I took a quick vid of my running this morning out of curiosity to see what my stride looked like. I had NO IDEA that I was such a heel-striker. I thought I was leaning forward and striking on the midfoot, which is what I am pretty sure I want to do. I couldn't even really see the heelstrike until I looked frame-by-frame, so if you haven't video'd your running, you should try it sometime. I'm thinking of trying barefoot running, at least in part. I've seen barefooters reccomend pool shoes for an inexpensive foot-protector for near-barefooting, so I may pick up some of those today to experiment with.
The boyz seem to get along so well. It fascinates me to watch how they communicate (or, occasionally, don't). And I love their crazy post-eating wrestling matches. I'm feeding them a food currently which has two different kinds of kibble - one lighter, softer, and more 'meatlike' (according to the human marketing geniuses anyway...), and one crunchier and darker. It seems that Nash prefers the darker bits, and Toad the softer ones. Last night, after Nash walked away from his left-behind bits for a drink, Toad finished them up before he got back. He was chagrined when I 'refunded' Nash from the uneaten hard kibble in his bowl. Toad lives in a Toad-centric universe :)
I promise this isn't going to turn into a dog-blog!
largely because of FB. And I wanted to write a bit about my new
interest in running. I've always been the 'short of breath' type
(except when it comes to arguing:), but now that I have a dog who
needs to be leashed, and thanks to the nudge of a friend or two, I've
decided to get more serious about running.
And here's the amazing part: I'm loving it. I really really really
suck at it, and I'm loving it. Why? Because I'm getting better, I
suppose. And because it's fun (except of course when it's not:)
So after mucking around doing run-walks (or, really, walk-runs) up to
1-2 miles, I felt full of myself and started this beginner "3 Weeks to
a 30-Minute Running Habit" program (twice! - I repeated the first
week):
http://running.about.com/c/ec/10.htm
Which is actually going OK. It's a run-walk thing. I'm up to Day 15
(2/3 through), and today's effort was four reps (20 minutes) of run 4
mins, walk 1 min. A week or two ago I would not have been able to even
slowly jog four mins. Pitiful, eh? Or, in glass-half-full mode, we can
say 'lots of room for improvement!'. This 20 mins today took me about
1.5 miles, which is pitifully slow pace, but it actually felt pretty
comfortable - which is funny, because yesterday's 3-minute runs felt
CRAPPY. Different weather, hills, mood, etc.
For motivation (and fun-I-hope, and a t-shirt, and and yes, to help
people) I signed up for a charity run next Saturday - it's a one-mile
'fun run' before a 5K. I also signed up for a T-giving morning
one-miler. I want to think about a 5K in the next 8-10 weeks. AFTER I
signed up for the run, and started feeling like I was never going to
be able to run more than 1 min without my lungs dissolving, I read
that it takes a good 8-12 weeks to develop good 'wind' (breathing). So
this one-miler is going to be at a slooow pace (especially as the
entire second half-mile is - I kid you not - UPHILL). But that's cool.
As long as I don't get trampled by the 5K runners behind me - who
start a half-hour after - I'll be feeling OK :-)
Funny story: Sunday (yesterday) I decided to leave the dogs home and
run the 1-mile course. I thought I'd add a little speed, and check it
out. Bad idea on the 'adding speed' part, but lesson learned. Good
idea to leave the dogs home, because there was a marathon just winding
down as I got there. I talked to one of the finishing runners (her
first marathon - 5 hours-and-mumble) who was looking for her car, and
she was appropriately perky with her 'yes, you can!' pep talk to me.
I'm very sensitive to being patronized, but I did appreciate it,
actually. But as I was finishing up my mile-and-a-half, I
inadvertently ran through the marathon's finish - and they were REALLY
cleaning up and moving out, tho I did see one straggler after that -
and some woman said "Congratulations!" to me. Hahaha - she probably
was impressed with how fresh I seemed :) Though I didn't, because it
was an off run.
Today I was back out on the nice flat dirt road I favor, with the
dogs, and another runner passed me (twice). We waved from inside our
ipods (audiobook for me, and I wonder how many runners listen to
books? Is that weird?), and I totally felt part of some bigger group.
Then he left me eating dust :)
Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said, "or be locked up in the jail." I declined to pay. But, unfortunately, another man saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster; for I was not the State's schoolmaster, but I supported myself by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the lyceum should not present its tax bill, and have the State to back its demand, as well as the Church. However, as the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing: "Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any society which I have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it. The State, having thus learned that I did not wish to be regarded as a member of that church, has never made a like demand on me since; though it said that it must adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had known how to name them, I should then have signed off in detail from all the societies which I never signed on to; but I did not know where to find such a complete list. ¶ 12:47 PM 1 Comments Links to this post
been an interesting experience (to say the least!). An email
discussion has started by someone who wrote to a bunch of committee
members and others with a particular concern. I don't care for
protracted mass-CC discussions, because they invariably drag in people
who want no part of the discussion, so I am not replying within the
discussion. But I couldn't resist remarking on this incredibly stupid
comment from one of the committee members, M. Carling. Carling writes:
"The pledge clearly implies that initiation of force is bad only as a
means of achieving political or social goals. In other words, the
pledge implies that initiation of force to achieve personal goals is
acceptable. How very unfortunate."
By 'pledge', he is of course referring to the LP's pledge, found here:
"I certify that I do not advocate the initiation of force to achieve
political or social goals."
Now, logic even **I** can follow reveals this is ridiculous. First,
the LP is a political party - naturally our concern is with 'political
and social' rather than 'personal' goals. We'd no more want to make a
statement on the personal morality of non-aggression than we would on
personal weight-loss goals. Second - and much more fundamentally -
it's very poor logic to say that if you do not specifically rule out
X, you are *promoting* X, or even *implying that X is acceptable*. If
I say during a discussion about men that "I do not like to fight with
men," does that 'imply' that I like to fight with women? Absolutely
not! Ridiculous!
Either Carling is stupid or he sees some value in advancing such a
transparently fallacious (not to say dunderheaded) argument. What it
can be I can't even begin to speculate.
http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php
Participation will be by a mix of 'phone and live (still pondering the details; I'm afraid this will be another one of those tedious 'learning experiences':)
Since I mentioned the idea, several folks have found it interesting and have decided to help, but we can use lots more. This story is *mostly( dialogue, so it'll take little if any adaptation to be an awesome dramatic recording.
Let me know if you're interested! We'll also need sounds editors, etc., so let me know if you want a non-speaking job!
And then we can commence to arguing about how to pronounce "MYOB!" ;-)
--
Susan Hogarth
"Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund." — F. J. Raymond
http://www.colliething.com/
¶ 3:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
A few folks in central NC are starting an anarchist discussion group
to *explicitly* include what might (incorrectly, yet with some
justification) be called 'left anarchists' and 'right anarchists'
(sometimes called anarcho-capitalists or agorists).
The premise of this group is that the differences between these two
groups, while significant, are in fact smaller than between the
political 'left' and 'right' and any form of anarchy. The truth is
that we don't know what wide-scale real freedom from organized
oppression would look like. An unfortunate attitude of mistrust
between those who believe (loosely) that the use of capital is
organized oppression and those who believe (again, loosely) that any
attempt to curtail the accumulation and use of capital represents
organized oppression has kept us apart in a classic divide-and-conquer
mode. The terrible irony is that this isn't even necessarily a
deliberate divide-and-conquer - we have done it ourselves!
Our goal is to listen, and to share, and to not let vocabulary
differences keep us from understanding the underlying concepts of
freedom. If you would like to be a part of that, you are welcome!
Please leave your defensive attitude and you preconceptions behind!
First meeting next Sunday (14th) at 9am at the Caribou Coffee in Cary
at Kildaire Farm and Maynard. Feel free to invite others. Questions
can be directed to Susan Hogarth at hogarth@gmail.com
--
Susan Hogarth
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. – H.L. Mencken
http://www.colliething.com/
I think I finally have this bread thing down. Thinking about selling a few loaves here and there. This particular loaf was made with mostly Montana Gold wheat, with a bit of other wheats mixed in, ground in the Nutrimill, and prepared in the kick-ass Zojirushi bread oven. It rose so much it nearly blew the lid off - I get carried away with the gluten and yearst, I think. Very light, seems to keep well (though it only lasted a day or so, it was so good.)
