30+ DRC 264

Wow. 264 days run.

A little over three months and I'll have reached a year.

And what have I learned from this? That I can always make time for at least a mile. Twenty minutes out of my day to prep, run and cool down if I'm in a hurry. But I usually have more time to do more stuff so I take advantage of it.

I'm lucky about where I work. Yes, it can stink to high heaven at times. It's a mushroom farm and we make our own compost. But once you get used to it (after a few years), it ain't so bad. At times it smells like pork rinds for some reason. Then I get hungry.

Most of the time though, it's wonderful. The farm is situated in bowl, kinda. The composting yard up along one of the hill sides on a huge, paved area. It's on the opposite side of where I work. It's the start and end of what I call the SWT (Shitty Work Trail). As I've said before, it sucks because the elevation changes are spaced really close. I'm running on a sawtooth ridge.

On the map below, the Start is colored in what I think is teal? And the end is in black. The yellow spots are where I loop back. I kinda follow my gaming methodology in this. I always go right . . . until I can't. Then I loop back and go right again. It mostly works. Sort'a.

The big brown chocolate stain at the top of the picture is the composting yard, what is known in the mushroom industry as Phase 1. The white roofed buildings next to it are what are called the Phase 2 rooms. After they get the compost from phase 1, they stuff them in 4'X8' trays and stack them in these temperature controlled rooms get them colonized with what the growers call fire-fang. In the lab, we call it scytalidium. It a fungus that thrives in relatively high temperature. It's also food for agaricus bisporus . . . your typical, store bought white or portobello mushroom.

Yes, the white mushroom used on pizzas and salads are pretty much the same as the portobello mushrooms. They are analogous to how dogs are different, but can still breed with each other. Not you'd want to breed a Great Dane and a chihuahua . . . poor chihuahua.

The grey roofed buildings below the phase 2 rooms are the actual growing rooms. Most of it is dedicated to the white mushrooms. Each section of those buildings is a growing room. They are huge rooms. The buildings by where my trail starts are pretty much dedicated to growing the portobello mushrooms. Not as much coming out of those as the other side of the farm.

I don't know if I said before, but the reason I'm running the SWT is because I was getting tired of my bum knee. It really was jacked up and I couldn't comfortably run flats anymore. I took a shot at the trail one day to see if having a constantly changing trail would help my knee out.

Unfortunately it did. I hate it because of how friggin' hard the trail is to run. I mean, SHIT! It really kicks my ass! I love it because it's actually helped my knee. I love it because I get to do it at work early and not worry about having enough time to do it after work. So I get to spend more time with the daughter.

So . . . that's the lesson for the day. I want a 1000 word report on how fungi can save the world. Due next week.

GD

p.s.
didn't check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 248

This is a little test that I'm trying.

I once tried typing up a post on my iPhone . . . didn't work out so well. I just want to see how this post up later.

The last few runs have been getting better. Each day an improvement. I'm hoping by next week, I can start running the two miles regularly and slowly bump it up again.

The Santa Cruz Half Marathon is in April and I'd like to be able to run that one. Gotta get better and increase my mileage for obvious reasons.

The problem area has shifted from my knee (kinda) to my outer thigh. More of an ache though, because that muscle has been compensating for whatever I originally screwed up.

Also when I used to start out my runs, my ankle would want to stiffen up. But about a minute into the run it would be fine.

After very little thought, I finally remembered why I have so many problems with this leg. And it has to do with that ankle.

Back when I was working (full time) and going to school (full time), I was mean ol' fat bastard. Well not mean, just horrendously fat. Like 5' 6" and nearly 300lbs fat. I'm still not a pretty picture, but 225 (at last check a couple days ago) is much better than 300.

It had been a LONG week at work and at school. A lot of projects and reports due (AAS in computer tech). School was 5 days a week from 6pm to 10:30pm. I carried two backpacks full of books and supplies EVERYWHERE.

I was relieved that I completed everything on time and was very satisfied that I'd get excellent scores and grades. Not being cocky, just very thorough (and I did, btw). I skipped pizza and beer with my friends that night because I had to work the next morning (on a Saturday, ugh).

I got home and headed to the garage to throw my backpacks on my desk . . . and misjudged a step down. I rolled my ankle and heard a snap. Then I felt it. I wanted to scream like a little girl and I don't know why I didn't. I still don't remember how I ended up on the sofa a few minutes later with an ice pack wrapped around my ankle.

I probably should have gone to the doctor . . . but I didn't. My ankle was the size of a football at first, but the swelling had gone down to about softball size the next morning.

Continuing this story on my computer now because it's a bit tedious typing on this crappy screen for this long!

Just so you know, that isn't really the beginning of the crappy day that I had.  It started earlier in the day right after I got out of work. My friend and I worked at the same place (he was my boss at the time) and we commuted together. We took turns driving. It was his turn that day. He's one of those drivers that sits really close to the wheel and tailgates like a mofo! I think he does it more when I'm in the car with him to keep me a nervous wreck.

Anyway, so it's the end of the day and we are sitting at the stop waiting to make a left-hand-turn at a notoriously dangerous intersection. There hasn't been a month that goes by that someone ends up in the ditch on either side of the road on hit by another car.

I guess we were selected to get T-boned that day.

We had left early that day that we got out at the same time school lets out so there were a lot of cars going by on the main road. It's a 55 mph curvy mountainous road. The road we were on had the elementary school, so people were turning onto it. When it was his turn to wait to make that left, there was a line of cars about 7 deep on the near side of the main road in front of us all slowing down to turn onto the road we were on. All the cars appeared to be making that turn. They were all signalling.

But I saw a work truck speeding up from behind those other cars and when my friend asked if he should turn, I told him no. He hit the gas.

The truck hit us.

We were soooooo lucky! And I'm not being sarcastic about this. It could have been so much worse.

When the truck hit us, nailed the back end of the drivers side hard enough to tattoo the license plate number on the body. We spun around a couple of time and ended up in the ditch right across from where we were at just a few seconds ago. The car was ass down, nose up at about a 60 degree angle. For some reason, I pictured us about to take off into space when we ended up there.

I asked my bud if he was ok. He said he was fine, then the jerk asked where his glasses were at. I told him no, I'm fine too! I wasn't calm, but I wasn't too upset. From the moment we stopped in the ditch, I knew we were more than fine. The car was totaled, but we were fine. I got out to make sure of my self assessment and make sure he was ok. He seemed a bit dazed. I had him sit down on the hood of the car while I checked on the driver of the truck. He was running towards us wanting to make sure WE were fine. He was just as scared shitless as my friend. When he saw that we were ok, he literally just dropped to his knees in relief . . . in the middle of the road. I helped him back up and had him sit next to my friend.

His truck . . . perfectly fine. Just a bit of paint from my friends car. No other sign that it had been in an accident. My friends car . . . all three back windows gone, driver side window gone, windshield spiderwebbed, body had a 15 degree angle to it now from the rear driver-side door (4 door Honda). Oh, and it was in the ditch.

Other drivers had pulled off the road and asking if we were ok and were calling 911. I found my buds glasses in the middle of the road. Not a scratch on 'em.

Something was in the cards for that day.

So there I am, on the sofa with my ankle FUBAR'ed. After the accident earlier I was supposed to pick him up the next day because he didn't have a car to go to work yet. But here was the problem: At the time I drove a 1981 Toyota Longbed pickup . . . STICK! I needed both feet to drive!

Crap. I just realized that's not the reason why I'm having trouble with my right leg now. I guess it's just a  regular injury. Bummer. Oh well, might as well finish the damn story.

My LEFT ankle was my clutch foot. How the fuck was I going to drive to work! I called him and told him what happened. Being the idiot that I am, he convinced me to pick him up anyway.

I somehow hobbled out to my truck and miraculously figured out how to press in the clutch without TOO much pain. When I got to his house, I told him to drive. The fucker tells me he doesn't know how to drive my truck. He once had manual 4 speed Hyundai. I forgot about that like an idiot until MUCH LATER!

We somehow get to work without killing us and I told him I was just going to sit in the lab with my ankle elevated and that he can fuck off if he wanted me to work. I was too pissed and in pain to actually be able to work anyway. He left me alone until noon when we finally left. I didn't speak to him that whole week.

I didn't break anything and I think the only thing the visit to the doctor would have done was put me in a cast to minimize movement. I put a wrap around it and was on crutches for about a week I think.

I'm sorry for the long post, but I'm a bit worried. That happened in a February. My two personal car accidents (none my fault) were in February. My street hockey related broken wrist . . . February. My slashed on the are by some crazy random dude when I was 12 . . . February.

February and I don't get along. 28 days is too long for February. I'm not too superstitious except for this. I have several years between major incidences, but I'm still wary. Every friggin' year I watch for extra crazy stuff.

GD

p.s.
too crazy to check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 243

The last couple of weeks haven't really been to interesting in the running aspect of my life. Other than really trying to keep up with the extra exercises after my runs. One of the reasons I actually keep up with it is because of the Fitocracy app on my iPhone.

Fitocracy is a social network for exercise. Only I don't really use it for the social aspect of it much. It's just another log I use to help keep track of what I'm doing. It's another reminder that I gotta keep going so I don't fall back to my former potato-ness. It's a great tool.

The other neat thing about it is that you level up! So it throws in that gaming aspect to your fitness. As of now, I'm at level 23 and I only need 1754 points to reach level 24. If I keep up the effort, I can break through to level 24 in about a week! Ok, I'm not really that excited about it. But sometimes you like to look at your level and appreciate all the work you put into what you've done. You have a hard number to work off of.

Another reason Fitocracy helps is because if you're really motivated, you can set up your exercises for the day and if you don't do them they are a glaring reminder of what you didn't do. It's a whole psychological thing with it. And it's helped me get through my days. You can track your running on it as well as a ton of other exercises they have on there. You can set up routines or follow one of the Quests they have. A LOT of them I cannot do yet. But there are two that I do follow. The Push The Earth Quest and the As Seen On TV Quest.

Push The Earth is as follows:
20 Reps - Body Weight Lunge
30 Reps - Body Weight Squat
20 Reps - Pushups or Kneeling Pushups
10 Reps - Jump Squats (Toyotas)

When I first completed PTE, I followed it exactly except for the pushups. When you select PTE for your quest, it actually posts both the regular pushups and the kneeling pushing for your routine. What I didn't know was that you could edit it out . . . until much later. But by then, I was already incorporating both into my version of PTE. I was doing the 20 kneeling pushups, but  only 5 regular pushups for the quest. And I was happy with that because it was something I wasn't doing before.

For the squats and lunges, I was happy that I'd taken a beginning class for Crossfit a while back. I remembered how to stay on my heels when doing the squats and the lunges were nice and wide without my knee passing my foot. The Toyotas were a bit of a surprise. I forgot how difficult they can be.

Now here's the thing about the quest. It tells you that you are supposed to complete the quest within one day. So you can spread out the quest throughout your day. You don't have to do them all at once. As long as you finish them all within that 24 hour period. But I figure since I go for my run when I get home and I'm all warmed up  . . . might as well just finish it all in one go. Sort of my own modified Crossfit routine.

When you complete the quest, you go to your workout for the day in the app or on your pc and you add in how much you did for each exercise. Now I've been slowly increasing the reps since I've started following PTE. This is what my PTE looked like yesterday:


30 Reps - Body Weight Lunge
15 Reps - Pushups
40 Reps - Body Weight Squat
20 Reps - Kneeling Pushups
20 Reps - Jump Squats (Toyotas)

Fucking Toyotas, man.

I try to complete this quest on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The As Seen On TV quest is a bit more diffcult:

5 Reps - Pushups
100 Reps - Jumping Jacks
30 Reps - Crunches
10 Reps - Body Weight Squat
30 Sec - Plank
15 Rep - Body Weight Lunge
20 Rep - Bicycle (abs)

The first time I did this quest, I only changed the pushups to 10 instead of the 5. I'm trying to build my upper body strength damn it! As with the PTE quest, I've also been increasing the reps on this one, as well as the order in which I do them. The following is what I did on Wednesday:

10 Reps - Pushups
40 Sec - Plank
30 Reps - Squats
40 Reps - Crunches
100 Reps - Jumping Jacks
50 Reps - Bicycles
30 Reps - Lunges

And I used to think planks were easy to do. What a dumbass. What probably makes them even more difficult is that I do the plank right after the pushups so I stop at the top and hold the position for the 30 or more seconds needed to complete the plank.

What trips me out is that I have no problem with all these leg exercises. But when I'm running, my knee is getting all out of whack and I can run further than maybe a mile and a half. It's been slowly getting better, and I think it's because I've been doing these quests. I'm would like to try to run 4 miles on Saturday at the Toro Estates. Hopefully I can.

Again with another long post, but I hope it was somewhat informative.

GD

p.s.
too lazy. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 232

I could go on and on about what a fucked up week it's been . . .

But I'm not. I need a break from all the drama and I'm going to do it here with a quick update about my running. And I mean quick.

I don't really have much to add as far as what I've been doing. I have increased my mileage a tad. I'm getting closer to 2 comfortable miles. The knee is still an issue and it's actually traveled up to my quad now. Just a bit of tightness that takes it time to loosen (if at all) during my run.

I'm still continuing with my cross-training stuff because I do believe it's been helping increase my stamina and helping to fix my knee.

The boots are no longer being worn and I am actively looking for a suitable pair I can use at work when needed.

Anyone want a pair of size 10 Redwings boots?

GD

p.s.
didn't check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 226

And another eventful week has passed . . .

More daughter issues that I don't really want to get into right now. Too depressing and it's something I must talk to her mom about. I've never had to deal with other people like this and I'm finding it difficult not to stress over someone I love so much practically bury herself in a massive depression.

And because I empathize with her, she's dragging me down into her pit as well . . . and she doesn't care.

Which is one of the main reasons I continue to run!

The running helps clear my mind and think about how I can help her get out of this funk. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a remedy yet, but the run helps me relieve some of the pressure.

I've begun to incorporate some body weight exercises in hopes of improving my knee issue and also just to change things up a bit and get a bit stronger. And maybe by Spring, finally include some Crossfit into my runs.

I started last Monday . . . after my last emotional long post. The extra stuff after the run did relieve more of the pressure. I whip through them fairly quick. Again, to release the tension. The exercises are from the Fitocracy Quests. They are challenges that, for me, are doable.

The first one I did was the As Seen On TV Challenge
5 Push-ups
20 Body Weight Squats
20 Bicycles
100 Jumping Jacks
30 Second Plank
20 Kneeling Push-ups (cause I'm fat and have not an erg of upper body strength)
20 Body Weight Lunges
30 Crunches

That was a tuffy the first time. I started with the jumping jacks and my calves were burning!

The next one I did was Push The Earth:
20 Body Weight Lunges
30 Body Weight Squats
20 Kneeling Push-ups
10 Toyotas
5 Push-ups

I continued doing PTE the rest of the week, but I increase the lunges to 30, and the Toyotas to 20.

Last Thursday I increase my mileage to a minimum of 1.5 miles a day. I didn't want to have a repeat of the last time and totally aggravate my knee. So . . . baby steps. Literally. I've forced myself to take much smaller and quicker steps to protect from impact forces. And it has helped tremendously. I'm not hobbling on the runs anymore. Cool.

So I've included some exercises and increased my mileage a little. I'm just gonna go by ear and see if I can push the runs even more.

And I noticed yesterday that my run was a bit more comfortable than it was before I included the Quests.

Hopefully this upward trend continues.

GD

p.s.
I love you Chipmunk. Be strong.

p.s.
too lazy. run smiley.

30+ DRC 218

New Years has come and gone.

Happy 2013.

It's been an eventful week, I'll tell you. I've had a pretty emotional and stressful week. Family drama and having to be a responsible "dad" can be heart-wrenching and stressful. But in the end, things were looked at with a clear eye and my decision to be blunt has made a bit of a turnaround in attitude.

Over the past few years, the daughter has been heavy into the social media Beginning with MySpace in junior high, going to Facebook and lately with Twitter. Before MySpace, she had a lot of friends. She eventually began to get surly and have a lot of problems at school. Of course, being oblivious to social media, we didn't make the connection. We did notice the drop off in friends visiting or her heading out to go to friends houses. It was about the time she started dating as well so I thought I might have something to do with that.

She still had friends, though. And during the summer, she made more and hung out more often with them. She left MS and began using FB. The surliness would come and go and I contributed it to teenage issues. When she began high school, she tried out for cheer and was a shoo in because of all her experience with a championship Youth Football league cheer squad. Her squad won the nationals two years in a row.

During this time, she could only be on social media sites with her laptop at home. She had an internet capable phone, but it was a bit clumsy to work with and she always had problems with it. Some cheap Android phone from Metro PCS. She was dealing with freshman issues, but still having problems socializing and making enemies. Still no connection made to social media.

It made no sense to me at the time, though. When she met new people, they loved her.

Sometime during late spring, she got a new iPhone. She was so in love with it, but still working out the in's and out's.

During the summer she got real serious with a new boyfriend and was hardly on FB. This year was her sophomore year which she began with a positive attitude. She was asked to coach a group of 9 to 10 year old cheerleaders for her former youth cheer squad and had it all planned out. Calendars, notebooks, cheers, choreography . . .  everything you want a coach to prepare before the season begins. Her advisors LOVED her. She is a go-getter.

But she had a problem with her co-coach. There were attitude issues stemming from some argument that I later found out began with an FB post . . .

She also began to have problems with her high school cheer squad. Boyfriend issues also began. Eventually everything broke down for her. She broke up with the boyfriend (several times), her grades started hurting, and she quit cheer.

Her quitting cheer really hurt me. She has been cheering since she was seven years old. She ate, lived and breathed cheer! It was her one passion and it was going away.

All because of Twitter.

She quit using FB because of too much drama coming from it. That was before the decision to quit cheer, in fact. At least a couple of months prior. She hadn't been happy. She wasn't comfortable with the squad any more. She had been bullied, and then they stopped with her and they began with another member. I understand that she quit, too.

I don't know when she began using Twitter, but it must have been in the summer. She didn't have many followers (relatively speaking for a teen girl). But when I finally connected the dot (about a week ago) she had only about 200 followers. Her friends had been over to spend the night and make some goofy YouTube video and she was on a mission to break 300. Once the video was out and had been posted on Twitter, she began racking up the followers.

But she also began getting that look in her eye when she was having a flame-war. As anyone used to posting comments anywhere, you see the troll reaching for attention. My guess is the daughter is one such troll. She can't help it. Her mom's the same way.

That weekend the video came out, she actually broke 400 followers. But she wasn't happy. She was in such a foul mood, I didn't understand it. Nothing I did would break her out of that funk. As it is, she hardly wants anything to do with me. Again, I blame the teen girl, angst thing.

But the day after New Years we had a quiet day at the lab and I had a lot of time to think and piece things together. I wrote her a long letter explaining my conclusions as to why she should chill with the social media addiction.

That's what it had become. An addiction. I don't know why I didn't see it before. But the more I looked back on what was going on, the more I realized that she was always on.

On her iPhone
On her laptop.
On her friends phone or laptop.

It was nonstop with her. Texting, commenting, grunting an answer to a spoken question.

I got a text about an hour later saying that she wanted to go with her mom to Yuma. My heart dropped.

I got a text from her mom telling me she got a call from the daughter crying. She wasn't upset at me, she just wanted an explanation. I told her. She agreed with my conclusion. She told me she'd get over it.

I still felt like shit. I tried to explain to her why I did it. Seeing all the problems that came from it, the tears she shed . . . just seeing her in pain!

Her response: "Thx for telling me I don't have friends"

That's what she took from it. I told her she has her close friends, but not like she used to. I told her not to twist my words around. I don't know why, but I felt I had totally fucked up. That I should have left well enough alone. I told her I was just trying to help. That at times, I felt like my limbs were bound and I was in this freakin' cold and deep pool and I didn't know how to get out of it.

That I was trying my best to show her mom that I was strong enough for this whole helping to raise a teenager business, but it was really hard to put on brave face in all this drama! I was trying to learn, but that the she wasn't talking to me to try to help her.

I didn't hear from her the rest of the day. That whole event was before noon.

I was sort of on auto-pilot doing what I had to do. But I was still totally distraught over what I had done. I had been too brutally honest with her.

Luckily for me her best friend had been with her.

They must have discussed what I wrote. Must have broken it down and finally interpreted it to why I had sent it to her. When I got home, I actually hesitated opening the front door. I could hear them laughing and listening to music. This sounds cheesy as fuck, but I didn't want it to end.

I opened the door and we just looked at each other. We were both a bit uncomfortable and I made some small talk. I eventually was able to get her alone and ask her if we were good. She said she already forgot about it. I looked her in the eye and told her, "That's just it. I don't want you to forget about it. I need you to think about it. Hard!"

She said ok, and I hugged her. She hugged me back. I love you's were said and a slight burden was lifted.

The most of the heaviness I felt was lifted this weekend when she actually hung out with me for most of it. I hadn't seen her this happy and positive in a long time. She also wasn't glued to her damn phone either. She was still on it, just not like she used to. I think she was texting, not Twittering.

I hope this keeps up.

As far as my running is concerned. I don't really want to talk about it. The streak's still on, it's just been a very uncomfortable few weeks with the bum knee and all. I don't really think I'm aggravating it. But because I have to wear the boots at work all the time now, I think the knee is going to be an issue for a while. Hopefully wearing them loose instead of all cinched up will help. The achiness has dulled a bit, but it's still there at the beginning of the run. It may eventually go away.

GD

too drained to check. run smiley.

30+ DRC 211

I have been seriously reconsidering this whole running challenge thing lately. I'm not terribly injured, but my knee isn't making running fun any more . . . at least right now.

I know if I stop to rest up a week or so, my knee will be fine again. But I'm not certain what would happen after. Would I want to try to start another non-stop challenge? Right now I'm not certain. But I think I'd lean towards a "no".

I know I'm not aggravating the knee, just prolonging the healing it could be doing. By running on it, I already feel my other leg working more than it did. And the leg with the bum knee, well that's working a bit different too. I'm feeling other parts of my legs that I didn't feel before and I don't think that's a good thing. My time has drastically dropped because of it.

And the thing is, I finally figured out where the problem stems from.

 These mofo's!

Ever since I bought these damn things and worn them, something funky crops up in my running. Be it my knee (currently) or my stinkin' ankle! Aaaaand it's always the same leg! These boots are so comfortably awesome, it's a shame I can't use them any more. And they're practically new! I only use them when I have to go onto the farm and walk the rooms. I can't be walking into those growing rooms with toe-shoes or my Merrells.

The boots are just too cushy. I need a boot that has a hard sole and insole.No cushyness. The closest thing I can think of is my old Altama military combat boots.

I had started wearing these boots in high school. At times after school, I'd go to the local flea market and help out some of the vendors there for a bit of money. Mainly the produce guys. It was open a few times a week. A couple of hours work and $20 was pretty good back then. These boots got me through a lot of shit. Sometimes literally . . . or almost. Rotten fruit and produce at the end of the weekend, no bueno.

I kept on buying these every few years because I couldn't find any other boots as comfortable. I've always tended towards harder soled shoes and boots. Vans, Chucks and Dickies shoes were great as well. The Dickies Vulcans were uber-cushy, but at the time I liked them.

I LOVE the look of some of the Red Wing Heritage boots. Especially these babies!

Red Wing Heritage Iron Ranger Style No. 8111's.

Old school. Love the damn boots. Just a bit pricey. They're around $250. But they last forever, so I think they'd be worth the price.

As far as running . . . I'm gonna keep at it. It's gotten a bit better. But I think that's because I'm REALLY concentrating on my form when running. And I try to wear my VFF's or Merrells when I can. I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and take it slow until my knee heals up.

GD

p.s.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

p.p.s.
take it easy, too lazy. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 207. Yeah, I'm Getting Lazier

And I figured it was about time I abbreviated the titles to these damn updates. So today is day 207 of the 30+ day running challenge . . . or as abbreviated 30+ Day Running Challenge 207.

I think I have to work on that.

Anyway, for any regular readers, I think you'll understand.

My legs were doing ok. They weren't feeling as leaden in these past couple of days. I'm running slower now that I've essentially doubled my mileage, but it's not too bad. On Monday, Christmas Eve, I ran two miles and they were ok. Rainy, chilly, but ok. I got back, showered and made myself presentable and headed over to my parents house to spend the night with them.

My Dad asked after the daughter, godson and cousin. As I was telling him, my mom who was at the table, got up abruptly and stalked away. That hurt. I played the good son the rest of the night. Dinner, smiles and some conversation. I mainly conversed with my brother-in-law and my brother and his girlfriend. I stayed away from my mom. Soon midnight came around, handed the presents out the the kids and then went home around 1am.

Christmas day on Tuesday, I was not up to seeing family. I called the brat and spoke with her, my godson and my cousin. They LOVED the presents I had sent them. I got my cousin a Kindle Fire and the daughter told me she screamed. The same went with the godson, whom I made a 50/50 split buy on a new XBox 360 since he RR'ed his last on. The daughter already knew what was waiting for her at home, but I did send along a giant gummy bear. FIVE POUNDS! I love Amazon. The rest of the day was spent reading and glued to Netflix. I went for a run in the midafternoon and continued with the Netflixing.


Wednesday, I received a call from another cousin asking if I could give her a ride to pick up something from friends house in Marina. I agreed and as soon as I got home I got into my gear and headed out the door for two. After my shower I went to pick her up and along tagged along two other brats. I had planned to spill my guts to my cousin, but with her two nieces along . . . nope. Still, I made it the trip an event. My cousin is the WORST navigator on the planet. She'd been to her friends house several times, but apparently not at night. And she never paid attention to landmarks either. She finally got the address, but my map app couldn't pinpoint the house. Just kinda give us an general idea. So I was dealing with digital version of my cousin. I finally broke out the flashlight (I always carry one in the car) and started spotlighting the numbers on the homes (dark street). We had passed the house like three or four times! And when we finally found it, she finally recognized her friends car!!!!

Her nieces were laughing so hard, it was contagious. I really needed that.

When she finally dropped off some gifts and received some in turn, we headed back to town. On the way we were getting close to this really good frozen yogurt shop called MYO (Make Your Own). I parked and everyone wanted some. They poured their favorites and loaded up the toppings they wanted. Everyone was happy. I finally dropped them off and the nieces mom, gave me the evil eye :)

I forgot to mention that during the run, I was nearing the end and began pushing to go a bit faster in the last two tenths. Just as I was about to finish, I tweaked something in my knee. I had to slow down and finish much slower than before.

It's been aching off and on all day. It's not too bad, yet. I hope it doesn't bug me too much tonight when I go for my run.

GD

too lazy. run smiley :)

Day 204 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

And boy, I'm beat! And I've been trying to figure out WHY until I got my training report this morning.

For the past month (until last Monday) I'd been running a mile a day, to keep up with the Running Challenge. I'd been laid out with the flu and later with a cold. I don't think going out and running hurt me. When I went out for my run, my sinuses would clear up and my coughing would alleviate for hours, at times. Nearly four full weeks of running one stinkin' mile a day, needless to say my mileage dropped a bit.

And apparently it hurt me.

Last Monday (December 17th), I went out for a three mile run. I felt fantastic! It was great to be out there again for more than ten minutes. I had planned for at least five miles, but I was huffing it a bit near the third mile and called it quits when the clock turned over. I felt good though. After the run the glums hit hard, but I worked through it.

Tuesday, I made myself go for three. It was freakin' cold out. Once I got warmed up though, it was fine. Just a bit of skin burning off for a few minutes. I was really puffin' away by the time I got to the three mile mark.

Wednesday is when it really hit me. I started out great and about a half mile out, my legs really started to let me know that I was pushing them further than I have for a while. Just in the last two days, I'd put almost as many miles as I had last WEEK! And the previous weeks as well! But for some reason it didn't want to click into my dense skull. Mentally I was still in my 15+ mile-a-week mode. That's a big NOPE! And insult to injury, I thought running with my Merrell Trail Gloves would be ok. Again a bit NOPE! Not on pavement.

Thursday SUCKED. I didn't even get to start comfortable. My legs were sore and heavy from the get-go! It didn't help that it was really cold! My joints actually hurt, and not just legs. I was hoping it wasn't a flu relapse. I was beginning to reconsider my need for some sort of running pants.

I must apologize to Brent. I have foot-in-mouth disease. I've ran in the cold before, but not every single day. I've been able to make do on those days I did run in the cold, not needing to consider that I may be running in the cold again. Well now that I am running everyday, I want to make sure I stay motivated. And the only way to stay motivated is to be comfortable.

So I must buy pants.

Friday wasn't so bad. Yeah it was cold. But it was also rainy. It was something novel and I had fun. Because of the toe-shoes, my tootsies were soggy as well. They were cold at first, but the water in them warmed up enough to not be an issue.

On a side note, as I was starting out, my neighbors were just arriving from . . . wherever they were arriving from and were looking at me as if I had just grown another head or something. I said hi and continued on my way.

On Saturdays, I like to start my run around 8am or thereabouts. The covers were holding me down longer than usual and the fight that ensued was bloody. There was fleece and cotton everywhere, but I eventually prevailed. I got to the trail head an hour later than usual and started my run . . . about the same time it began drizzling . . . then raining. And continued until I was finished with my two miles. And stopped. Neat.

Yesterday . . . the battle with the blankets was epic! I got to the trail head two hours later than usual. It was raining pretty steadily and it was a might, bit colder than yesterday. As I was reaching the turnaround point, the heavens opened up. I was drenched and shivering by the time I finished my cool-down walk.

Though my legs are still a bit beat, I'm getting back into the groove of things. As to why I've been having so much trouble with my mileage? Let me give you a rundown of the last four weeks:

11/25/2012 to 12/01/2012
  8.16 Miles

12/02/2012 to 12/08/2012
  7.31 Miles

12/09/2012 to 12/15/2012
  7.35 Miles

12/16/2012 to 12/22/2012
  15.49 Miles

Even though I've gone back to the mileage I've had before, I've pretty much doubled my mileage after a near hiatus of almost a month. I didn't think it would hurt me this bad, but hopefully when it happens again, it won't be as big a surprise. It feels good to be back here again. I'll be staying here for a while, God willing.

Though I still miss the Chipmunk, my brat is with her mom and brother. I can take comfort in that. She's with some of her cousins and is having fun. She says she misses me and wishes I could be there with them. My godson says the same. Maybe next year I'll go there with them for at least a few days to spend Christmas with them. Though my mom will be upset. I'll deal with it when the time comes.

So to any of you who read this self-serving blog, Merry Christmas! Love your family, cause as the kids say . . . YOLO!

GD

p.s.
didn't check. run smiley :)

Day 198 of 30+ Day Running Challenge . . . And Teen Girls.

I had posted up on DailyMile that I was going to break 500 miles for the year. Yeeeeaaaah. Not gonna happen. I'm a dumbass. I hadn't realized that just running a mile a day for about a month was going to set me back this far.I would've had to run at least eight miles last night to break 500.

One highlight of the night though, as I was about the halfway point of my run, I ran past these high school girls. They were across the street. I was wearing my reflecting anklets and had my Knuckle Lights on (awesome fashion accessories). A moment later I hear some giggling and the pitter-patter of someone running behind me. I was being chased by one of the girls while her friends were yelling at her to run faster! Awesome! I'm still hot enough to chase!

Anyway . . . if I had to, I probably could've run 5 miles earlier in the day. But by the time I got home, it being dark and cold and drizzling and a MAJOR case of the glums, I just wasn't feeling it.


Why the glums, you ask?

The daughter is gone :'(

Her mom came down last Friday night from Yuma and took the daughter away for Xmas break on Sunday night. Saturday, I spent the day chauffeuring her and the daughter around taking care of some stuff before she had to head back to Yuma. I was holding up like a champ until her ride arrived Sunday night and my cousin says "Awwww! Your Uncle GD is gonna cry!"

And the daughter looked at me with her crumpled face in tears. Ugh! That broke me. The tears came and we hugged each other for a good minute or so. All the while my cousin (the heartless bitch) was laughing her ass off. Before they got into their ride, I gave my cousin a heartfelt hug and the daughter another long hug.

The daughter later texted me a several minutes after they left that her mom was crying, too. So maybe she isn't such a heartless bitch after all. This Christmas is gonna feel a bit more empty without the brat around . . .

GD

p.s.
too bummed to check. try to run smiley :')

Day 192. 12/12/12

Ooooooh. Supposedly, this is this century's last sequential date.

I call shenanigans.

There hasn't been a TRUE sequential date since the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. I mean, seriously!

January 1st, 1 - 1/1/1
February 2nd, 2 - 2/2/2
March 3rd, 3 - 3/3/3
April 4th, 4 - . . . and so on

You get the picture. After the first twelve years, sequential dates were DONE! If you wanna make a big deal outta the dates, then you can play with the binary stuff.

January 1st, 1 - 01/01/01
January 10th, 1 - 01/10/01
November 11th, 1111 - 11/11/1111
And blah, blah, blah.

When the second millenium began, fun stuff with binary dates was gone, too. I guess you can start playing with other numerology stuff, but the above mentioned ones are the ones that I thought a bit funny when people made a big deal about it.

The whole Mayan prophecy thing, today was one date a lot of people thought marked the end of the world. Others say it's the 21st of this month. Terrence McKenna, one of the new age philosophy gurus thought something significant would occur on the 21st. He "discovered" a pattern throughout history that the Mayan calendar appeared to match up with. Something to do with a 67 year cycle. But I remember reading somewhere that McKenna kinda fudged a date to match up with the Mayan calendar.

McKenna had an "Omega Point" theory. Having something to do with our mental capability increasing to such a high point that it was theoretically infinite. That Omega Point would occur December 21st, 2012. According to his theory though, that point should have occurred sometime in mid-November, which would mark the 67-point-something year cycle. The beginning of that cycle having occurred with the bombing of Hiroshima.

All that aside, there is a lot of things happening in this world. The main reason people take notice though, is that we literally have information at our fingertips. Most of my friends have smartphones. I know of only two hold-outs that adamantly refuse to get anything more than a simple text-capable phone. And they are married to each other. I use my iPhone all the time to look up stuff.

But my friends and I refuse to be like those dumb asses in group settings staring at their phone. Sure we'll take pictures and take calls if necessary, but we will NOT be Facebooking, Instagraming, Tweeting or whatever when we are trying to catch up on each others lives!

If you're one of those people,  STOP IT! You're in a social situation with REAL PEOPLE! Socialize with your friends, meet new people if you want, but get OFF the damn phone!

My brother was one of those guys. He's a kid (relatively speaking) at 23 years old so he's into the whole social media stuff. I won't call it crap, because . . . come on. I'm blogging right now. He wanted to hang out with my friends and I. Cool! We got to the bar ordered some beers and burgers.

Pulls out his phone takes a picture of us, his food and beer. And starts tapping away. Bad move, dude.

My friends gave him so much shit, I almost started to feel bad for him . . . almost. He gave as good as he got, though. Pretty good, considering the smack talk thrown his way. But he got the point. From then on he only took pictures and updated his status' on the ride back home. Lesson learned.

Oh, and the running updates?

Still a bit of a cold. But I hope to be well enough for a good long run (long for me) on Saturday . . . maybe even Sunday.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 190 of blah, blah, blah . . . ugh.

The title has nothing to do with my motivation of keeping up with the running streak. It's to do with this stinkin' flu-turned-to-cold that is lingering like death on battlefield. But I'm fighting off the mother with everything I have. I'm near the end of the hit right now, thank the gods. I've had this thing for the past two weeks and right now, it's just some congestion and a bit of a cough.

And it's all because I gave my brother a ride from work . . . bastard.

About a month back, I had finished my run and had just got home and was about to jump in the shower when my brother called. His girlfriend was at work and he needed a ride from work later that afternoon. I agreed and I had been wanting to hang out with him for a while and asked him if he wanted to go have a beer and a burger. He said he had a cold, but he wanted to go anyway. I didn't think his being sick was a big deal. Oops.

We had a great lunch with some awesome beer at BJ's Brew House. I had their California Burger  with blue cheese crumbles and an Arrogant Bastard . . . or three. My brother, ever the adventurer, got the Bacon Cheeseburger and the AB as well. He was coughing a bit, but nothing major. He just happened to cough in my general direction once in a while. Again, I thought it no biggie.

That weekend I started getting sick. Just a general feeling of . . . blah. By Monday I was bad. Headache, runny nose, cough . . . I think even a slight fever. I left work early and went for a run. That cleared up the headache surprisingly. As well as the sinus issues. Cough worsened though. Dry air and deep breaths would do that. I coughed all night into Tuesday morning. I ended up biting the bullet and hit up the 24-hour Safeway and bought some Nyquil/Dayquil caps.

I attempted to speak to my boss and call in sick in the morning, but my voice was gone. I think he got the point. I crashed out after taking the daughter to school. I didn't wake up again until my alarm went off to go pick up the daughter. We got back home, I took a shower and made her some hamburger-mac-n-cheese. Homemade, even. No boxed stuff for the brat. Real sharp cheddar. Awesome. After giving her dinner, I went for my run.

That's when the single mile streak began.

It wasn't until this week that I began feeling a bit better and probably could have gone for more. But every time I finish a mile and stop, I begin coughing intermittently for a while. I had my first spaz attack a few days ago and again really bad yesterday. A couple of hours later though, I can take deep breaths again with no problems. It's really pissing me off.

I'm hoping by Wednesday I'll be able to start kicking up the miles again. It's sad seeing single digits on my weekly training log.

GD

p.s.
almost too sick to check, just lazy. run smiley :)

Day 183. Six Fuggin' Months!

Holy crap! Six months today!

And unfortunately it'll be a short run of a mile . . . again. For the past week or so, I've been really laid up with a nasty roller-coaster cold. Why roller-coaster? It shifts from being tolerable to horrible within a very short period. AAAAND . . . I had to contend with the weather as well!

When I was feeling good, I had no problem going out in the rain for a run. But being miserable and then having to go out in this miserable weather? Nuh-uh! So I'd wait for a break in the weather and in my cold and go out for my mile. It's been like that all week.

Today I'm feeling a bit better, not as foggy but contending with a bit of a cough and phlegm build-up. No rain, but it's a tad nipply. Usually great conditions for run when feeling well. Not today. I wanted to mark the dianniversary with a 6 mile run. But I guess it'll have to wait a bit. Hopefully this weekend.

If it feels like I'm rambling on, I probably am. Feeling a bit foggy again. Ugh.

GD

p.s.
ugh. run smiley :)

Day 180 and I feel like crap.

This past week has been a dog! I started feeling the beginnings of a cold coming on on Sunday night and it just progressively worse! Tuesday was the horrible and I ended up leaving work to go home. Wednesday, I called in and potatoed all day. Yesterday, I came in to work and left early a couple of hours after lunch. Needless to say it's been a very low mileage week. Only a mile each day.

Today, I almost didn't make it in. But after a good, hot shower. I felt a bit better and decided to try and ride it out. Boy, was that almost a bad decision!

As you may have heard, we are having a so called "Super Storm" on the west coast. It has not stopped raining since around 3 this morning. I don't remember it raining that long since the floods of 1995. I wasn't in California when that occurred, but it was all over the news in Phoenix when it got really bad. A few calls to family at the time informed me of some problems in Salinas, and some major flooding in the Watsonville area. Highway 1 in Watsonville had barrells and other flotsam all over it for a several days.

I've heard stories from several growers here on the farm about some crazy flash floods that nearly took out several grow houses. Those problems have been long fixed. But when weather gets bad like this, you always see the maintenance crews zipping all over the farm making sure all the fixes are working.

And this morning as I was coming in to work, I could'a pinched out a diamond coming through one of the highway construction zones! It was so bad there that with a bit of planning and the proper vehicle, you could actually go skiing. There's an overpass being built in the area and there is a temporary road through that winds like a mofo. It's a clusterfuck waiting to happen. And I think it may happen today. It almost happened in front of me and I probably would'a shit my pants when it happened.

I like to believe I'm a cautious driver. Yes, I do have a heavy foot at time. But only when I know I can be safe about it. That construction zone is recommended highway speed or less for me ALL THE TIME! I've seen to many near-hits in that area not to have at least several (as in 6) car-lengths in front of me. It's a 55 mph road and that's where I usually sit, sometimes less. It can get bad there. Too many morons thinking it's a proper road. There are concrete barriers on both sides, so no way to veer away if something in front of you happens. You either have plenty of room in front of you or excellent, stop-on-a-dime brakes . . . and pray the driver behind you doesn't plow into you.

I'm also not a nervous driver. I'm fairly cool-headed and try not to be in a hurry. Plan ahead and all that. I'm not a granny-driver . . . except for today. And I am certain that if I took that road like I normally would on a dry day, it would'a been a baaaaad start to the day.

It was coming down pretty hard when I got to 101. It's 65 mph, there and I was driving around 60 mph. So was everyone around me . . . except for this big rig coming up behind us in the fast lane. Easily going 80 mph. Everyone got out of the way. As we were coming up to the construction area, everyone slowed way the fuck down to around 40 . . . waiting to see what would happen when the truck entered.

All you saw was this huge wall of water go over the big rig and the driver desperately try to control the death machine. It was ALL OVER both lanes and road up one of the barricades and came back down and . . . just kept going . . . at a much more reasonable speed. I thought the dude was fucked. And I'm glad everyone driving near was aware of what could'a and did happen. The barricade seemed to have held it's position, with only a tire mark riding up it.

Everyone was going really slow through the area until we got to the highway proper again and then everyone sped up to 55 again. Great way to start the day.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 176 . . . and stuff

Here I am on day ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SIX!

My half-year journey ends next Monday on December 3rd, 2012. I never would'a thunk I'd get this far! I don't wanna count my chickens, but I've got the potential to make it all the way to Day 183!

So what's after this? The continuation of the next half a year and the completion of one whole year!

Okay. Enough of tootin that horn.

Last time I posted a few changes occurred in my life:

One, I've had to change my regular route because of:
Two, the daughter is back in my regular life.

With my cousin having to go to Yuma (she's an inventory specialist for a big produce company), she's reluctantly left her baby behind so she would keep up with schoolwork and cheer . . . and given me all the headaches a sixteen year old, hormone ridden teen girl exudes! Keee-ripes!

I've only had her for a couple of weeks and already, she's driving me crazy. The mood swings are incredible! I used to think my teen years weren't that long ago. But now, I'm remembering all the things I made myself forget!

Last year started out a bit difficult when the transition was made, but it got better. This year she's had a tough time and she almost decided to go with her mom because of some issues she was having at school. But I'm proud of her that she decided to "man up" and tough it out. She's made some inroads with some of the people she had beef with and now it's become a kind of cold acquaintanceship with them. A nod hello and on her way.

She's a little thing and her mom has always made a point of raising a girly-girl. But one with an iron will . . . as long as it didn't contradict hers. If it did, holy crap, the slag that would fly! And most of it coming off the brat. She'd lick her wounds, cry a bit and apologize to mommy.

It's been a couple of weeks already and she's doing well. Of course, it's been vacation time for her and hasn't had much social interaction at school. I'll see how things go this week. Hopefully things stay well.

GD

too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 166 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

My thoughts so far:

It's day 166 and I still have to go out for my run this evening. It's raining, but it's not as cold as it was the last time I ran in the rain. It shouldn't be too bad.

But what are my overall feelings with this challenge so far? I must say I feel so much better for it. Not just mentally because of the whole "testicular fortitude" thing, but also physically. Last year when I'd run, I was going for about the same distance I'm doing now, but only about three days a week . . . if that! I'd find some excuse not to go and then beat myself up about it because I knew I was just fooling myself.

Another thing, I was hurting back then . . . a LOT. I was still a relative n00b to the whole minimalist/barefoot wave going through the running community so I was still trying to nail down my form. I was doing much better than I had been with regular shoes, but I still had those really painful mornings when the first few minutes of walking around were a tad excruciating. Now I only have those painful mornings maybe a couple times a month. And it takes only a couple of steps to work out whatever the kink was. So, MUCH better than before!

And I would have to include joint pain along with that as well. Knees are fine, my creaky hip . . . gone (god, I sound like I was way past 50!). I would have to attribute the lack of pain with the necessity of having a comfortable run every day. By going out every day, I've had to self-evaluate what I was doing so I wouldn't be regretting my run later. Focusing on how I placed my footing, how my knees were bent, keeping my back straight, head up . . .

And the major plus to this whole enchilada? SLEEP!

I used to have restless nights and wake up horribly groggy. And it was a struggle to keep my chipper personality at work. I still have those restless nights, but they are so few and far between. And they are always caused by something I had eaten that I shouldn't have. Usually some sugar loaded treat that I still fool myself into thinking I can handle. But sleep is so wonderful now. Once I'm in bed, I'm knocked out within a few minutes. Rarely do I wake up in the middle of the night. And when I do, it's to hit the head after a night of beer and buds.

And when I wake up in the morning, it's no longer having to fight the blanket monster keeping me comfortably in bed. I'm still a bit slow to get out of bed, but it isn't a fight. Wake up before the alarm, turn it off, crawl out of bed and hit the shower. Wide awake once the water starts hitting me. So much different than last year.

So if I keep up with this running challenge, it's mainly going to be because of the whole sleep benefit. I'm still only getting about six hours of sleep, but it is the best sleep I've had since I was a wee lad.

GD

p.s.
ain't checking. run smiley :)

Day 164 of the 30+ Day Running Challenge

And I'm feeling pretty good!

With the time change occurring within the last week, I've had to start using my Knuckle Lights. I purchased these last year and used them a couple times when I would go out for a run at night. This year, I've used them almost every night during the week! I don't usually get into town until after 5:30pm. So by the time I get to my usual trail, it's already dark.

The first night I went there, I saw a some runners. No more than five others, I think. The second night, maybe two runners and a shitload of mountain bikers. They were from the Salinas High School Mountain Biking team and they were coming back from Fort Ord trails. The third night, there were a couple of dog walkers. And after that, nothing. I was the lone runner out at that trail, in the dark . . . with my Knuckle Lights!

There is still a dog walker or two every so often, but most of the time I have the trail to myself. Should I be worried? Nope. Most of my two mile out-and-back is in between a heavily trafficked highway and residential fenced backyards. I still carry my Silent Soldier neck knife tucked under my shirt, for that just-in-case moment. I do live in Salinas!

And I must say, ever since the weather got a bit cooler, I've been improving my pace times. I had been averaging around 10 min/mile. But with getter out later and enjoying the cooler run, I've been improving my time. Awesome! But I think that will change once I begin lifting and working out more, though. I'm starting that again this weekend. I'll be following a modified crossfit program (again). I'm not working out to hurt myself, but to make some improvement on leanness. I stopped my 4HB program to see if I could maintain with a "regular" diet and I have so far. But I've stalled at 230 lbs. I would like to drop another 30 lbs by spring and I think I can do that with the workouts and 4HB.

To help with that, I'll start posting up my workouts on here along with what I've been eating. But that shouldn't begin until sometime this weekend. And Thanksgiving is not gonna be easy. I make an awesome spread and my mom just potatoes all day watching me suffer in the kitchen while snickering that she suckered me into it again. Ugh.

GD

p.s.
didn't check. run smiley :)

Day 145 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

GO San Francisco GIANTS!

Ok, now that THAT is outta the way . . . sorry Brent, but the Tigers are going DOWN!

My interest in sports teams are a bit scattered:

Baseball: Diehard Giants fan since I was a youngin'. Too many games to recall going to with family.

Football: Didn't much care for it. One day decided to finally support a team and the Browns had come back to Cleveland so . . . Go Browns!

Hockey: I've always loved watching hockey. Something about guys the size of linebackers smashing each other at totally unsafe speeds and then skating away as if (almost) nothing had happened. Only to pay that mofo back by smashing back into him at an even more unsafe speed . . . with a high stick thrown in for good measure. But the funny thing is, I never really had a team I'd follow. Only because it was rarely shown on TV here on the west coast. At least until the Sharks came to San Jose. I had moved to Phoenix around '95 and the Coyotes came to town the next year. I got lucky and was able to grab a ticket for the first home game . . . which I somehow lost on my move back to California in '97.
GO 'YOTES!

Sorry. That was a bit of a ramble. The point is that the Giants are in the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers. I was expecting the Tigers to take Game 1 with Verlander on the mound. But I guess that LONG rest they had was a bit too long and made them lose a bit of momentum. Game 2 was last night and that was a definite battle. GREAT game! I just don't want a repeat of 2010 with a seven game series. TOO much of a nail biter there.

Why the extra bit of info? Brent at RunFatBrentRun "nominated" me for Liebster Award. And now I can't see or hear about Joseph Leiberman without giggling about his comparison to Emperor Palpatine!

What does that nomination get me? Nothin'. It's just a bloggers version of a chain mail. But a fun one!

 Let's get on with it:
11 Facts about myself:
01: I hate hot weather. Phoenix pretty much taught me that. You don't want to do ANYTHING in that weather! Hence number two.

02: Before moving to Phoenix, I was an extremely fit 175 lbs. Out of high school in 1992, I kept myself in shape. I had a car, but preferred my bicycle for around town.

03: When I came back to Salinas from Phoenix, I was nearly 300 lbs. Bad food, alcohol, stress . . . all contributing factors. Not an alcoholic, but pretty damned close. Then again, maybe it was denial?

04: 2007 I was diagnosed with hypertension and near diabetic. The reason I went to the doctor was because I thought I was having a mild heart attack. I was experiencing pressure in my chest and my heart would be racing as if I'd just run as fast as I could. And that was with me waking up in the middle of the night to hit the can!  After the diagnoses, I was like "FUCK THAT! I've got some changes to do!!!"

05: I cut out all simple sugars in my diet. I had to learn to drink my coffee black, blechh!

06: I learned to LOVE black coffee! I discovered sooo many flavors that were masked by all the cream and sugar I'd add my cup. I stopped drinking crap beer . . .

07: No more Corona, Miller High Life, etc. I began trying out new beers. My favorite brew now is Stone's Arrogant Bastard Oaked! But sometimes you want a good IPA, so I'll grab a Sierra or to REALLY bite ya', a Stone Ruination.

08: Along with the diet change, I began moving again. Only because I threw out my back in the most improbable way possible. It was the end of the day on Friday after a pretty hard day making mushroom test trays and we were cleaning up. The test lab had been washed down and we were just drying it up with floor squeegees. I was squeegeeing (is that a word?!) the floor when my back went out. I barely got to my car and because it was the weekend, I had to wait until Monday to go see the doctor. Yeah. I'm a moron. I waited until Monday. I made myself a promise not to let this happen again, if I could help it.

09: I brought my passion of bicycling back into my life! I used to Frankenstein bicycles for shits'n'giggles all the time. If I had a camera back then, I think I'd be famous with the crap I put together. I went and hit up garage sales and found some decent parts and put together a decent crappy bike. After getting used to that I decided to buy a "good" bike and bought a steel Surly CrossxCheck. I've got her tricked out with a nice black Brooks B17 leather seat, a Nitto Moustache bar, too many mods from stock. I'll have to get a picture of her to post on here. She's my baby.  Steel is real!

10: Bicycling really helped a lot. I dropped some weight, I felt better . . . but I wanted more change. In the spring of 2010 the YMCA began a program to train people for the first annual Salinas Valley Half Marathon. I joined up. And I discovered that I couldn't run for shit. I had horrible shin splints throughout the training, but I completed my half marathon in 3.5 hours.

11: I discovered Born to Run after trying to figure out how to stop shin splints and began looking for a minimalist shoe. I found the Merrell Trail gloves were about to be released in February of 2011 and got them. I've been running in minimalist shoes ever since with nary a problem (except for the once when I screwed up my foot with pulled tendon).

That's probably a little more info and facts about me than you wanted to read . . . but anyway, onto the 11 questions posed by Brent to his nominees:

01: What kind of animals do you have and what are their names?
I have 4 ankle-biters (chihuahua mixes) and a pitbull.
 Chihuahuas: Baby, Pee-wee, Gorda, Princess. A random bit of info: When Gorda was born to Baby, she was the last of a litter of 4 and the still-born runt. A bit of CPR and she began breathing on her own. She grew to be the biggest of the litter and my favorite. I spoil that bitch!
Pitbull: Cici. She can't stand Gorda or Princess. She's also the oldest pitbull I've ever known. She's 14!

02: Do you have a favorite or "lucky" article of clothing?
More along the idea of favorite, I love my VFF Bikila shoes. I wish I could wear them everywhere, but the PTB's at work kinda frown upon toe-shoes. And the ladies get a little weirded out.

03: When you have a night to yourself to go somewhere, where do you hang out?
I know this sound a bit cheesy, but I love hanging out with my cousin and her kids (the "daughter" and my godson) and have a family night at her home. Bad food and a movie can't get any better.

04: What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
I had to really think about this one because I could remember right away. But the last movie I watched was Hit And Run with Dax Shepard. That was a really fun movie!

05: What's your guilty music pleasure?
Katy Perry. I'm sorry. I feel dirty now.

06: Do you have a personal catch phrase or motto when it comes to life? If so, what is it? If not, make one up . . . now.
Ooooh, what is THAT? (usually said right before doing something relatively stupid but not "illegal" and pissing off whomever happens to be with me at the time)

07: What's the ONE possession (not family or animals, they're safe) you'd grab if your house were going up in flames?
This one's easy, my backup drive. I have all my music and photos on there. It's so important to me that I have a backup of my backup that I bring home from work to backup, just in case. That should've been one of the facts about me. I don't want to lose any digital info that I've worked so hard to keep. And I also have another backup of the backup at home. They're all backed up once a week or whenever there is a big data dump occurring. Did I forget to mention that I'm called the Alpha-Geek at work?

08: Do you run outside in inclement weather? Is there a limit where you draw a line and say "Nope, not today", and do you switch to indoor exercise of some type?
I do run in inclement weather, like a downpour. If there is a limit to it, I haven't met it yet. But then again, my rainy day runs have been during summers and fall here. Our winters are relatively mild. The coldest we'll see is maybe 28 degrees, and only in the early morning. During the day, it'll creep up to 35. So maybe some ice, but not really. I wanna keep that streak going!

09: What's the most "jerkface" thing you've seen done during a road race from a fellow runner or even a spectator?
Hmm. Being that I haven't been in many road races and guessing most jerks would be at least in the middle of the pack and up, I haven't had the pleasure to observe said "jerkface" actions. But since you asked about the MOST "jerkface" thing done, I guess that would be a volunteer accidentally dropping a cup right before the runner ahead of me grabbed it.

10: If you were going to be turned into an aquatic animal, and there is no way to avoid it, what would you choose to be? Anything that spends the majority of it's time in water is allowed.
A sea lion. Those mofo's are awesome! They're the wolves of the sea. You get to be fat and it's GOOD for you! Go grub, lounge on a rock and take in some rays . . . just gotta keep an eye our for those damn "Free Willy's". They keep playing catch and eatin' up all your friends! Stinkin' orcas.

11: Have you ever been part of any kind of protest? And what was if for or against?
Yes I have, but we called it a demonstration. It was part of a Bike Week thing that we did here in Salinas. And I also participated in a Critical Mass in San Francisco. That was fun.

Now if I can count (and I'm pretty sure I can), I've just answered SIXTEEN questions from Mr. Pittenger. So with that being said, I'll skip that part that asks I nominate eleven other blogs. I don't read that many blogs and the ones I do are tech blogs and other blogs that are kinda crazy popular with a shit-ton of readers.

BUT . . . I will ask some questions for anyone who cares to answer them:

01: Why keep reading this scatter-brained blog? (yes, I gotta feed the ego)
02:  Have you considered running barefoot/minimalist?
03: In your opinion, what is the best scary movie you've watched?
04: What are you reading now?
05: What genre of books do you prefer?
06: Do you believe, even a little bit, that the world will end this year (2012)?
07: What is your opinion on the 2013 VW Beetle?
08: If you could move ANYWHERE in the world, would you eat their cheese? (I like cheese!)
09: Have you ever seen the ocean in person?
10:  Do you have a favorite sport (or sport-like activity) that you participate in?
11: And the most important question: What is your favorite brew (coffee/tea/beer)?

Whelp, that's it for me. I've been jumping on and off this computer all day. Gotta go soon and begin my weekend. Have a good one!

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :) 

Day 128 of 30+Day Running Challenge

Nothing really eventful has happened since I last posted.

I still haven't gone on that run I've been wanted to take to Laguna Seca . . . yet. I hope to get it in before my half year mark in December. I think my main goal is to just keep up with the running for now, no matter the distance. As long as I'm able to keep it to at least 2 miles a day.

I know . . . I'm aiming low. I don't care! I'm not hurting like I was at this time last year and I'm sleeping like a baby now. A lot of the complaints I had last year physically, are pretty much gone. Even the weight is slowly dropping off. As long as I keep up with the slow-carb stuff, I drop at least 3 pounds a week.

This week will NOT be one of those weeks. My guess I'll have dropped only a pound or two . . . but at least I'm dropping. Considering I started around at 250 lbs on this adventure, I should be down to 225 lbs by Friday. That's the lowest I've seen in over 10 years!

The problem for me this week is my schedule is FULL. I really should'a prepped my meals for the week on Sunday, but I was beat and lazy by the end of the day. So right now, I'm trying to keep the grubbin' as healthy as possible. It's kinda hard when mom cooks up a nice chicken soup on a cool day.

But as long as I see a drop in numbers, I'll be happy.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 116 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

I'm still chuggin' along on this challenge, but my mileage isn't improving.  I'm trying to at least get a four mile run in on the weekends and they aren't too bad. I've been looking at this one trail I was close to last year, but I'm unfamiliar with it. I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and risk the run.

It on the Fort Ord Bureau of Land Management property.  It takes you from the outskirts of Salinas to Monterey.  Some of the trails hit Laguna Seca Raceway! There are mountain bikers always on those trails and I hear them discussing if they should go through Laguna Seca or other routes. One of these days I'm taking my Surly CrossXcheck for a spin through those trails . . . or maybe just grow some and run there!

I think it'd only be a 10 to 15 mile round trip. If I plan it right, I could make my own little half marathon out of it. Take a small pack with some water and grub and take my time with it . . . I'm kinda liking the idea!

Looks like I might have a fun run this Saturday! I'll post on how it goes ASAP.

GD

p.s.

too excited now to check! run smiley :)