Recovering and Training

One of my running buddies asked me the other day; "What training plan are you using?". I didn't have an answer for him. I didn't know if I was going to run the half-marathon I did this last weekend, so what I've been doing is training to maintain my fitness and not hurt myself. I don't want to go through another "no-running" recovery period.

So I'm just kind of "winging it". Every week I try to fit in one or two interval days, Tuesday through Thursday, a long run Sunday or Monday, a pace run on a non-interval day, several comfortable recovery runs with two days of complete rest, one which I do upper body workout. I'm not going to stress myself to keep up with a training plan, I've done enough of them to know what I need to do. I don't have any goals except to keep running and having fun. I always seem to do better when I quit paying so much attention to specific goals. This week I'm trying to keep it easy until my calves quit whining

Today I went to the outdoor track to run intervals, but I backed off the intensity and number of repeats to a point where I'd be six weeks before a half-marathon, since that is how long until my next half-marathon, 4 x 800m 3:35/3:45/3:40/3:42. The first one was a little too fast, so I intentionally backed off a bit, It felt good to be off the treadmill, but I'm feeling a little pain in the area I injured last year, so maybe I'm not ready for this. I'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Let's see. My training plan has me scheduled for a 4 mile barefoot beach run tomorrow. I guess I'll be heading to the Gulf. Trying to keep it fun, I'll be back on Friday. If you don't hear from me, it is because I decided to become a permanent beach bum.

Mileage Stats:

Today: 4 (Intervals) + 4 (Run for fun)

Week: 26

Year: 86

Energy Drain

the day is very bright

filling air with wasted sun

faux light lamenter

E-Overload

Too much e-stuff, the stuff that is supposed to make our lives easier, is actually making life more complicated. Am I wrong?

I've worked in the Information Systems development and management for most of my career, and I see things getting so complicated and convoluted, they have the opposite effect of their intent.

If the implementation of an automated systems becomes a management and security nightmare, is it worth the effort?

I'm ready for a career change.

Unsynched

Do you ever have those times when everything seems to be going your way, traffic lights turn green as you approach, and only your favorite songs come out of the radio. My psyche seemed to be synchronized with the universe.

That happened to me. Over the last month, the weather has been perfect, work slowed down, and I've had plenty of opportunity to train for upcoming races as well as running a race almost every weekend.

Then November came, after a brief rush of optimism, everything seems to be crashing down around me, work became quite busy and unpleasant, many unseen forces blocking my way, no time for running, traffic lights turn red as I approach, and all the music coming from the radio annoys me.

Is this only a state of mind?

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Living Better

I do not understand The "Health Care" system in the U.S.!

Doctors and Drug Companies have no incentive to make you well or find cures. How did our system end up this way? Doctor's do not profit if you are healthy, only if you are sick. If you are not sick, then they recommend unneeded surgery or treatments so they can profit from you. We no longer find cures for diseases because doctors make a ton of money form the drug companies to recommend drug therapies for their patients so they can keep the money coming in. This is an evil of the capitalist health care system we have in the USA.

If you are treated by a doctor, and he fails to make you better, you still have to pay him. If you have surgery that fails, and even if you die because the doctor was not successful in his procedure, the doctor still expects to get paid and will go after your estate to collect. There is something very, very wrong with this.

The focus on doctors should be maintaining your wellness, not treating you because you get sick from poor diet and lifestyles choices. Just like a car, which will last longer and run better when it is properly maintained thruough preventive and scheduled maintenance programs. I would much rather pay for scheduled wellness exams than to deal with the stress and anxiety of getting sick. While the treatment programs would still be needed in such a system, integrating the current system with programs of wellness will benefit everyone and reduce the extreme costs associated with the present system.

Like annual or bi-annual dental checks are a necessity for maintaining healthy teeth for a lifetime, the same thing principal applies to our bodies.

** Crossposted on Backroads of my Mind

Baby Steps

I've been busy lately, running around the south, spending time with daughter and granddaughters who evacuated for Hurricane Gustav, then had to be driven back home last week. It was fun, but it wore me out.

Compared to the rest of Baton Rouge, the damage to their home was minimal. They got power back on Thursday, we drove back Friday afternoon. When we got to the house, the dogs had been in a kennel, inside the house for many hours, and were sick, and they made a horrible stinking mess. We had to get the dogs into the back yard, let them do their business, then carry them upstairs to get them washed, clean their kennels because they sleep in them, and clean the area where the mess was in the house and air out the stink from the house, while trying to keep two hungry tired toddlers happy. That was just Friday, after a long drive. Saturday my daughter cleaned out the fridge and I tried to go grocery shopping. The wait to get into Wal-Mart (YECCCHHHH) was 30 minutes, then an hour to check out. I decided to go to the Winn-Dixie down the road, but they were out of almost everything, so we could just get enough for a few days. We were lucky, they had Milk, Cold Cereal, Bread, and Lunch Meat and Sodas. My son-in-law has been busy working long hours until the power is fully restored. Plus, Grandpa niCk had to make time to play with the grandkids and bond with the puppies. I've been very busy.

Where they live there are many houses with no roofs, many trees that had demolished houses, trailers in pieces and flooding in many parts. They said the damage in area south of Baton Rouge was much worse than they saw with Katrina. Most people still have no power and won't have any for weeks. Many people are in public shelters. The noise of generators is everywhere, and every time you go to the gas station everybody is filling up several gas canisters for their generator. My Daughter's neighborhood lucked out because they were in a newer community without many big trees and I believe the power lines are underground, because I didn't see any lines on poles.

It going to take awhile for the area to recover, but little by little, without any more storms (Ike, you better stay away), everything will return to normal chaos.

Speaking of "Baby Steps", here is a video Running 101, from Jeff Galloway on how to start running.

Success?

Addendum to my last post: Responding to the "great job" comment from the PostSecret postcard I posted.

The next postcard on that blog talks about how unhappy a person can become in a stressful job.

Most of my career I've had great, interesting, and seemingly important jobs. When I first started in my present career, I loved the work and would do it for fun when I wasn't working. It was software development. Slinging code is much like solving complicated math word problems, which is somewhat easy and fun for me. I don't enjoy it as much anymore, it has become so complex and mismanaged. I've been dreaming a new career, but what?

I have a great job and work with wonderful people, but I desperately want to run away from it. I've had jobs that I like better, and I've only had one job that I really hated (worked for a Major TeleCom Corporation). I'm afraid to leave a good job, not knowing what's next for me, so I stick to my "lead role in a cage", but dreaming about something else.

Some people thrive on change, others hate it. It's not so much the change that I dislike, it's the unplanned or unforeseen consequences of the change that stress me, so I stick with cold comfort.

Running over the same old ground.
What have we found
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

I'm just rambling.........

The American Dream

When I was 35 I bought a home.

I loved the house. It was in a perfect location next to a park with easy access to hiking trails and bike paths. You could walk out the front door and bike or hike to the city, or the wilderness. For someone like me who loathes driving and dependence on a motor vehicle, the location of the place suited me well.

Even though finally I fulfilled the standard of success in the U.S., the ownership of that house was not only a heavy weight to bear, it felt like ball and chain. Almost like a virtual prison, disabling my freedom.

We sold the home four years later, as a result of my divorce. I've not had a desire to buy another home.

Why is home/land ownership an "American Dream"?
Why is it so important for us to declare "mine, mine, mine"?

Your Bondage

You cannot be spiritual and egocentric at the same time.

You cannot say you have an eternal soul, if you are selfishly focused on your life, your beliefs, and your understanding of the material world.

You cannot say you know God, if you think that humans are some kind of unique deity-chosen animal to be the "caretaker" of this place. Humans are no more special than a handful of soil, or the worms that work it so life can prosper. Without either, life, as humans define it, would not exist.

Humans were late-comers to this planet, and will most likely be gone before this planet's demise. It is the natural order of things, to change, rid the bad parts, develop more useful and healthy life. Human life is only a mere speck of ordered material, inhabited for a very brief time on this piece of leftover debris.

Then there are the mysteries no human will ever know. The how, where, why, and what answers which are beyond what our limited insight and intelligence can show us. What is beyond the known universe, and beyond what we will never know? On that, we must rely on faith.

The lasting affect of long dead prophets, philosophers, and a supposed messiah, is not who they were nor how they lived, but how their past lives and teachings still influence our daily lives.

Enjoy all aspects of life. It is short, scary, and meaningless. The only thing that will outlast your brief moment of deluded consciousness, and bring some kind of meaning to your existence, is the affect you have on other meaningless lives.

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Crowded Isolation

Is there place that isn't so lonely?

People are so busy trying to do things to fill up their time, they are missing out getting to know other people.

The more I try to do the activities everyone else is doing, the more I try to fit in, socialize, and do the things people say are "fun, the more isolated I feel. I see them having this so-called fun, and it makes me sad. Literally.

I see this too much, that unless you are doing what they want you to do, what they like to do, what they consider worthwhile, then you are not worth their time. You must conform. They avoid people who think, act, or live differently from them.

Why live, if you're just going to be the same as everyone else?

It is time to run away, again.

"I gotta roll, can't stand still,
Got a flame in my heart, can't get my fill,
Eyes that shine burning red,
Dreams of you all thru my head."

- Black Dog, Led Zeppelin

Nothing

"I got somethin' to say, an' then I ain't gonna say no more........
- Mayella in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee"

Don't think you'll get that lucky. I have lots to say about what I don't like, and what I think is wrong with the world.

The world really isn't changing that much, it is me. Once, I once had a more positive outlook, but time has wasted my mind, and made me more critical.

When I was in my twenties, with two small kids, I couldn't believe how much my parents and in-laws complained about my generation, the way the government is run, how the ways of the world are not to their liking anymore. I didn't share their views, and couldn't understand why they were so negative about everything, and constantly complained.

I swore that I'd never be like that.

It happened anyway. Getting older sucks!

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Final NaBloPoMo Post

I can't blog everyday, I don't have that much to say. Besides, when the apathy mood kicks, as it does every few weeks without fail, I don't care, and can't find any reason to blog. That is sure to hit me.

Silly me, I committed, thinking some days I could just get by posting a deep thought, silly rhyme, interesting picture, or maybe recycling posts that I believed had some merit. There are millions of ideas to fuel a daily blog post. Then why do we sometimes sit at blank edit window and can't come up with a single thought? It's not that I don't have anything to write about, it's that I have too many ideas, and making a choice has never been easy for me. Don't give me choices, tell me what to write about! NO, too easy. I have to decide. This is a portal into my voices which give me an eternity of endless entertainment and keep me from a peaceful nights sleep

I'm both elated and saddened by the last day of NaBloPoMo. It gave me a reason to blog, spray some WD-40 on the cogs in my mind and get them tuned up a bit, but I'll be glad that I don't have that commitment to write everyday, and can use the extra time to polish the thoughts, ideas and opinions presented here.

Tomorrow is December,
time for Christians proudly state "To Hell with our Idol's lessons, Lets party",
we still have traitors running this country,
the BAMA locals are still celebrating their ignorance,
biblical religions are still trying to destroy logic, reason and the pursuit of happiness,
humanity is still on an ego trip,
and there is still much injustice, abuse of power, and lack of critical thinking skills to fuel many posts to come.

" ...but what is RIGHT with world ..."

Sometimes your gut instinct, intuition, feelings are right on the money. Sometimes you have to stop and think about how your actions will effect others. No person is completely isolated, everything we do effects others in some way.

I will continue the When Is Lunch? story. Stay tuned.

A Joke for the last day of NaBloPoMo:
After the Christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, "That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, but I want to stay with you guys."

Double NaBloPoMo Music Post: Take the Long Way Home & Goodbye Stranger - Supertramp

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Gratitude

I thank the universe that I'm a whole person, and I can understand the blessings I been granted for this brief moment of consciousness.

I'm thankful to the people who have showed me that bigotry, hatred, blame, and vengeance, never heal wounds.

I'm thankful for those people who care about me, although I'm at a loss to understand why.

I'm thankful for the mistakes I have made. I am human.

I'm thankful for the crises that pass my way, to show that I can be defeated and still go on living.

I'm thankful for the low times in my life, to balance me.

I'm thankful for pleasure and pain, so I know I feel.

I'm thankful for passion, it is the life force of nature.

I'm thankful for blue skies, stormy weather, the sun, clouds, the trees, the rocks, the stars, the earth, the cold, the heat, and all of the parts of the universe that have come together to create my life and the lives with whom I share this universe.

I'm thankful for Music: No Myth - Michael Penn

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Must Post on Blog

So, I'm doing this "post everyday thing" on NaBloPoMo.

I'm sitting at the PC and I'm thinking "I don't want to post, I want to surf and listen to music". The OCD won't let me do anything until I finish this thing I signed up for, DAMN, I hate commitments. This is why I don't ever sign-up for activities, because I obsess over it until it is done.

What do I write about today? I got nothing for you.

I could tell you about another racing Saturday I have planned. These races are always updated, with results, at my Race Blog. After the Race I'm going to talk to my running buddies and try to get someone to join me for an additional 5.5 mile run in memory of Ryan Shay. This will not be a race, but a run at a easy pace, to remember a fellow runner.

Then I'm coming home, hopefully having lunch already, and taking a nap. I really enjoy napping. I have been a napper ever since high school, I just feel so much better in the afternoon after a good siesta. Maybe I wouldn't be so tired in the afternoon if I didn't get up so early, but I love the morning, and I find it impossible to sleep in, I have never understood how people do that.

Exciting, isn't it. If anything blog worthy happens during the race, I'll update the this post, if not, this is all you get today.

Some days, I have no deep thoughts. Just living.

Saturday Running Song: Heart of the Sunrise - Yes

Prolificity

Where does the time go?

It's been one week since I "pledged" to write a post for everyday of November at NaBloPoMo.

I have found that two things happen when I try to write a blog post:

1. Time moves very quick. I look up at the clock, do some blogging, then back a few moments later and an hour has passed.
2. The time I get to spend surfing blogs, getting news, reading books, and socializing with other humans is dramatically reduced.

Every afternoon I go for a run after work. I can come up with dozens of great ideas for posts. Then, I sit down to put thoughts to blog the next morning, and my blankity-blank mind is blank.

I really wish I could send mental notes to my PC.

I will return to this after I feed the brain some caffeine.

Ok, I'm back after one cup.

So, I pledged write everyday this month, and November and December last year were the most productive of my blogging history. Should be easy. Many voices start nagging me as I walk through stores blaring happy holiday music while homes, work, and markets become over-adorned in pagan winter decorations. Marketing schemers claim that this puts shoppers in a buying mood. Does it? What is wrong with me? It makes me run away in a cold sweat wanting to bash my head against a brick wall. That stuff makes my blood pressure rise and makes me rage. Why? I'm guessing; it is because of so many unhappy childhood memories from that time of year.

Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is one of my favorite holidays. I love the food, and having a day to give thanks for your blessings. My memories of childhood Thanksgiving are of spending that day with other families, or relatives, away from the daily hostile home life I experienced. Those are good memories, away from home. Is it a wonder I shut them out of my life?

I'm always harping about forgiving others who have done misdeeds against you or your loved ones, but I cannot find the strength to forgive them.

Music Post - Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter

Back and Blue

I'm back.

The world ended yesterday, today is only a delusion. Depressing delusion.

My deluded world contains massive amounts of work which needs to be destroyed post haste. Luckily I still have all my destructo tools, but it might take me a few days to obliterate it.

Coming Real Soon: Friday

While I was away: The subject of this Jesus and Mo' comic actually happened in my neighborhood. This is why I'm scared of preachers, ministers and priests, but maybe that's why some people go to church. This wasn't an isolated incident.

La La La La La La La

I'm being lazy and I can't get motivated about anything, but running.

The news is a boring, canned, bland bunch of propaganda.

Politics is turned into a public relations campaign for high-ranking government officials.

American culture is unstimulating, ugly mix of gread and conceit.

The landscape of shopping and restaurants is like a bad nightmare. The entertainment industry doesn't entertain. The food industry tries to make everything taste good to everyone, but it makes everything just taste the same, no flavor. These things won’t be fixed, it just keeps getting more and more dull and insipid.

We keep demanding more and more, we take more and more, we destroy the planet and are insulted when asked to be less intrusive. We keep taking without giving back or helping. We are so self-centered we can’t see past the end of our huge rotund pot bellies and over-bloated self-image. Even the religious-based groups are too proud of their own image to accept or participate in being the tolerant and nonjudgmental groups on which their image is based.

And I am a positive thinking optimist.

Thank Darwin, at least I got beer!

“Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!”

Spiritual Apatheism

If you look to the written words of man to define morality, you will not find it.

Morality, the goodness inherent in all animals, is not acquired by the promise of reward or the threat of punishment.

Grow up. You don't need someone to tell you wrong from right.

Santa will bring you what you want if you're good, but your evil step-brother will take it away because he broke all his stuff, so give him all your stuff and he won't have anything to take from you. Moral: Material world is temporary and brings much dissappointment.

Everyone needs to relax about religion. It's not important.

Organized religion is the worst thing that has ever happened to the world!

Your immortality is created by your influence of others, it is the only thing that has any lasting value.

It doesn't matter how the earth came to be as it is now, what matters is what we do today for the future of earth and the life that exists within it's atmosphere.

We spend too much energy arguing about something (creation) that no one will ever know. I think that energy should be spent making the world better and treating all life as precious gifts from an unknown source.

Theist religions are a creation of humans, for their own conceit and comfort. It is selfish, egocentric and blames the troubles humans have created on something out of their control. It is a way for humans to shift the blame for their faults and weaknesses.

Who cares, does it really matter?

I'm not looking to change your beliefs. I respect people who have faith, please respect my view.

These are written words of a man - Fallible Words.

Everyone is an atheist. What kind of atheist are you?

Do you believe in all the gods ever created in the minds of men?

Do you know for certain that none exist?

I don't care what you think.

Will you get me another beer while you're up? (Smithwicks or Guinness, please)

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Thoughts About Nothing

Welcome to Alabama

Being a transplant in Alabama, I look around me at the people here and praise Darwin that I was not raised here. It is a culture shock. Here are some of the things that leave me wondering if there is some freak of nature at work here:

1. It's Cold. People from Alabama start dressing in their winter clothes when the temp drops below 70 degrees, at 60 the hat and gloves come out, at 50 they actually "warm-up" their cars when they go somewhere, at 40 the news starts talking about emergency shelters for those without heat, below freezing and it's the top news story. Spot a snowflake, and the impending blizzard is all the buzz at the office. The forecast of even a snow flurry causes every single person to take off work and visit the grocery store, whether they need something or not. Snow on the ground, even just a dusting, is an automatic snow day, then they get in their trucks and try to do doughnuts. The hazard here is not the possibility of slick roads, it is all the people trying to see how fast they can drive their four-wheel drives in the snow.

2. Driving on Sunday. There are more police out on a Sunday morning than during weekday rush hour. They are very busy directing after-church traffic than any other time of the week. And its good they are out there then, because being out on the street after-church on Sunday is very dangerous. I have seen more accidents at that time than any other time. There are people out on the roads that only drive to church on Sunday, they don't know where they are going, don't remember how to drive, or realize there are other people out on the road. They stop in the middle of the road for no reason, drive too slow, drift betweens lane, make u-turns over the medians, drive the wrong way or on the wrong side of the road, make left turns from the right lanes (and vice-versa).

3. Trucks. Men, driving real slow, in a great big trucks is a popular way to pass the time. If the truck is going the legal speed or faster, then it is most likely being driven by a women. Most of the people driving trucks and over sized SUV's in Alabama are women, and they can't park the thing, or even back out of a parking space without taking out a fender or two, but at least they can drive the trucks better then the men here. They say they love "sitting up high", makes them feel safer and superior, at least while they are at the wheel of their bloated vanity vehicles.

4. Trying to Walk. I think Alabamians are taught that once they start driving, they are not allowed to walk. Once they start driving, they will drive everywhere, even across the street, or to the other side of a shopping center to go to another store. New businesses are built with no way for pedestrians to access the business, you have to drive. I have dozens of stores and restaurants in walking distance of my home, but no way to walk to them because of the way the roads were built. If you try to walk to these businesses, you will be putting your life at danger and drivers will honk and rage at you for doing such a stupid act.When these Alabamians do have to walk, they walk at such a slow pace that it takes a whole day for them to do a circuit at the small local mall here. It isn't so much of a walk, as a waddle. They take 4 "waddles" to one of my steps. They are very comical to watch, but irritating when you have to walk behind them.

5. Meat. They have restaurants here that only serve meat. There are people here that think that meat is the only food group, everything is meat or a meat dish. Pork is in everything.

6. College. Believe it or not, there is an actually a rivalry between Auburn and Alabama. Not just football, but an "academic" rivalry, also. I'm not kidding. Really.

7. Wisdom and Health. They both are despised here, if you have one or both, don't let anyone know, you will be never be accepted here. Everyone needs to at least pretend ignorance or live an unhealthy lifestyle before anyone will talk to you.

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Stick a needle..........

The air blows in from Georgia. My eyes tear, sting, and itch. It is hard to breathe. I lay in bed wheezing, sleep will not visit me.

The air from Georgia makes it hard to see clearly. It reaches into my body and scratches its way back out, leaving sharp scars that never heal.

I long for more.
Pain in me.

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"Why Georgia, Why" - Van Gogh Knew

(The smoke drifting in from the fires in the Okefenokee and Florida is also very irritating)