Happenings On An Extended Weekend

Once in a while I get an extra day off therefore extending my weekends to four or five days. Most of the time, I do nothing but relax and watch movies. Here are a few things out of the ordinary that happened last weekend.

There’s An App For That, You Dummy!  I’ve been working out all this time reading the online version of the Press Telegram on the full website only to find that it was oftentimes difficult to scroll and navigate a page because the text would overrun the screen. I knew a while back that there was an app for the newspaper but the reviews weren’t too hot so I never downloaded it until the first of March. I didn’t expect very much out of it, thinking it would be similar to the website. For the most part, it was, but what set it apart was that the text didn’t overrun the page anymore and stopped at its proper boundaries. Finally!

Well it happened again. Free laundry in our condo complex laundry room. Not entirely free mind you, but at least free washes. Somehow, after some maintenance work, the washing machines don’t require coins for one cycle. I took advantage of the situation by doing two loads (I usually just do one). I was able to wash most of my pants in addition to the usual uniforms, undies, socks, and exercise gear. Then the next day, I even did something I haven’t done in years: ironed my pants. Heck, I haven’t ironed anything in a long time! My ironing board and iron is stored away in a hallway closet and haven’t been touched because usually, just by shaking out my clothes after washing and drying, they don’t look too crumpled. However, a few days ago for a brief moment in time, I was an Ironman.

It’s a distinct possibility that the short life of my Olevia TV was due to its close proximity to the furnace, which made the capacitors wear out prematurely.  To prevent this from happening to the new LG TV, I did some minor rearrangements to my living room so as to move the TV stand farther from the furnace. This involved some pushing, pulling, tugging, and lifting. Yipee! Extra workout!

One of my cabinets was starting to burst at its seams with magazines. Specifically, 7 years’ worth of Runner’s World Magazines. I finally stuffed them in a box and moved them to the garage. In the process of emptying the cabinet, I also found books about running from 30 years ago. The usual ones from Jim Fixx and George Sheehan were there but there were a couple of unusual ones which I had forgotten about. Would you believe that Consumer Guide wrote a book about marathon running? What about a one entitled The Non-Runners Book? The second one is a spoof about running addiction. Both were published in the late 1970’s. Well, here are photos of those books.

Vacuuming? What’s that? I haven’t vacuumed very much since I lost my last cat. There is no more kitty litter being tracked around my home. However, dust does come to the surface specially when you are replacing a TV and moving furniture around necessitating the use of the vacuum cleaner (itself gathering dust in the corner of the room). So vacuum I did on one of my days off. Oh, by the way, I also rearranged some exercise equipment in a futile attempt to create more space in my living room. More dust.

So there you go, this is what  made for a productive weekend: ironed, vacuumed, rearranged, moved 7 years worth of Runner’s World magazines to the garage. Not all at once, mind you, but over several days. If there is one thing that running marathons has taught me, it’s pacing.

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Catching Up With Runner’s World, etc.

Oh boy, am I delayed in my magazine reading! The January issue of Runner’s World magazine had already arrived even before I could finish the December issue. I decided that if it was a quiet night at work, I would try to catch up. Having finished my routine work early last Monday night, (doing rounds, taking vital signs, charting, and making new chart packs) instead of grabbing my netbook, I took out the two issues of RW and started reading. I was already at the last article of December about why you don’t see too many African American runners, so I was able to finish that issue rather quickly. Then I started on the January issue. Ever noticed how much thinner this magazine is now? It’s becoming more like my local newspaper – filled with advertisements. The magazine was so thin that I was able read it halfway before stopping to save some for the next day. I have a three year subscription and  am only being charged less than a dollar each issue so I have no complaints about the thinness and the ads. They have to make a living after all.

I don’t know why I’m still subscribed though, because training hasn’t changed much through the years and they are practically saying the same things over and over. However there are human interest stories that are nice to read. It’s just disappointing that I am no longer able to try some of the workouts that the magazine suggests. One of the best ones I’ve tried before all my ankle problems started was the 3/2/1 intervals which I’ve mentioned in previous posts. After a 10 minute warm up, run 3 minutes at about a 10k pace, recover by jogging for 1 minute, then for 2 minutes pick up to a 5k pace, then 1 minute recovery, then 1 minute at a 400 meter pace, then 2 minutes of recovery jogging. One set of that gives you 10 minutes and do 3 to 4 sets of that plus a 10 minute cool down at the end. It’s a tough road interval workout that can take the place of a track workout. Better to do if you have a variable interval timer watch. You’d be very thankful when you reach that 2 minute recovery jog at the end of each interval because by then you would have gone anaerobic.

Speaking of recent running, my ankles were hurting for several days after last Tuesday morning’s (not yesterday, but last week) treadmill run because I wore thinner soled shoes. They were still motion control shoes but the soles were slightly thinner than the one’s I usually wear. Not only that, but I tried increasing the pace slightly and that increased my pounding against the surface. Say what you may about the advantages of barefoot running but that just doesn’t work for collapsed ankles like mine. I need the thickest ,most supportive motion control shoes plus orthotics to minimize the side to side movement. Enough said about running for today. I probably spent more time reading Runner’s World than actually running this past week. At least I’m caught up with that part of life.

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