Doing squat at work

Not an actual picture of my office... just an approximation

Word du jour: Am-knees-ia (n). A condition where you forget how bad your knees are until you try to bend them.

It doesn't actually help with getting through long tedious meetings, but doing squat turns out to be useful for other things besides challenges.

At work, there are a large number of computers that need to be kept from overheating and are not stored in a closed-off room. The office thermometer must stay on the low end of comfortable, so I tend to go around bundled up in several layers, like a globular bear. (Yes, even in July.)

Now, if I'm cold or really want to freak out annoying co-workers find myself getting sleepy after lunch, I do a few squats. Because squats use the largest muscles in the body, doing them gets the blood flowing and the body warmed up pretty quickly.

Also, doing the occasional squat helps my knees remember how to bend. Flexing the knees helps keep them from stiffening up.

Now I just need to figure out how to do squat and get paid for it. Any ideas?

Goal of the month: All vegetarian, all the time. So far, so good.
Done!




Exercise du jour: I really hate posting this goal, since I've flailed on the jogging for the last week or so. A couple weeks ago, it was effortless. I'm wondering if the difference is the temperature -- maybe I just need to adjust? Especially hard after coming back from a balmy Christmas in California.

Jog/walk/crawl 3 miles, depending on the temperature.
Done. 4 miles. Didn't crawl, at least. Plus, 30 minutes on the elliptical and 100% veggies means HBBC = 7
1/4 - HBBC 1 (veggies)
1/5 - walked 3, veggies HBBC 4
1/6 - walked 3 miles, jog/walked 3 miles, ellipticalled 15 minutes, veggies. HBBC 8


United States Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang

Limitations? Bah humbug

Quote du jour: Please drive slowly. Those are cats, not speed bumps.
- A sign next to an alley that I went past today

I don't like acknowledging limitations. Pfui! as Nero Wolfe would say.

I concede that Damn Foot has been a problem in my running schedule, but I was dealing with it. I've gotten accustomed to wearing orthotics, I'm willing to dispense ibuprofen after a run, I'm dealing with it.

Then my body throws me a curve ball out of nowhere, which really pisses me off.

I've been getting more and more stressed about the holidays and the end of the year and all the things left undone that I swore I would get done before that time. I could feel the panic building inside me, but I thought (and rightly) that this was a stupid thing to panic over. So what if I didn't make my goals? They are arbitrary and mostly decided on a whim. I want to get to this point by that time, so let us try for it. Well, sometimes those goals are not within my grasp and I'll just have get it done whenever. It's all good.

Which is fine in theory, but in practice the anxiety kept building up inside me until I really did have a panic attack Monday night. And paid for it on Tuesday with an asthma attack. I could not stop wheezing, so it really was bloody stupid optimistic to venture forth and try to run. (I thought that since the stress-induced asthma was in part caused by stress at work, getting away from work and running would be a help, not a hindrance. I thought wrong.)

Tuesday's run was horrible. I ran about one mile before the lungs made it absolutely clear that they weren't going to play nice and let me get an adequate supply of oxygen. Grrrr... stupid lungs. Stupid body. Why is it playing games like this with me? My legs could have kept going, Damn Foot wasn't complaining, and I still couldn't friggin' get the run in.

Today, I'm taking a vacation day from work to devote myself to all the things I need to get done. Included in this list is yesterday's three mile run. Away from work. Away from incredibly rude co-workers.



Done. Well, sorta. Still not feeling great, so walked one mile and jog/walked three. Better than nothing.



HBBC: 4

Last week of the C25k

Quote du jour: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
-Arthur C. Clarke

Quotes like this one tend to annoy me. I mean, basically he's saying you have to screw up before you can learn anything. It's probably true, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

Damn Foot is a case in point. I pushed Damn Foot until it developed the pinched nerve before I stopped and went to the foot doctor. Now I'm getting back into the running slowly enough that I'm not pushing past its limits. (It still hurts, but not especially after running. Usually it hurts most first thing in the morning, when my feet are swollen anyway. That, I can live with. For now.)

Exercise du jour: Week 9 of the c25k
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).

Not really done, but I'm putting the star up for jogging 1 mile, walking 3.



HBBC: 5 (exercise & veggies)


Photo courtesy of Nevit Dilmen.

My Second 5k

Quote du jour: Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -- Thomas Edison

I almost didn't get out of bed this morning.

Friday, I had the worst running experience in the history of creation, since the dawn of time, since Homo sapiens first got the idea about walking on two legs. It stunk. Everything that possibly could hurt did hurt. I couldn't walk without limping. (I don't think this was entirely the fault of the run. The asthma attack made it hard to exercise, and getting drenched to the skin on the way to the track might have had something to do with things like muscles cramping up on me.)

Yesterday, I was still limping. I started doing serious ibuprofen and applying the ice pack, but even lying in bed I couldn't lie on the side that had the nasty leg pain just below the hip. I thought I was totally screwed; there was no way I'd be able to get up and jog a whole entire 5k.

Then I thought, well what if I could do it after all? Maybe the pain will let up and I'll be able to run. I'll never know unless I go down there and try. In the end, it was curiosity that got me out of my warm bed and sent me out into the cold, rainy pre-dawn morning.

Looks like other people had the same idea

I indulged in a whole lot of internal lying self-talk:

• I promised my inner slug I was just going to walk 3 miles by the waterfront. Watch the sun rise, enjoy the scenery. (Once I'd lured the slug out of bed and down to the start of the race, it was a lot easier to ignore.)
  



Either the sky above Portland suddenly developed a whole lot of additional moons, or the rain drops on my lens were causing some neat special effects.

• After a mile of jogging, the hip pain showed up. I promised the hip pain that it was going to get one-on-one time with Mr. Ice Pack. The hip pain believed me, and went away until after the race.
  
• After another mile of jogging, the shin splints said "Hi Merry! We're back!" I promised my shins some ibuprofen in just one more mile. The shins also believed me and the twinges went away.
  
• After the third mile, I told my lungs the inhaler was going to kick in any time now. Eventually, the lungs believed me.
  

The odd thing was -- well, there were a couple of odd things. For one, I wasn't worried about what anyone else would think about me jogging along red faced and slow. There were so many people around that I didn't feel as if anyone had time to stare at me. Besides, I was too busy making promises to my body to worry about what anyone else thought of it. (Though I did worry that my wheezing, that last mile, was getting so loud that it might scare somebody.)

The other thing that surprised me was the fact that I kept going. I did take a couple walking breaks -- when the wheezing got too bad, I had to use the inhaler -- but then I went back to jogging.

The first time I tried to run a 5k, back in January, I found it hard to keep going after the initial rush. This time, though I'm still going out too fast, it seemed natural to be jogging. I'd found a rhythm and it was easier to stick with it than to walk. I'd been trailing a couple people for the first half of the 5k, but in the second half I passed them and kept on going. That I put down to doing the couch to 5k. It wasn't grit or determination that kept me jogging, it was habit. (I don't think I was going any faster; I think the other people slowed down.)

Exercise du jour: Fanconi Anemia 5k
Done!

Rarin' to go... back to the couch

I'm a wimp. On Sunday, I went on the Tour de Parks bike ride. A simple, easy-paced friggin' ride around town.

A couple of years ago, I would have sneered at such a paltry ride. Indeed, as this blog proves, a couple years ago, I did a ride over twice that long without preparation or perturbation.

Sunday, I was pretty much the last person finishing.

Well, not quite. A man and his little daughter latched on behind me, and no matter how slow I went, they went a leeeetle bit slower. One of them had a bicycle pedal that squeaked every time they pressed down on it. So for the last few miles of the ride I was hot, tired, and had to listen to
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak pause
squeak --

-- what's that? Oh, you got the idea. Well, now you know how it felt.

The real problem, of course, is that not only am I a wimp, I was an idiot. Didn't even occur to me to bring the inhaler. At one point, about four miles into the ride, we went down a dusty trail and then up a mulch-covered trail. It wasn't a steep hill, but I only made it 2/3 of the way up before the wheezing got to the point where I had to stop. And after that, I had to go slow or I'd start going into wheeze mode again. It's a sad state of affairs when your leg muscles are rarin' to go and your damn lungs won't get with the program.

In case anyone connected with the ride Googles this, I should mention that the volunteers were fantastic and the party after the ride was quite nice. Gotta love a band that includes a cello, and it was fun to sit on the steps by the fountain listening to the music and watching the children playing bicycle games that tested their balance and reflexes. My exercise friend was astonished that the whole ride was free. I think she was also impressed with the friendly spirit around the event.

Exercise du jour: Walking: morning, noon, and night. Plan to walk to a Max station that's a couple miles (2.5) from my house, instead of the one that's a half-mile away. That way, I'll get nearly half my walking requirement done before I even get to to work. Then a walk at lunch, and walk/Max home.
Today was doomed from the start. Got some walking in, but not much. Woke up at 3 a.m., didn't get back to sleep until 6, so I started the day late, which meant I had to rush to work and work through lunch, which meant ... anyway, ended up with a measly 2 miles walking and a headache. Going to go to bed early and Try This Again tomorrow.

Baby needs a new pair of shoes

I have seen the light. And the halo effect, as well. Be nice if these shoes were this bright at night, but alas they're not. Still pretty comfy.

Exercise du jour: 30 minutes, couch to 5k week3 day 1. Sad to say, using the inhaler seems to make a difference. Without it, I was slower this time. Even with the comfy new shoes.

Midnight run

11 pm run doesn't have the same ring to it.

Too hot to run during the day. My house had turned into a furnace, even at night. So I went out into the street at 11 at night to run.

The streets were empty for the most part, but still the feeling outside was oddly welcoming. Almost everyone had their front door propped open, in the vain hope of a breeze. So I ran past people watching television, people hunched over the dining room table playing a game, people letting their dogs out into the yard one more time -- people performing their ordinary night-time activities, except for the ones that are usually performed in stuffy bedrooms.

For some reason, the asthma has been worse during the heat. Dust? Allergens? Whatever it was, I broke down and used the inhaler, and ran anyway. Felt rather surreal to finish up at 11:30 at night, like the normal rules of having to get up and go to work the next day didn't apply.

Sadly, I did have to go to work the next day, but it was worth it.








Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8363028@N08/ / CC BY 2.0

Running in a Winter Wonderland? Bah humbug.

I know snow is wonderful when it falls on a windless evening, thick white flakes drifting out of the sky to cover the streets and sidewalks with a clean white blanket of soft powder snow.

I don't care. I want it to stop already.

I'm as enthusiastic toward snow as the reindog is toward Christmas.

Must you do this to me every year?

Can running in snowy weather affect asthma? Sure feels like it.


Exercise du jour: Ran 30 minutes. Didn't get a baseline time; too busy peering at the ground trying to find the icy patches.

Just look both ways, okay?

Fact du jour: In Wales, another example of bilingual road signs gone bad. In English, the sign says pedestrians should look right. In Welsh, the sign says they should look left.

p.s. Healthbolt led me to this freaky post about broccoli.

Giveaway du jour: Back to the storage boxes. I'll venture into the garage (if I don't come back, send Mounties) and see if I can make Goodwill's day by giving them two boxes full of stuff.
Done. Now instead of several neatly stacked boxes of stuff, I've got several opened boxes of stuff scattered about the garage -- but the point is that they're not quite so full of stuff. I'm trying to see this as a positive, but the truth is I'm sick of looking at boxes. Argh.

Exercise du jour: 3rd week of the couch to 5k.
Done! Into the 3rd week, and not a gasp, not a wheeze. Has the asthma gone for good?

Headaches, Wordsworth, & Exercise

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration...
- Wordsworth

It was indeed a beautiful evening. Except I was the one breathless, and not with adoration. Even with a headache coming on, managed 20 minutes with Orlando Manuel.


Had to stop in the middle to use the inhaler, but on the positive side that's the first time all day. Seems like I'm improving. Hopefully

Sadly, the sunset was not my photo. From flickr.

Exercise Update & One Happy Dog

Bloody hell.
This blogging guilt stuff actually works.

I thought: "It's time to update the blog."
Inner Critic responded: "Update with what? You haven't done anything!"
Self defensively: "Well, it's hard. I try to exercise, I get out of breath, I stop."
I.C.: "You give up too easily. Take a break and try again."
Self definite whining tone by now: "But that's hard! Don' wanna!"
I.C.: "Do I have to slap you upside the head?"
Self: sniff, sniff

Actually this went on a greater length, but I figure anyone reading this has already dropped off to sleep.

The point is, I couldn't post anything until I'd exercised. So I went and did 20 minutes on Orlando Manuel.
The good news: I worked up a sweat and didn't gasp once.
The bad news: I'm going at a much slower rate than I had been before I stopped exercising. (I know that it's only to be expected, but it's still disappointing.)

Also, I would like to lodge an Official Complaint.

Autumn is supposed to look like this:


But it feels more like this:

Yesterday was the last day of August. I had to turn on the heater. It's bad enough that winter lasted well into spring, now summer is ending early?

Dog update
I don't think I ever posted an update on the dog since she got sick. I sent her down to California for the winter, and she came back looking marvelous.

Every day, my mother cooked the dog an egg for breakfast and a yam for dinner, gave her dog treats in between, and then called me up fretting because Tanji wasn't touching her dog food. The combination of being away from that pestilential townhouse, getting good fresh food, and most of all having someone around all day worked wonders.

A year ago, when she'd scratched off all the fur she could reach, she looked like this:

Now she looks like this:

















She now has more fur than she did before she got sick. The ruff of fur around her neck is now so thick that I had to let her collar out a notch, and even so I'm thinking I should buy her a larger collar.