I spent a good part of the day today at the doctors seeing a physical therapist. My insurance will pay 80% of 60 visits before the end of the year after $400 deductible. So it doesn't make sense for me to go until after New Years. Unless the world ends tomorrow in which case I'll probably be stuck pushing a habanero cart up a flaming hill only to have it slide back down again just before I reach the molten lava spewing from the top. Anyways....I had a hot Asian therapist and she had me lay on the table while she rubbed here and there to see where I hurt and what was tight. I'd heard that on the flip over that's when the good stuff comes into play but she was all business....Must just be an incorrect stereotype...DAMNIT.
Once I got over my initial disappointment she had me do all sorts of bending and moving. She measured my legs, my quads, and all sorts of things. Then she had me walk this way and that while watching me. After that it was a bunch of stretching and a short run on the treadmill. She came to the conclusion that my problem isn't my knees at all....that they are merely a symptom of a weak left hip. She said with tight hips and glutes that aren't firing properly my knees are doomed. The plan is no running for another 2 weeks. Absolutely no one legged squats or leg extensions....because weak quads isn't the problem so all those exercises were worthless. Meanwhile I'll be doing lots of icing of the tender tendons to get them under control....and lots and lots of these stretches. When the new year comes we'll start in on strengthening that left hip. No more crooked TerribleTerry. I guess I still could have a "happy ending" after all.
I've been involving myself a good bit in the gun control debate recently. I've come to the conclusion, besides the fact that Americans are stupid creatures that are controlled by biological urges and emotional triggers, that we as a population do not know how to have constructive dialog. One side shouts their position, the other side shouts theirs...then they change the wording and shout into the wind each time getting louder and more shrill....each wondering why the other side isn't convinced by their shrill media sound byte regurgitation's. In all of the shouting there's an absence of thought. An absence of dialectic....and instead an abundance of phatic grunts. Dialectic, was described by the ancient philosopher Plotinus, "as the most precious part of philosophy, and the point’s a valid one; the ability to sit down with someone who disagrees with you about some important issue, discuss the matter, determine what common ground exists and where the differences of opinion lie, and either resolve the disagreement or sort out the questions of fact and value that have to be settled in order to resolve it, represents a high level of the practical wisdom that philosophy once upon a time was meant to cultivate".
It's frustrating trying to have an intelligent debate, and I suppose the medium I'm choosing, social media, is a poor one.....but that's the only medium our tribe uses to record their clicks, grunts, and guttural articulation. Instead of getting to the meat of the discussion I find myself more often than not pointing out failed logic, inaccurate facts, or the complete absence of statistics backing up their argument. By the time this is accomplished the person has turned to someone amongst their gathering who hears their phatic utterances and relates with them....and they go about grooming each other and preening. Informed debate you see.....I seem to have forgotten....requires informed people. DOH!!!!
With any debate in this country what I've found are one group who loads themselves up with scientific, peer reviewed data that the broader world has come to believe as facts. They are then forced to match them up against another group who is armed with a select set of biased data, purchased by the company profiting most from the status quo (ignorance) and passed off as fact to a population of people who can't tell the difference and are extremely happy not to. The people armed with facts aren't prepared for a group of people who tell half truths with pretty smiles. The people armed with incorrect data love finding data that confirms exactly what they want to believe and are more than happy to declare it gospel no matter how absurd the story their interpretation of the data would require.
Anyways......before long I just come back to the conclusion....that we are truly fucked. My choice is to preach to the choir, or to stand in between sheep and goats and try to lecture them in English in such a way that would allow them to understand each other. It's just not happening.
The argument I was just commenting on was about having armed teachers in our schools. I offered some facts and was shouted some snippets that basically said "I'm afraid so we need to try something". I pointed out that if we were to try something it would be best to research current locations where things are different (and gave facts) or historical examples like the old West where things were as they proposed, and use those facts to decide on a workable path. In each case the only replies were for people to pull some wild fantasy scenario where....this one time....having a gun MIGHT have changed something. Never mind all the facts and figures that show that the consequences of arming teachers would cause more accidents and problems than would be gained by defending against his/her fantasy scenario (or unfortunately the very real and tragic scenario last week).
The debate then trudges down the path of their uninformed scenario and it gets wilder and more clearly unworkable...and yet the person never falters. I tried to show them data where professional armed guards in prisons...have accidents ALL THE TIME with their guns. Statistics showing where police forget their guns laying around at local restaurants, or have them stolen from their cars....way more often than they (trained professionals) successfully shoot heavily armed men with body armor. I mean....I've been heavily trained my entire life on getting dressed. I have about 35 years experience doing it. I think it's even acceptable to call myself a professional at putting clothes onto my body. Yet somehow...with all this training....a few times here and there....I managed to walk out of the bathroom with my fly down.
But you can't have a dialog about potential problems if the people you're speaking with are spewing fear. Because fear can't be confronted with facts, or statistics, or logic (especially in a society where those things aren't understood). You can only fight fear with LOVE.....and we don't have much of that at our disposal in a nation based on, encouraged by, and enthralled with..........selfishness.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
The state of things
It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd just get grumpy and get it done. I've had some things on my mind to post but the subjects I wanted to express were deserving of an outline and I just didn't want to do the work. I didn't want to put down something that wasn't coherent either so I did nothing. Plus I'm tired of the multiple blog thing. I figure fuck it. I'm writing how I feel. Deal with it or go away.
1) My dad is going to die soon. I haven't let it hit me all that much. I feel this anxiety building inside because I know I'll need to face it, face him, face my siblings, and I know it's going to be a real fiasco. My sister opened the disaster by flying home. She never went home for any weddings, my mom's chemo, brain tumor, hip replacement, or anything else. There's potential financial gain from a will so she had to go home all dramatic like she's there for everyone. She called me from his bedside and lectured me in front of the other siblings because I wasn't there for him, and them (and she was.....how darling).
2) I switched over to cycling and rode 240 miles in 4 rides. It was a bit obsessive. It was the last warm days and I had stuff on my mind. One of those evenings saw an altercation with an enraged motorist. Sometimes I just can't help myself but tickle people who can't control themselves. I like to poke and prod them. It's not healthy and I'm not sure why I like it so much. This particular fellow came to a stop sign at the same time as me on a road that ran parallel to the bike path. The cars across the path were stopped and he had nowhere to go...but insisted on pealing out and roaring up to the stopped cars blocking the path while looking me in the eye...just to be a dick. So I sprayed my sports drink through his open car window into his face. By the time he jumped from his car I was well on my way safely away and the dumbass threw his keys at me. It hurt like hell but I caught them. Taunted him appropriately with his keys....and rode off leaving him to ponder how he would now move his car off the road.....and get home.
3) Went to the doctor for my patella tendonitis and he basically told me what I already knew and is having my go to physical therapy. I've been online and looked high and low and have been doing all of those exercises but hopefully the PT doctor has some I should be doing and am not, or will find some I'm doing wrong or something....because it's not working and I'm starting to feel entirely too happy cycling myself silly. He did tell me to take a month completely away from anything that irritates the tendon. That sucks.
4) I've been a bit of a dating machine. I've had to resort to keeping a notebook with details about the girls because I'm a little out of control. So I guess I'm doing it Romneystyle with my binders full of women. I'm honest and fair with all of them. It seems that's what dating is nowadays. This constant swap where nobody wants to choose any so they choose all. It sucks, I feel like I"m the evenings entertainment and nothing more, so it begins to be difficult not to treat them like the evenings entertainment. I'm having fun but I want something real. I had a dream last night that Lyuda and I got back together. I miss her a lot.
5) This shooting deserves a post of it's own. I've stated my opinions on here. I think it was bad of me to stop. I think people need to rage against the situation. I silenced myself because I didn't want to sound like a zealous broken record. Humans are selfish creatures and capitalism rewards selfishness. Things like religion that teach altruistic behaviors, although flawed, have value. As we've swapped real religion with the "religion of progress" we've allowed the worst of human traits to thrive. I want things and laws limit my access to them so laws are bad.... There is no thought given in this egocentric worldview to consequences. I want car, but if everyone in the world drives a car traffic will suck. I want a gun but if everyone in the world has a gun crazy people will do bad shit. Nobody wants to give up anything even if it helps better society.
We also dismantle every social safety net. I don't use it so I don't want to pay for it has become the Republican creed. It's Socialist for rich people to help anyone. They'd rather everyone donate to causes they feel are important. Who thinks health care for crazies are important until their child dies at the hands of one? You end up with LiveStrong making millions and other less popular things getting nothing.
Within a week what I'm sure we'll see is some item, that Americans can buy....that will make them all feel better about it. After September 11th it was a flag decal for your car. For the Iraq war it was a nice yellow "Support our troops" ribbon. What sticker or what purchase will soothe your heartache this time. It'll be something and it'll catch like wildfire. 10% of the profit will go to Gun Control, or Mental Health programs. The rest will make some schmuck rich off your fear and guilt. There there....it's not how we inhabit our world that's the problem...it's them. It's THOSE people. Buy this and show your support and oh...buy THIS to protect yourself against THEM.
Every post I saw that said arm the teachers I made sure to post that once the teachers and everyone were armed we could do away with the cops because the world would be safe. It's like cashiers at the supermarket. Who needs cashiers....or cops...if everyone can just handle their own. Notice nobody has said anything about the fellow wearing body armor. So not only do all the teachers need weapons....they'll need body armor too. If everyone in the world was handed a tennis racquet soon enough you'd have all kinds of people with tennis racquet sized lumps on their skulls. Pass out guns to an entire population and see what you get...trust me.....the utopia you're envisioning would look strangely a LOT like Somalia.
1) My dad is going to die soon. I haven't let it hit me all that much. I feel this anxiety building inside because I know I'll need to face it, face him, face my siblings, and I know it's going to be a real fiasco. My sister opened the disaster by flying home. She never went home for any weddings, my mom's chemo, brain tumor, hip replacement, or anything else. There's potential financial gain from a will so she had to go home all dramatic like she's there for everyone. She called me from his bedside and lectured me in front of the other siblings because I wasn't there for him, and them (and she was.....how darling).
2) I switched over to cycling and rode 240 miles in 4 rides. It was a bit obsessive. It was the last warm days and I had stuff on my mind. One of those evenings saw an altercation with an enraged motorist. Sometimes I just can't help myself but tickle people who can't control themselves. I like to poke and prod them. It's not healthy and I'm not sure why I like it so much. This particular fellow came to a stop sign at the same time as me on a road that ran parallel to the bike path. The cars across the path were stopped and he had nowhere to go...but insisted on pealing out and roaring up to the stopped cars blocking the path while looking me in the eye...just to be a dick. So I sprayed my sports drink through his open car window into his face. By the time he jumped from his car I was well on my way safely away and the dumbass threw his keys at me. It hurt like hell but I caught them. Taunted him appropriately with his keys....and rode off leaving him to ponder how he would now move his car off the road.....and get home.
3) Went to the doctor for my patella tendonitis and he basically told me what I already knew and is having my go to physical therapy. I've been online and looked high and low and have been doing all of those exercises but hopefully the PT doctor has some I should be doing and am not, or will find some I'm doing wrong or something....because it's not working and I'm starting to feel entirely too happy cycling myself silly. He did tell me to take a month completely away from anything that irritates the tendon. That sucks.
4) I've been a bit of a dating machine. I've had to resort to keeping a notebook with details about the girls because I'm a little out of control. So I guess I'm doing it Romneystyle with my binders full of women. I'm honest and fair with all of them. It seems that's what dating is nowadays. This constant swap where nobody wants to choose any so they choose all. It sucks, I feel like I"m the evenings entertainment and nothing more, so it begins to be difficult not to treat them like the evenings entertainment. I'm having fun but I want something real. I had a dream last night that Lyuda and I got back together. I miss her a lot.
5) This shooting deserves a post of it's own. I've stated my opinions on here. I think it was bad of me to stop. I think people need to rage against the situation. I silenced myself because I didn't want to sound like a zealous broken record. Humans are selfish creatures and capitalism rewards selfishness. Things like religion that teach altruistic behaviors, although flawed, have value. As we've swapped real religion with the "religion of progress" we've allowed the worst of human traits to thrive. I want things and laws limit my access to them so laws are bad.... There is no thought given in this egocentric worldview to consequences. I want car, but if everyone in the world drives a car traffic will suck. I want a gun but if everyone in the world has a gun crazy people will do bad shit. Nobody wants to give up anything even if it helps better society.
We also dismantle every social safety net. I don't use it so I don't want to pay for it has become the Republican creed. It's Socialist for rich people to help anyone. They'd rather everyone donate to causes they feel are important. Who thinks health care for crazies are important until their child dies at the hands of one? You end up with LiveStrong making millions and other less popular things getting nothing.
Within a week what I'm sure we'll see is some item, that Americans can buy....that will make them all feel better about it. After September 11th it was a flag decal for your car. For the Iraq war it was a nice yellow "Support our troops" ribbon. What sticker or what purchase will soothe your heartache this time. It'll be something and it'll catch like wildfire. 10% of the profit will go to Gun Control, or Mental Health programs. The rest will make some schmuck rich off your fear and guilt. There there....it's not how we inhabit our world that's the problem...it's them. It's THOSE people. Buy this and show your support and oh...buy THIS to protect yourself against THEM.
Every post I saw that said arm the teachers I made sure to post that once the teachers and everyone were armed we could do away with the cops because the world would be safe. It's like cashiers at the supermarket. Who needs cashiers....or cops...if everyone can just handle their own. Notice nobody has said anything about the fellow wearing body armor. So not only do all the teachers need weapons....they'll need body armor too. If everyone in the world was handed a tennis racquet soon enough you'd have all kinds of people with tennis racquet sized lumps on their skulls. Pass out guns to an entire population and see what you get...trust me.....the utopia you're envisioning would look strangely a LOT like Somalia.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wow....I know that creep!!
I haven't told many stories here of my 2nd stint in college after a short period in Georgia and in the Virgin Islands. I don't really have time to tell the full story today, but I saw something on the national news today that is truly disturbing. When I arrived at West Texas A&M I was the very first scholarship runner since the school had crashed and burned due to a scandal where the president or dean or whatever embezzled millions of dollars. The school shut down all athletics for a while, went from NCAA Div1 down to Div2, and slowly rebuilt.
I was brought in with the hopes from my coach, the late Eric Lathrop, that I'd accomplish two things. First that I'd be a mature presence and help coach the "summer training program" since the coach isn't legally allowed to monitor off season workouts. I did this by basically by buying a house and having my teammates move in with me and then waking everyone up at 6am to run everyday. The folks who didn't live with me we'd run to their house and collect them along with some local Kenyan professional runners.
The second reason I was brought in, which goes with the news story today, was that my earlier college results would help assist the team in getting financial booster donations. Coach took me to all the local races and we talked about how the new team was going to return the school back to nationals, etc. Many of the additional things we did was go to dinner with local millionaires to drum up money. On many occasions that took me to the home of Stanley Marsh.
Marsh was famous around Amarillo for the "Cadillac Ranch". He also was a well known philanthropist who would put street signs, painted over with weird art, in peoples yards and pay them a monthly fee for using their space. He picked poor areas of town in the hopes of beautifying them as well as giving much needed income to those homeowners. Stan was a really weird fellow and often when trying to describe is eccentricity to others 2 stories come to mind. Knowing Stan the way I did, having stayed in his home and spent days working around his property makes today's news quite disturbing. It's like the warning signs were all there all the time and I saw them and dismissed them.
The first story that shows just how odd this guy is started just after a really tiring speed session. Stan and his wife would often come to the end of the road, along with Terry Funk (former WWE wrestler) and his wife and they'd set out glasses of tea and talk to us in between each repeat then cheer us on as we started the next. After practice they'd invite us all (clad in our shorty shorts and often shirtless) back to their house to jump in the pool. On one occasion Stan (who was about as flamboyant as hell....but he was married so we never figured he was either closet or just a bit weird) brought out a box filled with all kinds of spay paint. He told us to pick a color, any color, and go around painting rocks in his yard. He said we could all come to his house anytime, grab the box and spray rocks until our hearts content and that he'd pay us $7.50 an hour. He said this in such a flamboyant and suggestive way it struck us all as odd. That day we all had about an hours worth of fun running around in our shorty shorts painting rocks while him and his wife oohed and aaaahed at just how imaginative we were...WEIRD!!
The second weird Stan story is that one day he came flying into coaches office all excited telling us that we must, we just MUST! go to his house to help him celebrate. No time to change we needed to go NOW!! Being a huge financial supporter of the team coach often did whatever Stan asked so off we went. We all jumped in the car (about 5 of us who happened to be there) and headed over to Stan's where his wife was proudly waiting for us in the front yard with a big bottle of champagne. We all get 2 glasses (because to truly celebrate he said you can never have an empty hand) and he led us into his kitchen. There standing in the kitchen was this huge camel. He regaled us with some story of how he made an awesome business deal with some Arabian and one of the gifts he received in exchange was this lovely camel. He was very proud of it. He had no place else to put it so for a month that camel lived in his yard all day, and occasionally came into the kitchen at night. WEIRD!!!
Although I always thought Stan acted a bit faggoty, and although I thought he was the most eccentric and weird old rich fellow imaginable....I NEVER got the impression he was a pedophile. This mornings news was quite disturbing... I go over all the meetings I ever had with Stan and nothing ever gave me the creeps or had me thinking he was capable of this. Just Stan as a whole was weird. Looking back now it sort of makes sense though, the hanging around dudes in shorty shorts, the invitations to come help around his place, etc. It's horrible and on one hand I can't believe it....and on the other it really seems like I should have seen it.
anyways....here's the news report I found.
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-millionaire-charged-child-molestation-225647421.html
I was brought in with the hopes from my coach, the late Eric Lathrop, that I'd accomplish two things. First that I'd be a mature presence and help coach the "summer training program" since the coach isn't legally allowed to monitor off season workouts. I did this by basically by buying a house and having my teammates move in with me and then waking everyone up at 6am to run everyday. The folks who didn't live with me we'd run to their house and collect them along with some local Kenyan professional runners.
The second reason I was brought in, which goes with the news story today, was that my earlier college results would help assist the team in getting financial booster donations. Coach took me to all the local races and we talked about how the new team was going to return the school back to nationals, etc. Many of the additional things we did was go to dinner with local millionaires to drum up money. On many occasions that took me to the home of Stanley Marsh.
Marsh was famous around Amarillo for the "Cadillac Ranch". He also was a well known philanthropist who would put street signs, painted over with weird art, in peoples yards and pay them a monthly fee for using their space. He picked poor areas of town in the hopes of beautifying them as well as giving much needed income to those homeowners. Stan was a really weird fellow and often when trying to describe is eccentricity to others 2 stories come to mind. Knowing Stan the way I did, having stayed in his home and spent days working around his property makes today's news quite disturbing. It's like the warning signs were all there all the time and I saw them and dismissed them.
The first story that shows just how odd this guy is started just after a really tiring speed session. Stan and his wife would often come to the end of the road, along with Terry Funk (former WWE wrestler) and his wife and they'd set out glasses of tea and talk to us in between each repeat then cheer us on as we started the next. After practice they'd invite us all (clad in our shorty shorts and often shirtless) back to their house to jump in the pool. On one occasion Stan (who was about as flamboyant as hell....but he was married so we never figured he was either closet or just a bit weird) brought out a box filled with all kinds of spay paint. He told us to pick a color, any color, and go around painting rocks in his yard. He said we could all come to his house anytime, grab the box and spray rocks until our hearts content and that he'd pay us $7.50 an hour. He said this in such a flamboyant and suggestive way it struck us all as odd. That day we all had about an hours worth of fun running around in our shorty shorts painting rocks while him and his wife oohed and aaaahed at just how imaginative we were...WEIRD!!
The second weird Stan story is that one day he came flying into coaches office all excited telling us that we must, we just MUST! go to his house to help him celebrate. No time to change we needed to go NOW!! Being a huge financial supporter of the team coach often did whatever Stan asked so off we went. We all jumped in the car (about 5 of us who happened to be there) and headed over to Stan's where his wife was proudly waiting for us in the front yard with a big bottle of champagne. We all get 2 glasses (because to truly celebrate he said you can never have an empty hand) and he led us into his kitchen. There standing in the kitchen was this huge camel. He regaled us with some story of how he made an awesome business deal with some Arabian and one of the gifts he received in exchange was this lovely camel. He was very proud of it. He had no place else to put it so for a month that camel lived in his yard all day, and occasionally came into the kitchen at night. WEIRD!!!
Although I always thought Stan acted a bit faggoty, and although I thought he was the most eccentric and weird old rich fellow imaginable....I NEVER got the impression he was a pedophile. This mornings news was quite disturbing... I go over all the meetings I ever had with Stan and nothing ever gave me the creeps or had me thinking he was capable of this. Just Stan as a whole was weird. Looking back now it sort of makes sense though, the hanging around dudes in shorty shorts, the invitations to come help around his place, etc. It's horrible and on one hand I can't believe it....and on the other it really seems like I should have seen it.
anyways....here's the news report I found.
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-millionaire-charged-child-molestation-225647421.html
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Dmitry's Visit
Dmitry is in town from Boston for work. He's staying over in Gaithersburg which is about the farthest place for me to get to because of the river and lack of bridges. So he's like 15 miles from me but I have to travel about 40 to get to him and the traffic after work crossing those bridges is horrible...but...I haven't seen him in a coule years so I braved the traffic.
He got dropped off at the Georgetown Pike/495 exit and I picked him up and we drove downtown to run. I took him on a running monuments tour. We started at the Lincoln Memorial and ran along the reflecting pool, checked out the WW2 memorial, then turned left and headed down and around the White house. We finished that loop back at the Washington Monument and then continued on down the mall. We checked out the pit where they're building the African American history museum, ran the mall passing the American history museum, Natural history museum, etc. Then we did a big loop around the Capital building.
Dmitry is a citizen now and wanted a photo in front of his new capital but they have it all blocked off building the stands for the inauguration so we ran around back by the visitors center and got this one. Not as nice as the front but it'll have to do.
We then came back, peered into the windows at the botanical gardens, looked at the Native American museum, being an engineer and child of the cold war he was fascinated by the Air & Space museum and we looked in all those windows and he told me about how much as a child in the Soviet Union he'd studied and dreamed of becoming an astronaut.
Next we ran passed all the Art Museums, the Castle, turned left passed the Holocaust museum and ran through the MLK memorial over to the Jefferson Memorial and then back to where we started. 7 miles total.
After that we drove to Gaithersburg and had dinner. We had a good time talking about how old we are and how we both felt 24 until we were 35 and then all the sudden the wheels started coming off. He's been trying to make a comeback to race Masters (40+) but with 2 kids now (his wife gave birth in their house on the living room floor with the paramedics last week.....) he just can't seem to get it going again. He ran a good mile in 4:18 recently and then followed it up with a lousy 17:30 5k. He can't know what to expect out of his body one day to the next and wakes up aching all the time.
We've both talked about how we wasted our athletic talents from 30-35 but at least I raced bicycles...he was super lazy. Now we're wishing for those years back.
His and Lyuda's coach, Sergei Nikolaivich Katashov just had a new baby. Sergei had married one of his athletes when I was there the first time and they had a son. Sveta is 40 now so they weren't expecting a second 12 years after their first. Dmitry's mother has really bad heart disease and refuses to go to the doctors so she gets tired and dizzy easy. He's really worried about her. His sister and his nephew Pavlik are doing great. Our friend Vladimir Golias, who ran in the Olympics in 88 and 92 and was living with us in Kansas City went to visit Penza and got caught with some problem with his paperwork and is stuck there. His wife, who now lives in Oregon is trying to get his status worked out. She got a work visa but Vladimir never updated his status from being on a student visa over to his wifes work visa or something like that. They have a newborn so he's missing out on that.
Next we reminisced about our time, 12-15yrs ago when we were running machines. We talked about wishing we could do it all again. Spend 8months of our lives chasing a dream. We remembered how we really had no stress, no responsibilities, how we'd even forget what day it was, etc. We marveled at how much a trip like that now, living at a health spa for months in the mountains with all the massages and food and all would cost. All sorts of funny memories were pulled from our memories. Like me stealing a horse and riding through town and into the fountain. How Dmitry tied the bed sheets together and snuck out of the dorms to go buy beer. Me escaping from the Russian hospital. Good times!!
We talked about going back to some of those places again but then our conversation drifted to kids, wives, hoped for trips to Moab mountain biking, the Grand Canyon running, etc... and we both realized those times will probably never be repeated. Only new and different ones created.
It sure was nice to see him again. He's here again tonight and then heads home. He's coming back in a few weeks and will stay the weekend. He's really excited to go to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum out by the airport so we planned that for the Saturday he's here. I'm excited to show him some of my running spots along the Potomac and a bit more of the city. It all makes me remember a time when everybody I loved lived within a few miles of me. I miss having Tom, Dmitry, and everyone nearby.
He got dropped off at the Georgetown Pike/495 exit and I picked him up and we drove downtown to run. I took him on a running monuments tour. We started at the Lincoln Memorial and ran along the reflecting pool, checked out the WW2 memorial, then turned left and headed down and around the White house. We finished that loop back at the Washington Monument and then continued on down the mall. We checked out the pit where they're building the African American history museum, ran the mall passing the American history museum, Natural history museum, etc. Then we did a big loop around the Capital building.
Dmitry is a citizen now and wanted a photo in front of his new capital but they have it all blocked off building the stands for the inauguration so we ran around back by the visitors center and got this one. Not as nice as the front but it'll have to do.
Next we ran passed all the Art Museums, the Castle, turned left passed the Holocaust museum and ran through the MLK memorial over to the Jefferson Memorial and then back to where we started. 7 miles total.
After that we drove to Gaithersburg and had dinner. We had a good time talking about how old we are and how we both felt 24 until we were 35 and then all the sudden the wheels started coming off. He's been trying to make a comeback to race Masters (40+) but with 2 kids now (his wife gave birth in their house on the living room floor with the paramedics last week.....) he just can't seem to get it going again. He ran a good mile in 4:18 recently and then followed it up with a lousy 17:30 5k. He can't know what to expect out of his body one day to the next and wakes up aching all the time.
We've both talked about how we wasted our athletic talents from 30-35 but at least I raced bicycles...he was super lazy. Now we're wishing for those years back.
His and Lyuda's coach, Sergei Nikolaivich Katashov just had a new baby. Sergei had married one of his athletes when I was there the first time and they had a son. Sveta is 40 now so they weren't expecting a second 12 years after their first. Dmitry's mother has really bad heart disease and refuses to go to the doctors so she gets tired and dizzy easy. He's really worried about her. His sister and his nephew Pavlik are doing great. Our friend Vladimir Golias, who ran in the Olympics in 88 and 92 and was living with us in Kansas City went to visit Penza and got caught with some problem with his paperwork and is stuck there. His wife, who now lives in Oregon is trying to get his status worked out. She got a work visa but Vladimir never updated his status from being on a student visa over to his wifes work visa or something like that. They have a newborn so he's missing out on that.
Next we reminisced about our time, 12-15yrs ago when we were running machines. We talked about wishing we could do it all again. Spend 8months of our lives chasing a dream. We remembered how we really had no stress, no responsibilities, how we'd even forget what day it was, etc. We marveled at how much a trip like that now, living at a health spa for months in the mountains with all the massages and food and all would cost. All sorts of funny memories were pulled from our memories. Like me stealing a horse and riding through town and into the fountain. How Dmitry tied the bed sheets together and snuck out of the dorms to go buy beer. Me escaping from the Russian hospital. Good times!!
We talked about going back to some of those places again but then our conversation drifted to kids, wives, hoped for trips to Moab mountain biking, the Grand Canyon running, etc... and we both realized those times will probably never be repeated. Only new and different ones created.
It sure was nice to see him again. He's here again tonight and then heads home. He's coming back in a few weeks and will stay the weekend. He's really excited to go to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum out by the airport so we planned that for the Saturday he's here. I'm excited to show him some of my running spots along the Potomac and a bit more of the city. It all makes me remember a time when everybody I loved lived within a few miles of me. I miss having Tom, Dmitry, and everyone nearby.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
grrrrr!!
Tried a week of running at the silly 180 cadence. It feels fine for around 6:20 pace (which oddly enough is my marathon pace right now). Anything slower it feels silly. Still not convinced you need that cadence unless you're running fast. Sure, maybe it's great practice for getting your hips ready for when you do run fast....but then....why not just run fast to prepare yourself to run fast. Frustrated I guess.
I had a good week and then on my 6th day of running my knees hurt. Maybe too much? Not sure because I only totaled 28miles that week and I had been doing 35. I went to physical therapy and came home to run and they felt worse. Grrrrrr!!!!!
Got word yesterday that Mr. Anderson's systems have begun shutting down. He's in hospice and it looks like the lights will go out any day now. I got the call just as I was drifting off to sleep. The first thing I thought of as I got off the phone was a bit odd, but I guess my whole life is a bit odd. I laid there thinking about how sometimes he'd suddenly burst into song. He'd go from quietly working on something or reading, to top of his lungs singing. I remember breaking into a cold sweat, my movements frozen expecting a beating only to recognize one of the dozen or so songs he'd sing. Then I thought how my entire existence with him had been like that. A constant uneasiness. Holding my breath waiting, trying to decode his every move to sense if his next action would be anger or something else. I still remember every one of those silly songs he used to sing. Thinking of them made me cry until I fell asleep.
I'm going to go ride my bike today. I'm off work early and it's not all that cold. I can't run and I need to do something. I'll see what kind of things there are out there to be viewed from 2 wheels.
I had a good week and then on my 6th day of running my knees hurt. Maybe too much? Not sure because I only totaled 28miles that week and I had been doing 35. I went to physical therapy and came home to run and they felt worse. Grrrrrr!!!!!
Got word yesterday that Mr. Anderson's systems have begun shutting down. He's in hospice and it looks like the lights will go out any day now. I got the call just as I was drifting off to sleep. The first thing I thought of as I got off the phone was a bit odd, but I guess my whole life is a bit odd. I laid there thinking about how sometimes he'd suddenly burst into song. He'd go from quietly working on something or reading, to top of his lungs singing. I remember breaking into a cold sweat, my movements frozen expecting a beating only to recognize one of the dozen or so songs he'd sing. Then I thought how my entire existence with him had been like that. A constant uneasiness. Holding my breath waiting, trying to decode his every move to sense if his next action would be anger or something else. I still remember every one of those silly songs he used to sing. Thinking of them made me cry until I fell asleep.
I'm going to go ride my bike today. I'm off work early and it's not all that cold. I can't run and I need to do something. I'll see what kind of things there are out there to be viewed from 2 wheels.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Turning the corner?
I had a down week last week and it was frustrating. I had my "orthotics" pretty dialed in so I decided to permanently affix them into my shoes. Taping them didn't work all that well and I ended up making them thicker on accident and had a bit of a setback. I've reworked them and they seem ok now but I missed 4 days of training.
Out of frustration I hit the trails yesterday and ran 10 miles pretty hard. I did the difficult run/CCT loop. I normally hit the road by route 7 in around 33:30 my record was 31:26. yesterday I went through at 29:12 but I pretty much exploded a mile later and really crawled to the finish in 1:08:12 pretty fast still for the trails.
I went back to that physical therapist and got some good treatments on my knees. He's having me quit yoga and stretching my quads. Stretching the hamstrings and lower back is ok. He thinks I'm irritating the tendon stretching the quads. He gave me some icing strategies, some new exercises, and instead of stretching I'm supposed to use the foam roller like crazy. I'm also supposed to stop the seated leg extensions. Instead I'm supposed to do really slow single legs squats with my other leg sticking out at different angles.
After my treatment we decided we'd get back to work on my form. Now that I'm in pretty solid shape we figured we'd try again. Last time there were just too many variables. Trying to figure out shoes, orthotics, form, turnover, and get in shape all at once was frustrating the crap out of me. He had me run 180 strides per minute. It felt weird for a bit but I did 4 miles with him recording my form and having me try different things. My right arm/shoulder needs some work so he gave me this green band thing and some exercises to start doing. Probably due to broken collarbone as a kid. Mostly everything else was due to pigeon toe compensation but nothing that seemed counterproductive.
One things for sure. A few weeks of consistent short slow runs everyday has my fitness up. It doesn't feel like I'm doing much but the consistency is showing promise. I need to quit with the long runs because my form falls apart, I bounce, and my knees pay the price. I'll keep with the 180 cadence until it feels more natural. Then I can slow it slightly to do slower runs and add miles.
Out of frustration I hit the trails yesterday and ran 10 miles pretty hard. I did the difficult run/CCT loop. I normally hit the road by route 7 in around 33:30 my record was 31:26. yesterday I went through at 29:12 but I pretty much exploded a mile later and really crawled to the finish in 1:08:12 pretty fast still for the trails.
I went back to that physical therapist and got some good treatments on my knees. He's having me quit yoga and stretching my quads. Stretching the hamstrings and lower back is ok. He thinks I'm irritating the tendon stretching the quads. He gave me some icing strategies, some new exercises, and instead of stretching I'm supposed to use the foam roller like crazy. I'm also supposed to stop the seated leg extensions. Instead I'm supposed to do really slow single legs squats with my other leg sticking out at different angles.
After my treatment we decided we'd get back to work on my form. Now that I'm in pretty solid shape we figured we'd try again. Last time there were just too many variables. Trying to figure out shoes, orthotics, form, turnover, and get in shape all at once was frustrating the crap out of me. He had me run 180 strides per minute. It felt weird for a bit but I did 4 miles with him recording my form and having me try different things. My right arm/shoulder needs some work so he gave me this green band thing and some exercises to start doing. Probably due to broken collarbone as a kid. Mostly everything else was due to pigeon toe compensation but nothing that seemed counterproductive.
One things for sure. A few weeks of consistent short slow runs everyday has my fitness up. It doesn't feel like I'm doing much but the consistency is showing promise. I need to quit with the long runs because my form falls apart, I bounce, and my knees pay the price. I'll keep with the 180 cadence until it feels more natural. Then I can slow it slightly to do slower runs and add miles.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Yoga
I was pretty darned sore after that treadmill effort on Monday. Running a 20min first 3 miles and then a 16:30 didn't feel all that bad....but oooof I sufferend on Wednesday.
Tuesday I ran 5 miles on the W&OD at 6:53 pace. My left hip was really tight and hurting and my right calf was a little sore. Wednesday I felt like I could barely walk. Each time I got up from my desk at work my calf was really tight. My hip wasn't as bad Wednesday, but that calf was horrible.
I decided to take the day off and went to Yoga instead. I went to Down Dog in Herndon because they offer a 1 week free trial membership. Free sounded good so off I went in my green leisure suit. My halloween costume was a big hit there. I hadn't been to yoga in a long while and it didn't take long to remember exactly why I like it......holy hell the chicks!! I met a nice girl named Kelly and set my magic carpet down right behind her. NICE!!! During the class I also fell in love with my teacher. whoa!!
Thursday I did my 5 mile lunchtime run and felt horrible. I normally do the loop anywhere from 36min - 38:30 and yesterday I ran 40:10. Everything was tired. That yoga was tough. Last night I went to yoga again and Kelly met me there. She's a cutie. Got the same instructor, damn....married. Last night was a killer. I was so sore from Wednesday night that I was barely making it through the class. Wednesday I was really working all the poses and trying really hard. Thursday I was just hanging in there. Even found myself doing nothing occasionally when nobody was looking. I was TIRED!!
Today I ran the 5 mile loop again nice and easy and I still felt really horrible and heavy but my time was 36:50, so right in line with always. My back and shoulders are just really tired from yoga. probably my hips and things are really fatigued too and I just don't feel it. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'll either do an hour run or I'll stick to my 5's. I'll be right on 30 miles I think for the week. Not many miles but I can tell the consistancy is really helping.
3 minute explanation of why you should all go to Yoga.
Tuesday I ran 5 miles on the W&OD at 6:53 pace. My left hip was really tight and hurting and my right calf was a little sore. Wednesday I felt like I could barely walk. Each time I got up from my desk at work my calf was really tight. My hip wasn't as bad Wednesday, but that calf was horrible.
I decided to take the day off and went to Yoga instead. I went to Down Dog in Herndon because they offer a 1 week free trial membership. Free sounded good so off I went in my green leisure suit. My halloween costume was a big hit there. I hadn't been to yoga in a long while and it didn't take long to remember exactly why I like it......holy hell the chicks!! I met a nice girl named Kelly and set my magic carpet down right behind her. NICE!!! During the class I also fell in love with my teacher. whoa!!
Thursday I did my 5 mile lunchtime run and felt horrible. I normally do the loop anywhere from 36min - 38:30 and yesterday I ran 40:10. Everything was tired. That yoga was tough. Last night I went to yoga again and Kelly met me there. She's a cutie. Got the same instructor, damn....married. Last night was a killer. I was so sore from Wednesday night that I was barely making it through the class. Wednesday I was really working all the poses and trying really hard. Thursday I was just hanging in there. Even found myself doing nothing occasionally when nobody was looking. I was TIRED!!
Today I ran the 5 mile loop again nice and easy and I still felt really horrible and heavy but my time was 36:50, so right in line with always. My back and shoulders are just really tired from yoga. probably my hips and things are really fatigued too and I just don't feel it. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'll either do an hour run or I'll stick to my 5's. I'll be right on 30 miles I think for the week. Not many miles but I can tell the consistancy is really helping.
3 minute explanation of why you should all go to Yoga.
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