Random Thoughts

  I haven't run in well over a month. The first couple of weeks of that time period were taken up with healing a strained back. The rest of the time I have not run for no reason whatsoever, I just haven't.
   I've had plenty of opportunities to get out there but I've managed to rationalize my way out of all of them. Occasionally the weather's been iffy but even when it's been perfect I still don't run.
   Because I'm not running, the pounds are slowly creeping on, as well. I think I was up to 232 the other night.....
   Okay, no real running to blog about so I think I'm going to toss a few random thoughts out there!

1. Watching skinny people run by

   We've all seen them, their lithe bodies effortlessly gliding along the road or sidewalk, breathing easily, looking like they weigh about as much as your leg. What I would really like to do sometime is run up alongside one of them and give them a fifty pound back of cement to carry, just to even out the weight differential!

2. Being able to lose weight easily

   Knowing you can lose weight reasonably quickly and easily is a dangerous thing sometimes! Pretty well anything you want to will go in your mouth if you know that you're not going to have a problem shrinking it away later on. I actually got giddy once when I stepped on the scale and had maxed out at 235 (the heaviest I've been in years) because of the fun I was going to have losing it all again. Which is okay if that's what you actually do...

3. Falling off the vegetarian wagon

   I managed to maintain a vegetarian diet for about four months late last summer and early autumn. I was eating lots of vegetables and running consistently and actually feeling pretty good. But I was sad! It wasn't that I was craving the meat so much it was that I had somehow abandoned an important and enjoyable part of my life for what a lot of people likely thought was no good reason. It affected me in social situations where I had to be the one different guy, the guy other people had to out of their way to accommodate. When Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around I desperately needed to be a part of what my family was doing and that's when I fell off the wagon, huge. And when that happened, I wanted every kind of meat there was, seemingly! This does disturb me, I hate the fact that animals suffer so that I can be fed food I don't need to be fed. Grrr

4. I think I'm supposed to be a sprinter instead

   Intellectually, I like to think of myself as a distance runner. My gut feeling, though, is that I just want to run fast, for about a hundred meters at a time. Any sport I've ever played has always involved short bursts of speed with an accompanying recovery time before the next burst. I have always kind of lived for this. In my twenties, on the football field, I was the guy you were going to need to make allowances for if you were going to cover me. In my sixties, on the ball hockey floor, I'm the guy who you're going to need to work a lot harder at running past than you thought, if, indeed, you can run past me...

5. I need to run in the mountains 

   I follow a lot of bloggers from out in western Canada and get to see a lot of pics of people running through forests, on mountains. I was born out west and it kind of eats me up watching runners do this. There is something about forest trails!

6. I am kind of a beast (for short periods)

   Yes, I'm a slow distance runner, at least right at the moment. I'm big and heavy but I have legs that get me where I want to go and, occasionally, they get me there quickly. This is no mean feat and sometimes they amaze me!

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   So there you have it, a short post of mainly random thoughts, a couple of which might have something to do with running!

How I Got To Where I Am This Very Minute

   I ran today for the first time in a long time. It's been so long that I can't actually remember when the last time was. I suppose I could dig out the Garmin and check back but the fact of the matter is that it's not coming to me right now.
   I should be able to go oh, yeah, I ran yesterday and that was a hard one or maybe even enjoyed the rest day after that long run on Tuesday but none of that is coming to me.
   I did go for a 10K walk last weekend and that was quite the workout but, prior to that, I don't remember any runs.
   What this all means, of course, is that I'm not running enough. And there's been no cross-training in the interim, either. If that's not bad enough, I've more or less abandoned my gluten-free lifestyle, giving me more access to more carbs more often. All of the above has simply been a recipe for disaster, of course, and my body's showing it.
   Last night, I had a perfectly good chicken dinner with fresh veggies. It filled me adequately but then, as I was passing through the kitchen, I noticed a cooked turkey burger sitting, unwanted, in a frying pan on the stove. It looked lonely so I ate it. And then felt awful afterwards.
   So now we can add "poor choices" to everything I've already told you about and you get a pretty good idea of the dire straits I'm in!
   

How to take a sidewalk and
turn it into a trail run. From
my run today.

Earlier on today, I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror (should they be outlawed?) and asked myself if it would be appropriate to do a "selfie", without my shirt on. Ostensibly, it would be the "before" pic and at some point (later and about twenty pounds less) I would post the "after" pic. Then I thought to myself but what if there's no "after" pic to show people. The "before" pic would simply become "the pic" and would just fester there in cyber space. My boobs also rival many women's and I understand there are obscenity guidelines....so no selfies today. You're welcome!

You lucky bastards!

   I ran 5K today in around 40 minutes, about as bad as it's been. My goal is eventually to get under 30. Last summer, I was running around 34 and 30 seemed reachable. Today, a sub-30 5K seems way, WAY off.
   But no big deal; because I can walk, it doesn't matter so much how the running's going and I know way too many people who can't walk. As far as tomorrow goes, I can certainly get out and run again---nothing can really stop me and, if I choose not to run, I can go to the gym and if I choose not go to the gym I can go for a long walk or if I choose not to do any of these things then I can sit here and soak in the world somehow!

My 10K Walk Huge Photo Dump!

   My plan had been to run 5K today but I spent the day yesterday doing yardwork and it felt like every bone in my body ached today. The thought of jarring those same bones around by running was pretty intolerable.
   What I thought I could manage, however, was a long walk. As a bit of a trade-off, I figured that a 10K walk might take the the place if a 5K run, workout-wise. And it does, right...?

   So, because I was walking, I thought I would take some pics along the way. Anything that looked pic-worthy was fodder for my phone camera so there are a lot of pics, couple with my sometimes-whimsical commentary! On the plus side, you don't have to sit there and listen to me ramble on! So here we go!

My street. I love the trees!

Commissioners Road. Busy street but still lots of greenery.

Commissioners and Oxford. A busy intersection and I am on the wrong side of the street!

The McCormick Home, one of the best places for seniors in London. How
convenient, I won't even have to leave my neighbourhood!

Where the rich people live---I'm not even sure I'm allowed to be in the general area...

The Oxford Street extension bridge. It's all downhill, that's why I want to run it so bad!

This pic is a little out of order, it's the pond just before the bridge.

View of the Thames River, from the bridge. All sorts of
visions of my phone falling over the railing!

Had to make a choice here! Which path do you think I picked?! 

Sad part of the walk. A couple of months ago, a 19-year-old girl was killed
here in an early-morning accident. I drive by this every day.....

The VERY nondescript  entrance to the London Hunt and Country Club,
home of several high-profile gold tournaments. You need to be
very careful how you pronounce it....

The track at St. Thomas Aquinas high school. I kind of lust after it.

This was about halfway and I'd forgotten fuel. Thank goodness for the corner drugstore!

Used to live here!

Construction work. Because this is summer. In London.

Riverside Drive, one of the most scenic roadways in London.

Hmmmm...I wonder what goes on in there?

I started singing "Follow The Yellow Mark Road". In my head, though.

But don't follow it TOO closely or you'll get smucked by a car.

I love junk pics. Should have done this one in black and white

Obviously some lazy bastards around.

I don't remember being here! (but maybe that's because of the alcohol...)

The bridge into Byron, where I live. Byron used to be a small village
but then it got annexed by London. Great place to live!

Another view of the river, from the Byron bridge.

The sign, announcing I'm home! Well, apart from the kilometer and a half I still had to walk...

Did I mention it was summer? In London?

   So there you have it, thank you for viewing my huge dump! (giggle)
   Hopefully, the next time around, I'll actually have some running to tell you about!

So did you pick the correct path I took in Pic #9?
Leave your choice in a comment and I'll let you know!

Uh oh....

   My plan was to go out for an 8K run today and test a batch of ENERGYbits I got for Father's Day. I wanted to do this in preparation for my 10K race on Sunday.
   It did not go well.
   I got to about 5K and then tanked right out. Couldn't force myself to run any further.
   I had been attempting to run with scheduled one minute walk breaks every 12 minutes and then gradually make the walk breaks a little more frequent. This worked til about the 40-minute mark and then nothing could get me going again.
   It occurs to me that if I can barely complete a 5K run section then it might be a little presumptuous to assume that I'm going to be able to complete a 10K run on Sunday.
   Unless maybe adrenaline kicks in!
   As I was running this aft, I kept waiting for the ENERGYbits to kick in. My expectation was that I would miraculously not feel tired at the usual times. This did not appear to be what happened today. But I will try again Sunday....
   At this point, I have absolutely no strategy for this race on Sunday. I have the feeling that if I plan on walking intervals then they're gonna have to be a lot more frequent than they were today. The other option is to run at my marathon (giggle) pace for the entire race and see what happens. My "marathon" pace (I have never run a marathon, mind you) is simply what a lot of people would more aptly describe as a very brisk walk. This would likely get me back to the finish line round about the same time the awards ceremony ends....
   Or maybe I should just go and have fun, chat with people, joke around, commiserate a little, enjoy the scenery take lots of pics, that kind of thing. That sound okay??
   Or should I call in the big guns, as evidenced by the only pic I took this aft.....

God is in town...?

Maps and Graphs and Charts, Oh My!!

   I hate numbers. I've always hated numbers, in pretty well every shape and form. I was never good at math in school and I don't even like playing cards. You can ask my bank manager, my real estate agent and my life insurance guy and they will all confirm the fact that I hate numbers!
   Something organic goes on in my head when I see a whole bunch of numbers (or should that be a bunch of whole numbers?) that I am supposed to digest. My vision seems to get a touch foggier and I kind of feel like I go somewhere else, whatever that means. It's almost as if I've walked in on something I wasn't supposed to see so I slowly back out through the door I just came in.
   Here's part of the problem with this.
   I read a lot of running blogs. I read them mainly to hear other peoples' stories about their running trials and tribulations, the feeling they get from it, the pain mixed with the joy. For the most part, much of what I read often mirrors my own experience with running. I guess it might be the sharing which goes on. What a few running bloggers like to share, though, are their numbers.

A chart of how other activities interact with my running

   As much as running can be a very subjective kind of thing, it also is something which has aspects to it which can be easily measured and kept track of. And then shown to the world. In chart form.
   Because many of us are now wired up when we run, charts come spewing forth from this, pretty effortlessly. Many are charts with splits on them--runs divided up into sections with their different times attached. This can sometimes mean many sections with many times, many of which are only minutely different from the other (see what I did there?) You see people's weekly, daily and monthly training plans (quite often with words and phrases I'm unfamiliar with---WOD?, burpees?), VO2 max charts, heel-to-toe drop charts, shoe weight measurement charts, This means many numbers. This means one whole section of a person's blog I skip.
   In fact, if I'm reading someone's blog post and I come across a chart, I stop dead in my tracks. Kind of like what I do if I'm walking through a grassy meadow and I spot a snake. When I realize there's a graph, I sometimes quickly scroll down the post to see if there are more. If there's only one chart with numbers on it, I'll read the post. If, however, there are a bunch of charts and numbers...well, I might just skip that post entirely, sad to say.
   I'm not even really fond of maps, for some reason. Unless you're a running blogger from London, any map you post is pretty well going to be lost on me, sadly. 
   I want to quickly mention that this is only my personal issue. I take no umbrage with people who find charts and graphs and maps useful and informative, they can be a way of concretely demonstrating how much you might be improving as a runner. I'm just clearly allergic to them, if there were an epi-pen for  allergic reactions to numbers, I would carry it with me.
   Numbers are everywhere in running. Even the shoes have numbers! A quick check on the internet found "adidas adiZero Hagio 2.0" and "New Balance 890v3" and "Saucony Type A5". My head was spinning so fast I had to close that window and go look for pics of cute kitty cats!
   Having said all this, PLEASE don't stop posting all your maps and charts and graphs! I'm sure I'm part of a very small minority when it comes to these sorts of things and I'm also quite sure there are readers out there who devour them voraciously, so why change?