the water fountain, gulp down about 2 cups of water, stride back and start 'er up again.
Finished the 4 miles in 41:00 almost exactly, which averages to a 10:15 pace, but it felt good. First 2 miles were at 10:10 pace, then did a brisk quarter-mile at 8:34 pace, then slowed back down to around a 9:50 pace for the next mile, took my water break, then finished around 10:00 pace. Tried to finish strong by upping my pace and kinda lost track but still felt like I had some run left in me when I stepped off.
Tonight I'm going to do some kind of speed workout. If the weather's nice enough I'll go home and do my hills, if not, then I'll hit the gym and try some intervals on the treadmill.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Ran today. Ran in the gym, since the weather has been so unpredictable. Was planning on running for 3 or 4 miles, and, well, my problems started when I didn't decide, in advance, how many miles I would actually run. That lack of decisiveness hurt me from the very beginning. I didn't get to the gym until 5:30-ish, and all of the "good" treadmills were taken, so I had to start out on one of the sucky treadmills. I did my quarter-mile warmup and kept an eye on the "good" treadmills, and, sure enough, one of them opened up during my warmup.
But when I started my actual run, I couldn't find my pace, and I couldn't get my breathing to sync with my pace, leaving me short of breath. With the damp weather, and my profound lack of eating discipline in the past couple of days (I've been eating as though I'm on vacation... well, technically, I am on vacation) were both indications that I should have used my inhaler before the run. I didn't, and I suffered.
By the time I hit 2 miles, I was still having trouble breathing in rhythm with my running, and I'd lowered my pace to what felt far too slow; I didn't think I'd ever finish 4 miles. I'd just keep lowering the pace, further and further, and the virtual finish line would get further and further away, until I ended up dying of exhaustion before 4.0 ever appeared on the readout. I was running a version of Zeno's Paradoxes.
Plus, my stomach, having been fed a bunch of crap over the past few days, was continuing its rebellion against running by producing lots of gas, which escaped noisily during my exercise. It was not pretty. So, I took a bathroom break. During the break I decided that, come hell or high water, I would go the full 4 miles, as punishment for... well, for not running so well. Hey, it made sense at the time.
But when I got back on the floor, all the "good" treadmills were taken again. I had to run on one of the "bad" treadmills. I hate that. After a little over a quarter-mile, though, one of the "good" ones opened up again, so I moved over there. As a bonus, since, in my mind, at least, I was incredibly smelly and stinky, there was no one on either side of me, subjected to my odor.
I finished the full 4 miles, but only by including the final quarter-mile of cool down in the total. Yeah, I cheated. It was not a good run.
Plus, my new Asics aggravated the blister on my right ankle that my new Adidas caused yesterday. My left blister was fine, if a bit sore, because I was smart and put some moleskin over it. But the one on the right hadn't been bothering me, so I hadn't covered it up. Bleah. At least I didn't bleed too much on my new Asics. Other than the blisters, the shoes are working fine. I still prefer the Adidas for stability but the Asics feel fine on the soft treadmill.
Tomorrow I'm doing another 4 miles and I'm doing it all in one stretch; no more breaks in the middle. I'm putting my foot down (yeah, that's a runner's joke).
Saturday, October 01, 2005
I haven't been doing too well on the Friday Cat Blogging lately. I have a few pictures of Smacky that I could post but just haven't. Maybe I'm feeling oppressed by the whole "do it on Friday" part? I don't know. I just don't like obligations, I guess. I'm anti-authoritarian.Today is Day 2 of my "vacation". I originally planned to take this time off to celebrate my being debt-free, but between donating to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Apple's iPod nano, and buying new shoes, I kinda-sorta delayed my long-awaited debt-free-ish-ness. But I still wanted to take some time off. Now I'm fighting the urge to fly off somewhere (which will only serve to push my debt-free-ish-ness out even further). Maybe I'll just go to the beach; that doesn't cost much money.
I ran yesterday and today, both times at the gym because the weather has been rainy. Yesterday I was planning on doing 7 miles, but it's so freaking boring running at the gym that all I could do was 4.5 miles.
I still wanted to do a nice long run (more than an hour) so today I decided I would buckle down and knock out the whole 7 miles. I did split it up, though; after a quarter-mile of warmup walking, I did 2 miles at about a 10:00 pace, then stopped to stretch out, then did 3 miles at around a 9:20 pace, then stretched again (and took a bathroom break; my digestive system doesn't cooperate on long runs like I wish it would), and then finished up with a mile at a 9:00 pace and then a nice slow 10:30 pace for the final mile, and then walked another quarter-mile to cool down.
Oh, and after my first 2 miles, I noticed that my new Adidas were giving me a blister on my left ankle. Ow. Good thing I had some moleskin with me. But now there's blood on my new shoes. Ugh. Then, during my final 2 miles, I noticed another blister on my other ankle! Ow x 2. I guess I have to wear the taller socks with these shoes. Dammit. Those blisters really stung in the shower.
I was very hungry afterward, and it took me nearly an hour to shower up and then catch a bus to my favorite restaurant, the Iron Horse, by which time I was nearly passing out from hunger. Not good to wait so long but once I got my food it was worth it.
