Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Educated hippos and other memories

Word du jour: Hippocampus - where hippos go to get an education.

Oh yeah, and there's some alternative definition that claims it's the part of the mammalian brain dealing with creating memories about experiences. "Psychologists and neuroscientists generally agree that the hippocampus has an important role in the formation of new memories about experienced events." (Yes, I did just quote Wikipedia. Don't faint. The article has links to peer-reviewed literature and if you're really curious you should read the links.)

Um, Merry? What's that got to do with anything besides your obsessive need to make silly puns?

The first ten or twenty minutes of running are always horrible. ("Always" sounds like I'm speaking from my vast experience. In reality, I'm basing this statement on the last few weeks.)

You know how it is: the first time you try something you remember every detail, because it's all new. After you repeat the experience again a couple times, your brain tends to blur over parts that it's already familiar with. I'm noticing that I tend to take the 'horrible' part for granted; I can think about other things instead of concentrating on how awful the experience is. Hopefully this will continue. (Well, except for that one run last week, which was absolutely awful. I think it was awful for reasons not connected with running, though.)

Site du jour: Hippo Mojo. "Whereas everyone thinks rhinos are thick-skinned, and strong, hippos are merely told that they are overweight, and chastised for their gluttony. I’m sorry, but do you think rhinos go to a gym, or something? They have their issues with health and fitness, just like the hippos do."

Exercise du jour: Jog 2 hopefully-not-horrible miles.
FAIL.
Sigh. Is Mardi Gras a good excuse? No, I didn't think so.

8 comments:

Kyle said...

Running...ah yes....I'm enjoying the training process, but worry about what happens after that. I think I'll need to be in perpetual training since I'm still not sure I'll ever pull a Forest Gump and just go running. I am hoping, though.

VRaz60 said...

Funny stuff. Never gave the Hippo the proper credit. Rhino's get all the pub, don't they?

Kelly the Happy Texan said...

LOL And we're running not because we love it so much but because it's good for us, right?

"What do you do for exercise?"

"Oh, I run for about 30 minutes per day. Sometimes longer."

"You really enjoy running then?"

"Oh god no! I hate every terrible minute of it!"
ROFLOL!

C said...

Belated congrats on running your second 5K!

And thank you for creating and then killing a stick figure effigy of me at Cranky Fitness. I've honestly never been so flattered. :)

messymimi said...

Be careful about making fun of hippos. In the parts of the world where they live, getting bitten by one (and they can be bad tempered) is not called being bitten, but being "speared."

I thought all forms of working out, which start with the I-don't-wanna's, were horrible.

McB said...

And more belated congrats!!! Go, Merry!

And that bit about memories adapting is familiar, too. It's like when you first drive a route it seems like it's such a looong way; but then you get used to it and it turns out that in actual clock time it's shorter.

messl - dirty rockets.

Anonymous said...

I had a love/hate relationship with my 3 minute (twice) run today. I hated doing it, I loved it after it was over.

I'm hoping for more love than hate on Thursday!

Dr. J said...

I've been to Africa, and I can assure you that none of the animals were overweight!