Today I decided to give running a shot. The new insoles seem to be working! I had success with them in my last pair, so I thought I’d try them again.
After taking Monday off, I managed 4 miles on the treadmill today. Goal was to finish in 40 minutes. Actually needed only about 37.
Tomorrow I’m going to try for another 4 on the treadmill. I’ll try pavement again once my GPS unit arrives.
So it occurs to me I never followed up on my last speed dating experience. There were 5 women I wanted to see again. There were 4 women who wanted to see me again. Overlap? One. She wrote me first, thanked me for wanting to see her again, and gave me her email address. We corresponded and made plans to get together that weekend. She gave me her cell phone #, and I gave her mine. We talked that Sunday and made plans to see a movie (Chris Rock’s ‘I Think I Love My Wife. Not bad, but not great either). I agreed to drive out to where she was, an hour away, I might add.
We met at the theater, went to a nearby diner for some coffee before the show and talked. We talked about family, work, sports, all the usual first date stuff. We made our way back to the theater and settled in for the show. I walked her back to her car, and asked if she’d like to get together the following weekend. She said “Maybe, give me a call on my cell or send me an email”. I took that as a positive sign at the time. I should have read her voice better. Her enthusiasm at the prospect of seeing me again was rather weak. As it turns out, she wasn’t interested. What’s worse, I had to come to that conclusion myself. I emailed her Monday morning (probably a bad idea) and thanked her and said I had a great time. I asked what she might like to do the following weekend, saying that I was up for anything. I said I’d call her on her cell Wednesday night so we could make plans.
No reply to my email.
Called her cell Wednesday night. Got voice mail.
Emailed her the following weekend to see if she’d like to get together.
Like the Beatles sang, No Reply.
Don’t know what the heck I did wrong. I’m tempted to send her a “The heck with you, it’s your loss” email, but I’d rather not waste any more time on someone who shows so little regard for me. I really hate the disappearing act of not replying to email or phone calls. If I’m not interested in someone, I tell them. In my opinion, the other person deserves the courtesy of a response. I don’t disappear. Oh well. I’ve got another speed dating event in a little over two weeks. Wish me luck.
I don’t want to, but I think it’s best. I didn’t do a good enough job trimming the foam insoles for my shoes. I now have blisters the size of quarters on the sides of my heels. Drained `em both, but it’s gonna take awhile to heal up. It’s a bit of a challenge to walk correctly, much less run. Better to wait this out, heal up and get back on track. I’ll probably risk more damage if I try to run now.
Meanwhile, I went to Wal-Mart and got me some drinkable coral based calcium (I checked my “Century”* multi-vitamin, and I wasn’t close to getting enough calcium. Hopefully that will help the shin splints. 
I’m down, but not out. Like Rocky said, it’s about how hard you can get hit and still keep moving forward.
*Compare to ‘Centrum’ brand vitamins, but cost a lot less!
So I put a pair of foam inserts into my New Balances the other night, and ran 3 miles yesterday morning (treadmill). Long story short, I probably need to trim my inserts a little more. I’ve got blisters from friction. Lesson learned. Even the slightest wrinkle will make a big difference over just a few miles, let alone 26.2.
Today (which is really Saturday, despite the backdated post, shhhhh) is my long run day: 7 miles. I’m sticking to the treadmill. I’ll probably leave my blisters as they are instead of lancing them. Heck, they should provide extra cushioning!
And my eBay purchased Garmin Forerunner 101 should be arriving in about 2 weeks. I probably overpaid, but hey, a new gadget!
Every once in awhile, I get addicted to an artist. I hear a few of their songs, and I find something so identifiable with them. Usually, it’s the songwriting. The words they choose. The ideas they express. The way they are different from everything else out there. A ‘Greatest Hits’ album becomes sacrilage. Owning a few albums here and there won’t do it either. Nope. I have to own every damn thing they put out. I have to hear every note they put to tape. I can’t miss a single iota of their brilliance.
My friends can pretty much recite the artists I’m into like that. The Beatles, Bob Dylan and (up until recently) Bruce Springsteen. The latest “must have” artist for me is Warren Zevon. If you didn’t know who he was three years ago, you probably do now.
You may not know the name, but you probably know his biggest hit, a novelty song called “Werewolves In London”, played endlessly on classic rock radio. You may also know another hit of his: “Lawyers, Guns and Money”.
Three years ago, Zevon, who had a lifelong fear of doctors was finding himself constantly short of breath. His friends finally convinced him to visit a physician. Unfortunately his fear of doctors was well founded. That examination revealed that he was suffering from terminal mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer.
Zevon made his final TV appearance performing on the Late Show with David Letterman on October 30, 2002. You could tell he was in bad shape. But Zevon made it through, performing three songs.
Zevon refused to undergo treatments that may have prolonged his life in order to put all his effort into one last album, ‘The Wind’, released in September 2003. He died a week later. Almost immediately afterward, Zevon began to get the mainstream attention and praise that he struggled to achieve his whole career. ‘The Wind’ was Zevon’s highest chart debut ever. The following year, the Grammys produced a special tribute segment in his honor. A tribute album soon followed with performances of Zevon songs featuring Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and Adam Sandler (!)
These days, Warren’s son Jordan is overseeing the expansion and remastering of his late father’s catalog. This week saw the release of three albums: the classic ‘Excitable Boy’, the underrated ‘The Envoy’ and the live ‘Stand In the Fire’. I picked all of them up this week. You should too. Now.
Actually, I don’t really see this as a political issue at all. Several British sailors were taken hostage in Iran over the weekend. One female in the group, Molly Turney, has been seen on Iranian TV wearing a headscarf talking about how well her captors were treating her, and how the British government was at fault for the whole thing.
All were getting out of the British government is how “concerned” they are that their sailors are being held against their will. The British military appears to be defending their policy of being “non-escalatory”, which appears to be a nice way of saying “Let yourselves get captured. Don’t want to rock the boat you know!”
Is this the way a government should support its troops? I’ve always had mixed thoughts about women serving in the military. Male soldiers don’t get treated particularly well when they are captured, particularly by nations that don’t exactly play by the Geneva conventions. How do you think they’ll treat the women? My prayers go out to Molly and her family. I doubt her captors are behaving like gentlemen. >:(
I would have hoped the British government would be a bit more “robust” in their efforts to get their troops back, not just talk about how “concerned” they are. Forget the niceties. Forget diplomacy. Forget talking, except to say “You have 6 hours to get those troops on a plane for London, mother%$#@”. A hostile country takes soldiers hostage, and nothing is done about it?!? This just seems so irrational. I can only guess there are other interests that those in high places are thinking about here: money, power, deals in smoke filled rooms. It’s just so sad. The troops deserve better.
I can only hope that if American troops are captured, God forbid, that they get more support from their government than the British sailors are getting from theirs. Unfortunately, I’m not that optimistic.
First, some housekeeping items:
Yes. I’m changing the timestamp on some of these posts to fill in some gaps. Can’t go too long without posting, you know! Makes the blog look bad! 
So, just like corporations with stock options, I’m backdating my blog posts.
This past weekend I went to the specialty running store, The Run In in Rocky Hill, CT to get my annual new pair of running shoes. I bought a pair of New Balance 767’s. They fit well in the store. I even ran up and down the outside of the strip mall where the store was located before I bought them. I ended up paying about 1/3 less for the New Balances than I did for my Nike Shox last year.
But man, it’s been tough getting used to these new shoes. First of all, I miss the overly large spring in the heel of the Nikes. I never really noticed the springiness (is that a word?) of the Nikes until I didn’t have it with the New Balances.
Second, the New Balances have an insert that’s supposed to give stability. The edge of the insert curves slightly up to the side of the shoe, so there’s an edge right near my heel. On my first trip on the treadmill on Monday, the edge, that I hadn’t even noticed when testing the shoes out, caused blisters on my heels. Ouch! That was a painful 3 miles.
So on Wednesday morning, I decided to remove the insert that was giving me trouble. Another bad idea. There was now too much room in my shoes. I don’t know what that did, but the 4 treadmill miles I did on Wednesday didn’t help much. My calves are in PAIN!
So yesterday, I went to WalMart and bought some comfort insoles. The foam kind that you trim to the size of your shoe. I tried to put both pairs in my shoes, but that made them too tight. So I’ve got one pair in. I took a little run around half of my building. Everything seemed alright. Still miss the spring in my heel :(.
Tomorrow I go for 3 miles on the treadmill. We’ll see how it goes!
Ouch. That’s all I have to say. I was supposed to do 3 miles today, and this was the first day where the weather was warm enough to run outside in the early morning before work. Normally, I can average a 10 minute mile on the treadmill without too much trouble. I knew running on pavement would be more of a challenge, so I allowed myself 50% more time to complete my 3 miles: 45 minutes.
I made a decision not to look at my Wal-Mart pedometer until after my 45 minutes were up. The first few minutes were OK, but before I long, my lower legs were in pain. Not so much my knees like usual, but my leg muscles.
After the 45 minutes were through, I looked down at my pedometer and found that I ran….3.57 miles. That’s about a 12:30 mile. Yikes! Afterward, when I went to the locker room and bent down to untie my shoes, what could only be described as lightning bolts went through my lower legs. Ho-lee-cow. PAINFUL!! But better I start getting used to pavement running now than later in the year. Hopefully, I can build up some kind of tolerance to it.
I’m starting to wonder if those pedometers are all they’re cracked up to me. Those things depend on a bounce to register a step, and therefore distance run. I also doubt my stride is a consistent 24 inches every single time, as my pedometer thinks it is. I’d use one of those GPS things in the watches, but my usual training place runs in a loop, so that would probably register as 0.00 miles!
Tomorrow, after working for a few hours, I’m heading out to a specialty running store and getting my 2007 shoes. Time for a new pair, it’s been a year (thanks Tom!!).
Tomorrow is also my long run: 7 miles. I may do that run in my old shoes…and on the treadmill. I need to recover from today!!
Just got back from playing bass at a worship service. Yep, a worship service. I don’t even go that church! But they asked me, and I agreed. It’s at least an opportunity to get out and play, while Red Embers waits to get rekindled. Admitedly, it’s a very different group of people and very different music than what I’m used to playing. But hey, a gig is a gig.
Got to love church in New England, where the motto is “God loves you! So we don’t have to.” They don’t even know I’m childfree! They probably wouldn’t ask me to play again if they did
One important lesson I’ve had to learn is: Don’t confuse the church with God. After expanding my horizons a little, I’m surprised how women outside of church appreciate me more than the oh so pious Christian women. It’s not their fault, really. That’s how they were raised, just like their parents and grandparents and so on.
I haven’t slammed the door on church entirely, though. If a church was willing to help me when I ask for help, and treat me right, I’ll gladly be there every Sunday, with a nice monthly check for them to boot. Until then, I’ll be content to pray on my own, read my bible when I please, and watch ‘Give Me An Answer’ on Sunday mornings in my PJ’s eating waffles.
God be praised.
Yep. We tried to sell this video on DVD, but there were very few takers.
“Sometimes no one wants what you got
Sometimes you can’t give it away” - Bob Dylan
Well, we’re sure going to try to give it away!
Behold, our first music video, completed two years for our gem of a song “How It Ends”