Bad Disks

Thankfully, this has nothing to do with bad discs related to lower back pain. There was a sale at OfficeMax for Verbatim brand DVD disks – a pack of 100 for $19.99, so I went and purchased it on Monday morning after running and weight training. I’ve had a bad experience in the past when I bought disks of a different brand (I think it was TDK), which I tried to use several months after I bought them. The whole batch of 100 were bad disks and you could not save any data on them. Since it had been months since I first bought them, I didn’t have the receipt anymore and couldn’t return them. Besides, the allotted amount of time for returns most likely expired already. So that was money down the drain. When I bought the disks last Monday, I opened them right away and tried to copy files on them. On the first disk, the software said it had bad sectors, so I tried a second one and this time it just said “burning” for the longest time. I know for sure it doesn’t take that long to burn a disk. So back to the store I went to exchange the product for another pack. Upon returning home, I tried to do the same thing I did with the first pack with the same results. So, I used a different computer and software and tried to burn a video file. While the computer processed the information, I left for work and when I got back home the next morning, I noticed the the DVD tray had popped open, meaning the disk was done and ready to use. I popped the disk into a DVD player and saw that the video was functioning well, but… no audio! So I tried it in the computers’ DVD player but got the same result. That could only mean that the disk was corrupted too. Dang it! Having just gotten home from work I went to sleep and when I woke up, I went back to the store to return the product. I didn’t want to get another replacement because my conclusion is either Verbatim didn’t make good disks, or a bad batch was sent to the store. Needless to say, I probably won’t try to buy that brand again. At least the salesperson was very nice and didn’t grill me about exchanging and returning two days in a row. I had been using a generic Staples store brand disks lately and it has worked very well so I’ll be keeping an eye out in case it goes on sale again. So if I can share a lesson learned here: when you buy new disks, try to use them right away to find out if they are good. At least you’ll find out early while you still have the receipt.

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Running Unfocused

It was still raining when I woke up Saturday morning but it stopped before I started my run. However, towards the east, west, north and south, the clouds were thick and ominous, as if ready to drench the area with more water. With no hint of sunlight breaking through, I bedecked myself in a Goretex jacket and a hat, expecting to get caught in a downpour. Then I headed out for my run without my spectacles. My eyeglasses would have been totally useless anyway. My near vision is okay, far vision totally the opposite, but as long as I’m not driving I can manage without eyeglasses since I run so slowly anyway. Thus began my unfocused run.

I had been visualizing this run in the past few days and since I was not signed up for the Surf City Half Marathon and had nobody to run with, I wanted to do a private half marathon alone. I was going to attempt to run/walk 13.1 miles. Starting out slowly, I could already feel heaviness in my legs and breathing. I must not have recovered fully from the hard 6 mile run I did on Thursday. I was hoping the feeling would be better after getting warmed up. I kept plugging along but after about 3 miles I realized that I would not have the energy to complete 13.1 miles, so I reduced my goal and decided to go out for 45 minutes and back for the same amount of time. 1 ½ hours of running would be good enough on the still slick streets of Long Beach and Lakewood. With the clouds looming darkly, I could only hope to finish before it rained again. The puddles of water on the ground had mostly drained but could reappear if it started raining again.

When I turned around after about 48 minutes to head back home, my legs and breathing felt a little better. Maybe it was a psychological effect of knowing that all I had to do was get back to where I started from. Somehow the clouds held up as well as I did and I made it back home without getting drenched other than with my own sweat. 3 ½ pounds of sweat, that is. Although my vision was unfocused for more than 9 miles and I couldn’t see too far ahead of me, I managed to navigate on familiar streets while half blind and got back home safely. 13.1 miles would have to wait for another day.

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Admiring the Walter Pyramid and Carpenter Center

The Walter Pyramid (top) and the Carpenter Performing Arts Center (bottom)

On my way home from the run last Saturday morning, I had to stop by Runner’s High store on Stearns Street to return something. Since I got there an hour early before their opening time of 10 o’clock, it gave me a chance to take a walk around the neighborhood. A block south lay the California State University Long Beach campus and that was where I headed. I’ve run around that campus numerous times but on this day I got a chance to explore around the perimeter of the Walter Pyramid and the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, two buildings erected only in the past couple of decades. The Walter Pyramid is named after Dr. Mike and Arlene Walter who were big donors to the university. It is what we used to call a gymnasium but is now regarded as an indoor multi-purpose stadium with its own health club. The modern health club is nothing compared to the dank and smelly weight room at my old university. The Carpenter Center is named after Richard and Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters singing duo from the 60’s and 70’s. They were alumni of the university and donors to the center. It was my first time to see the two buildings up close and it struck me how beautiful and massive (specially the Pyramid) they looked. Another thing I enjoyed were the walking paths between buildings in the immediate area of the Pyramid and the Center. I was pretty much alone because it was a non-school day, so I felt very tiny compared to the buildings that surrounded me. It was thoroughly delightful walking around that part of the university campus and it made me miss my college days in the Philippines where I also went to a State University.

So instead of sitting around for an hour in my car doing nothing while waiting for the store to open, I got to explore a couple of local landmarks while getting a little bit more exercise. It was an enjoyable walk indeed.

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My First GPS Experience

Now I’m not a GPS virgin at all since I’ve used GPS devices for running for so many years but this was my first experience with a driving GPS for the car. I recently ordered a refurbished GPS on the internet and it arrived last week. It was fairly priced and I thought it was a good way for me to get acquainted with the technology while not having to spend more money for a new device. After installing the mounting equipment on the car, updating the software, and charging the battery, I got a chance to take it through its paces last Saturday morning. I plugged in a course to Joe’s Crab Shack where I was supposed to meet some people to run with. The device told me to drive down a block over to Long Beach Boulevard to enter the freeway, instead of my usual route of driving down Atlantic Avenue and accessing the 405 freeway from there. That was one point against the device. Then it told me to enter the freeway on the left side of the street. If I didn’t know any better, I might have crossed over to the wrong side of the street and hit something. Two points against the GPS. Upon entering the freeway, the device turned itself off and I had to turn it back on again. This happened quite frequently during the course of the day to and from my destination, so that makes it strike three. On my way back home it again gave me the wrong side of the street for the freeway entrance again. As far as identifying street names and intersections for me to turn to, the device worked quite well.

I was really excited on buying my first GPS and wanted to find out how it worked, but I’m terribly disappointed that it didn’t function as it was supposed to. Now I’m faced with having to return it to the manufacturer for repair or replacement instead of a refund from where I bought it from originally. I’ve used several refurbished products before (like this netbook I’m typing on) and they worked quite well. This particular one did not. I like the technology itself so I hope that the company replaces it with something that works. There might still be a GPS device in my future.

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Letting It Rip (sort of)

Well, I had what I consider a good effort during my run last Thursday. I planned on doing a 4 minute run with 1 minute walk but ended up doing a 4 minute pick up with a 1 minute recovery jog for a whole hour. Then on Saturday morning, on a scheduled 6 mile run in which only Cyndi and I showed up, things took a different turn. But first a warm up of about 1 ½ miles which was slow and easy averaging over 10 minutes per mile. If I only knew what was going to happen next, I would have done a few stride outs to prime my lungs for the effort that was to follow. We started out running at Cyndi’s jogging pace which was slightly faster than my warm up pace, so as you can imagine, I was already gasping for breath after the first mile and it was only a 9:50 pace. I could only hope to stabilize my breathing in the ensuing miles. I warned Cyndi that I was already at my 10K pace effort and she offered to slow down. I told her that I was going to try to hang on as long as I can. By the third mile my breathing had stabilized and the pace picked up ever so slightly. In the last two miles I was breathing hard but at a steady state and I told Cyndi that it felt good to be able to run that hard again, i.e. slightly short of breathe but not quite into oxygen debt. By the time we hit the finish at 6 miles our total average pace was down to 9:14 per mile, so we must have ran the last 2 miles below 9 minutes per mile. That was as close to letting it rip for me as it possibly can at this point in my running life, and it felt really, really good. The pace for the whole run felt like the 4 minute pickups I did last Thursday, only it lasted almost an hour.

What changes did I make in the past week that enabled me to run harder than usual? I don’t know how much this contributed to it but I wore a pair of shoes which had thinner soles but still with motion control properties. That may have worked for the time being but remains to be seen on subsequent runs. What the thinner soles forced me to do was try to lighten my foot strike by shuffling more and increasing my leg turnover rate. It seemed to have helped a lot in decreasing the impact forces on my ankles. So like I said, it worked…for now.

So today, I am thankful for and will continue to savor the feeling of being able to run the way I did last Saturday and look forward to more of it when my body allows me.

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Random Thoughts About Other People Running, PTTD, and Surf City

While driving to and from the grocery store early last Sunday morning and seeing people running, I was so tempted to do the same. My common sense got the better of me and the little voice in my head told me it would not be a good idea running two days in a row after Saturday’s two hour plus run (besides I hardly do two days in a row anymore because of my bad ankles). So I went back home and did the stationary bike for an hour and 20 minutes. In that amount of time, I almost finished reading the whole Sunday newspaper including the ads

Seeing all those runners made me stop and think. Why are these people running? Are they training for a race? Are they just running for recreation and exercise? What are their running goals and aspirations? Myself, I just run for exercise and to get the endorphin fix. Funny thing is that the endorphins I generate during a run helps anesthetize the pain in my ankles but it’s the run itself that caused the pain in the first place. At least the pain is blunted for a couple of hours post run if I don’t overstretch the tendons during the run. When I do overstretch the tendon, this is how it feels: it pulls at the seams as if it’s being torn apart. I don’t know how much pain a woman goes through while having a baby, but my pain might be pretty close at its worst.

I’ve been finding out more and more about PTTD (posterior tibialis tendon dysfunction) from the internet over the past year. Eventually aside from tendon damage you also get ligament damage in that area of the foot. So that’s something not to look forward to in the near future. I’ve also learned that PTTD ankle braces are not meant for running, but just to stabilize the ankles for walking and not even for fast walking. I’m finding use for my Aircast PTTD brace though (I blogged about it here: http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2009/08/aircast-pttd-brace.html). I wear it after icing my ankle to keep it stabilized and compressed while I putter around at home, and also use it at work for the right ankle plus a soft brace for the left ankle. They cut down the side to side motion of the ankles.

Another temptation arose Monday morning. Someone from AREC sent an email offering her Surf City Half Marathon bib number for sale because she couldn’t run it. I considered contacting her when I found out that I was actually off from work on race day. I had assumed all along that I had to work that weekend because in at least the past seven Super Bowl Sundays, I was always working. They must have moved the Super Bowl one week later this year. The feeling of being tempted has passed.

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Running Along a Bunch of Crap

Please excuse my language, I hope I'm not offending anybody.

Saturday morning, I was faced with a dilemma. For sure I couldn’t run with Cyndi because she’s too fast and my ankles couldn’t take it, and not sure if Sonja was going to be there so I could do the run/walk intervals with her, or for that matter, if anyone else would show up because of the recent rainy days in the past week. Nevertheless I ventured into the cold, dark but thankfully dry Saturday morning and made my way to our usual meeting place. After doing about a 5 minute warm up jog and not feeling too badly, I thought I could try doing the whole 12 miles while running for 4 minutes and walking for 1 minute the whole way. I sat back inside my car to keep warm and wait for anyone to show up and thankfully, Sonja did (a couple of other people did a few minutes later). After waiting a few more minutes and for my GPS watch to connect, we started our jaunt just when the sun was starting to peek out of the clouds. With all the talking we did and the sounds of cars and other things around us, I could hardly hear my watch beep alerting me to stop running and start walking for one minute. I had to rely on Sonja’s better hearing to alert me. Without her, I might not have been too bold to attempt 12 miles due to my ankles, and without me, she might have been misdirected because she had never run part of the course before. So we were able to help each other in that manner. The reappearing sun warmed us up mid-run and I had to take my gloves off. In the meantime we talked about her profession and I also asked her about her familiarity with some exercise equipment which functions I only have a vague idea of. We deliberately set a slow pace because of my ankle problems and also because she had not covered 12 miles in a few months, but needed to put in the miles to get ready for the Surf City Half Marathon two weeks hence. When we reached about the 9 mile mark, I asked her if she had ever run on the boardwalk before and she said she hadn’t, so we took a slight turn on Ocean Boulevard and hit the boardwalk. There were sand berms raised on the beach to protect the seaside homes from the waves that were higher than usual during the storms. What I didn’t expect on the boardwalk was having to negotiate a minefield of dog poop along the way. You cannot believe how much poop we had to dodge and swerve from that morning, over just approximately 200 yards of walkway. I guess people didn’t pick up after their pets while walking in the rain, which I can understand. It’s more difficult to pick up wet poop with a plastic baggie than dry poop. Another thing I noticed was that more people were walking their dogs throughout the course than usual. Even dogs can get cabin fever. I hope they didn’t all poop at the boardwalk at the same time. Can I say that this run was a bunch of crap then? Well, we both made it to the end, me with my bad ankles and her with the lack of training miles. But we couldn’t complain that we felt crappy during the run, because we were happy for having accomplished our goals for that day. Well done and good luck to Sonja for the Surf City Half Marathon, and good luck to me for my ankle rehab.

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Trial On The Treadmill

The big attempt to restart running was made last Wednesday afternoon in the midst of several days of rain in the Southern California area. After taking 3 ½ days off from running due to ankle problems, it was time to make use of last summer’s big purchase for days like this. Make like a hamster and try to run on the treadmill.

First, a trial adjustment by swapping my three year old custom orthotics with a pair of Powerstep Inserts over the counter orthotics. I hopped on the treadmill and set it on the slowest pace possible in which I could shuffle my feet for a jog. Some minimal pain was felt, but I was more concerned about how the OTC orthotics felt too high on the arch and my Achilles tendon felt some strain. So I hopped off the treadmill after 15 minutes and switched to another over the counter orthotics called Superfeet. I got back on the treadmill and tried to get a feel for the orthotics. Superfeet has a lower arch compared to the Powerstep and also has a firmer feel which really stops overpronation, but from previous experience using both these OTC orthotics, they start to flex more when they get warmer after several miles of running. However, last Wednesday I managed an additional 20 minutes of a slow jog on the Superfeet for a total of 35 minutes between the two different orthotics. So far so good, at least I managed to run.

Last Thursday morning, another rainy day, I decided to try another treadmill run. I wouldn’t normally run two days in a row nowadays whether I’m in pain or not, but if I didn’t try to run last Thursday, my next run would have been Saturday and that would have been too long between runs. Besides I wanted to further test my ankles with the Superfeet orthotics. So I start running as slowly as possible as usual and every few minutes I would increase the treadmill speed. Believe me, the speed of the treadmill was nothing to boast about so I will leave it unmentioned here. My goal was to run more than the 35 minutes I managed the previous day, so 40 minutes would have been good. When I reached that time, I added 5 minutes more, then another, then another until I reached one hour. All the while I kept thinking “am I overdoing it?”, because I could feel twinges of pain during the duration of the run. Thinking about just running 5 more minutes at a time really helped but even though I felt good, I dismounted the treadmill after an hour. Besides I didn’t want my downstairs neighbor to complain to the homeowner’s association about the noise I was creating with my heavy stride on the treadmill.

Well, I survived those two trial treadmill runs without further debilitating myself and the next step was to try a 12 mile run/walk last Saturday. Tune in while I try to compose my thoughts about what happened during the Saturday run.

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The Beginning Of The End?

I wrote this last Wednesday morning (January 20) and I didn’t get a chance to post it thinking I had more to add at that time. Upon reading it today, I decided to keep it as it is.

So how can I handle this latest setback with my ankle injury? I run well for a few months then suddenly the tendon overstretches or tears again, and just when I start to run better. Each time my condition gets worse, I come back running slower than before and couldn’t return to my former aerobic capacity. The time I got a thigh injury which stopped my every day running three years ago, I was still capable of doing about 8:30 pace per mile. When I recovered from that, I slowed down to 8:45 per mile. All the while I already had the PTTD. Pre-PTTD, I could probably still do the short runs at 8:15 to 8:30 pace. After I tore the right posterior tibialis tendon in October 2008, my best pace had slowed down to about 9:20. It was last August when I aggravated that ankle again and upon returning to running, I began my run/walk experiment. Apparently it worked, because I was able to finish a marathon I hadn’t planned for. However, I came back hitting another low for pace per mile average for a non-stop run. I’m down to the 9:41 pace Cyndi and I hit last Saturday during a 10 miler, after which I made my right ankle worse again. In the last couple of months, my left ankle has been affected too. My aerobic capacity (VO2 Max) has slowly been on the decline because of my injuries. Whenever I try to run harder, my ankles suffer the consequences. I don’t mind the slowdown so much. It’s the injuries that frustrate me. Every time it happens, it scares me that I may not be able to run another step forever.

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Back to Non-running :(

Well I haven’t run since last Saturday and not because of the rain. My right ankle tendon still feels loose (as in overstretched) and painful when I bear weight on it. My left ankle feels a little better, thankfully. Remember, the right ankle is the one I tweaked while taking a step in my living room hours after having run 10 miles non-stop on Saturday. It felt good on Sunday but I got silly and did a few jumping jacks at work and that aggravated the problem. Maybe I’ll use the soft brace again when I go to work tonight.

I really wanted to run today since there was a break this morning between yesterday’s torrential rain and the next storm which is expected this afternoon (it’s afternoon now as I continue to add to and edit this blog, there was even a tornado a couple of hours ago), but upon waking up and taking a few tentative steps and feeling pain, I deep sixed the idea of running. The exercise equipment I have in my living room has been getting quite a workout the last few days even though it doesn’t feel like I am able to generate the same intensity I get from running. Maybe because I like to read while using them.

I’ve iced my right ankle three times today already but I’m not getting any relief. It’s going to be day to day and I don’t know when I can run again. I’ve dealt with this twice before so there might be hope that I can come back from this latest setback. It will have to be back to the run/walk whenever that happens, but first I need to have the pain subside first. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

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The Run That Was, And The Aftermath

What can I tell you about the 10 mile run we did on Saturday morning? Well, it was good then it turned ugly several hours later. It was the first 10 miler I ran non-stop since last summer. I haven’t run more than 8 miles non-stop in recent months. Anything more than that, I did the 4 minute run/1 minute walk intervals. With the tempo pace effort I put in with Cyndi, my legs feel quite sore right now. Some people might consider that the 9:41 average pace per mile we netted over 10 miles to be pathetic , especially those speedier ones. Regardless, I still think we ran a decent pace that was slightly over our comfort level. How do I know? Well, it wasn’t exactly a pace that you can comfortably carry on a conversation. In fact in the second half of the course, we were hardly talking at all. There is one technique though, if your running partner is faster than you and you want him or her to slow down a bit so you can catch up. Ask him or her an open ended question so he has to give a long answer. That way, he has to increase his respiratory rate while talking and you can catch your own breathe.

One consequence of running non-stop for that long is that my ankles can’t tolerate it any more. They are pretty sore right now. To add insult to injury, I tweaked my right ankle again, not through running, but by getting up from a chair and making a bad step in the living room. Such is the nature of my PTTD, a single misstep is all it takes to aggravate it. This just goes to show you the fragility of my condition. My right ankle was hurting so much earlier that I had to wear a brace and my orthotics to work. I haven’t worn a brace since late 2008 and have done without orthotics at work for the last couple of weeks. Woe is me! The satisfaction of being able to run non-stop for 10 miles is more than offset by this latest setback. If only I didn’t have to work, I could at least elevate my foot for long periods of time at home. While at work, I have to stay upright with my feet at the lowest position for more than 12 hours.

Well, I’ll just have to monitor the condition of my right ankle in the next few days and see if it stabilizes. I hope it’s not as bad as it feels at the moment.

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A Weighty Issue

Another discussion about weight came up at work. One woman said that you should only weigh yourself once a month. I countered that you should weigh yourself every day so that if you happened to veer away too much from your target weight range, you can make it up by doing more activities or adjusting your food intake. Her contention was that women’s weights vary due to their menstrual cycle and they could possibly weigh more on certain days during that cycle. I said that daily weighing regardless of the time of the month gives you more control over weight gain, loss, or maintenance, and that menstrual bloating shouldn’t be used as an excuse for excess weight. How much weight does a woman gain when they’re menstruating anyway? Besides, I found out that menstruation also increases the metabolism slightly so it can counteract the bloat in the long run. Well, as you know, I’m not a woman so I can’t really speak for that. In any case, it has been found out that people who weigh themselves every day manage their weight better than those who don’t.

By the way, the woman whom I was having this discussion with has been exercising consistently for the past couple of months and in spite of that, she appears to have gained weight. I was tempted to be impolite and ask her how that weighing once a month is working for her. Not only that, I couldn’t help but hear that she lost 8 pounds in her first week of working out, but has gained about 15 pounds since then. In fact I was surprised to see how much bigger she is now compared to before she started working out. That goes to show that exercising alone is not enough to lose or maintain ideal weight, you have to adjust your food intake too. One thing I can admire about this woman is that she has continued to exercise consistently. This I gather from my other co-workers.

Ever notice how overweight people offer the best solutions to problems regarding diet and exercise? Except that they have difficulty applying the solutions on themselves. If talking about it were an aerobic activity, they surely would have lost a lot of pounds already.

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Mysteries of Running

Ever have one of those days when you are running and your feet feel as heavy as bricks? Well, last Thursday was one of those days for me as I plodded through a 52 minute run that felt like the last 6 miles of a marathon, but without the cramps. Then all of a sudden, two days later, on Saturday morning, I felt so good and I don’t know why. After doing the 4 minute run/1 minute walk intervals with Sonja for about 4 miles (Sonja was doing 8 miles), I tried to catch up with Cyndi and Linda who were running non-stop for 12 miles, by intercepting them at a certain cross street. We ran together for about a mile but I began feeling a little frisky and started picking up the pace on my own. I still did the 4:1 intervals but a little bit differently. Instead of running and walking, I picked up the pace for 4 minutes and slowly jogged for 1 minute while I ran back to Cyndi and Linda. I was able to keep this up for the last 7 miles of the 12 mile run except for about 3 minutes it took to cover the distance on Bayshore Avenue from Ocean Boulevard to Second Street, where running single file is the norm. By running hard for 4 minutes and jogging back, I was able to complete 12 miles despite cutting the course to catch up with the two ladies. I could feel my right ankle tendon protesting at times but the pain was tolerable and didn’t get worse. Thank goodness for that!

Running, like life, can feel different from day to day, or as Forrest Gump said “Life (substitute "running" here) is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get”. I wish I could feel the way I did on Saturday all the time where the pace was hard but still felt controlled. Of course that’s not always possible because we all have bad days and good days. Savor the good days and get through the bad days, because even the bad ones feel so much better after you finish.

Postscript: The reason why I felt the need to run a little harder last Saturday was to burn off the excess calories I consumed during the two days I was showing my former classmate around town, as documented in my previous blog post: http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/01/unblogged-weekend.html

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The Unblogged Weekend

I haven’t been able to blog too much in the past week because I’ve been busy with other things. It’s not like I have a deadline to catch or have a ton of readers waiting with bated breath for the next blog post. Hah!

A couple of days spent with my high school classmate plus a birthday party on day three didn’t leave me much time to enjoy my usual routine of doing nothing. Even though ideas come to my mind from time to time, if I don’t write them down, the feeling passes and I would have forgotten what the idea was. With the break in my routine due to entertaining and being entertained, I kinda lost control of my calorie intake which I’ve been trying to stabilize in the last couple of days.

I enjoyed spending time with my former classmate who is currently visiting the U.S. We were in school together from kindergarten through high school then lost touch after that. The last time I saw him was in 1989 when I was on vacation in the Philippines and got in touch with him, after which he took me out to lunch. I don’t even remember the details of that day almost 21 years ago. This time, it was my turn to show him around. First I wanted to give him something he hasn’t experienced in the Philippines before, something authentically American. So I took him and his aunt to a restaurant called Johnny Rebs’ Southern Roadhouse, for a taste of the South. While he ordered a sirloin steak (not too southern, I thought), his aunt ordered pork chops (getting closer to the south), and I had the blackened catfish (now that’s more like it!). The ambience of the place was unlike the usual eatery. At the entrance, I could hear a cat meowing, but didn’t see a cat. Upon entering, you immediately notice the peanut shells strewn all over the floor (I already read about this so it was not unexpected). When I used their bathroom, I heard a rooster or hen crowing and cackling and noticed there were chicken figurines perched near the ceiling with a recording of them doing the chicken noises. I came to the conclusion that the meowing I heard at the front door was also a recording. Funny stuff!

I was supposed to take them to downtown Long Beach afterwards to show them the Pike, Shoreline Village and the other sights of Long Beach, but after taking them to my condo, we got hung up searching for some of his relatives on the internet, then upon getting back to his aunt’s house, a couple our townmates came to visit and we just ended up reminiscing about our small town in the Philippines. It was not until the next day that I was able to take my classmate on a tour of downtown Long Beach, but not before we had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and had pho. At least I was able to get him to experience two different types of cuisine he has never had before. See how one can lose control of the calories in just a couple of days? Anyhow, we walked around the Long Beach Convention Center, the Pike, Shoreline Village, Aquarium of the Pacific, and the lighthouse (Parker’s and the other taller one), and took a bunch of pictures which are currently posted on Facebook. Upon returning home, his aunt had her grandkids home and we were off to Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant to entertain the kids. While the kids played games, we sat around and ate pizza. The kids were burning their calories while we were storing them.

The next day, I met with our AREC running group and did 12 miles (more on this later), then I went to a nephew’s birthday party, where my aunt cooked some Filipino goodies which I managed to partake of generously. Oh my goodness! Three consecutive days of engaging my body with all these good food. No wonder I lost control. By the time Sunday came, I was all but ready to decompress from the overindulgences of the past few days. I stayed home, watched a few movies, tried to reboot my mind and body so I could be fresh and ready to go back to work the next day.

Please forgive any grammatical errors in this entry. If you find any, please let me know because I didn’t have time to proofread it very closely.

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Doing Without Orthotics and Logbooks

So there’s this experiment I’m doing with my new running shoes. In the past week and a half, I’ve tried running without my custom orthotics, with mixed results. The day after running 10 miles on December 27^th with orthotics in older shoes, I ran a second consecutive day (which rarely happens nowadays) on Monday with the new shoes, sans orthotics. It was only 36 minutes long and my ankles actually felt good afterwards for a couple of days. I tried doing it again last Thursday for 55 minutes and the result was not so good that time. Both my ankles hurt like crazy including my left knee. I guesstimate that the pain started around 40 minutes. So it was back to the orthotics during the 14 mile run last Saturday. On Tuesday, January 5^th, I did an hour run (4 minute run/1 minute walk intervals) without the orthotics again and I didn’t seem to suffer any adverse effects. I’m beginning to ponder whether it is possible to have too much support by wearing orthotics inside a motion control shoe. So far the results have been mixed so I will be experimenting further without orthotics during the shorter runs to find out if my ankles can develop a tolerance to the pain without aggravating my ankle tendonitis.

One thing I didn’t have to do this New Year’s Day was rush out to the mall to buy a running logbook from a bookstore. They usually cut the price in half on New Year’s Day like they do with other calendars, but the store is usually out of them by the time I get there. Who knew that running logbooks would be so popular? Or maybe, the bookstores just don’t order a lot of them because they are not very popular. Starting last year, I stopped buying the logbook and made up a rudimentary one of my own, based on a template I found on the internet, which is in Microsoft Word format. It works just as well in digital form and I can print it out if I want to.

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Lost in L.A.

My elementary and high school classmate from Jolo, Philippines is visiting the U.S. and is currently in Southern California after coming from Florida and New York. His aunt called me and said she was picking him up from a relative’s apartment in L.A. Since she doesn’t drive on the freeway, I looked up a route in Google Maps (both our cars were GPS-less). There were three options and I picked what I thought was the most direct one. Things were going well until we were only about a mile and a half from our destination. When we got to the hustle and bustle of downtown L.A., we somehow got misdirected between 4^th and 3^rd Streets. We had to stop and ask for directions thrice. The first two men we asked gave us incorrect directions, until we finally asked a woman who sent us to the correct location. What was supposed to be a 50 minute drive on surface streets ended up about an hour and a half. Even when we arrived at our destination, Google Maps gave directions to turn into a certain street which turned out to be a parking lot. Oh well, at least we found the place and were able to pick up my classmate and take him back to Long Beach. Going back, we were again misdirected but found our way much quicker. The place we were trying to find: White Memorial Hospital. Not exactly in the heart of L.A., but in the Boyle Heights area. Next time, I’ll just plug in the hospital’s name into Google Maps since the hospital’s address is on a major boulevard, instead of 1818 Michigan Street, which was the address of the apartment building.

When I told my friend’s aunt that we were going on an adventure when we left Long Beach, getting lost was something I did not expect. So I suppose the lesson we can learn from our misadventure is this: ask a woman for directions instead of a man.

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First Blog Post and First Long Run of 2010

With this first blog post for 2010, I offer a brief look back at a few good things that happened in 2009: reconnecting on Facebook with people I grew up with in a small but now troubled town in the Philippines, making new running friends, and finishing a marathon again after four years without running one.

And now to start the New Year with a long run with some of the runners I met over last summer and fall. Doing a long run of two hours (before GPS) was something I used to do on the first day of the year before I got permanently injured. It seemed like a good way to get the year started. This year, with the help of a group of running friends, I got to experience it again, albeit on the second day of the year.

I was planning on running 10 miles with the 7:30 group last Saturday morning until I started receiving emails that the people I usually run with at that time of the morning would not make it because they were extending their New Year’s Day festivities. I immediately contacted the early group whom I ran with the previous week, to find out what time they will be starting their 14 mile run and if I could join them. They were very welcoming but they were going to start at 6:30 A.M. Jeepers! I would have to get up earlier again for the second week in a row, but if I didn’t want to run by myself, I would have to muster up and be counted, and that I did.

We were going to do the 5 minute run/1 minute walk intervals and started well enough and I could feel that the pace was slightly faster than when we ran 10 miles the previous Sunday. Maybe it was just the early morning chill that made us go a little faster than usual. It was a similar out and back course as last week but instead of turning around after 5 miles, we extended it and turned around after 7 miles. On the way back, I felt that I had to use the bathroom and sprinted ahead of our pack to a building which I thought the bathroom was located. I was mistaken. It was the next building. In the meantime the pack had caught up with me and I had to sprint after them to catch up after I had relieved myself. Well, those two episodes of sprinting affected my comfortable stride and breathing so much that I never got my steady rhythm back. After about 10 miles I could feel that I was bonking and getting dehydrated and was using my arms a lot to propel me forward. At that point I had a feeling that I would be very sore the next day. My stride and breathing felt so ragged that I must have also lost my mind momentarily because I started waving to a couple of people whom I thought I knew. They must have wondered who let this crazy running man out of the asylum. As if that wasn’t bad enough, on the path near the Long Beach Yacht Club, water was leaking though the walls from the sea due to high tide and we had to wade through huge puddles and got my new shoes soaked. Without the group I was running with, I would have been tempted to walk the rest of the way from there. When we finished, I was so exhausted and felt drained the rest of the day, and still had to report to work that night. That’s the reason why I couldn’t write this blog until today. Needless to say, I had a rough night at work and struggled to stay awake, but I survived it. I felt that if I had to run a marathon last Saturday morning, I wouldn’t have made it to the finish line based on the way I felt after 10 miles. But then again, I don’t think I would have been sprinting towards a bathroom during a marathon.

Thank you, Michael, Nick, Rosie, and Tina, for carrying me the rest of the way when I was struggling. You helped me accomplish something I haven’t done in a long time. And Happy Birthday, Tam, Tina, and Rosie on your natal days in the first week of the new year.

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An After Christmas Jaunt

Getting to the start in darkness didn’t seem right. I chuckled to myself at the thought of what we do to practice our chosen sport – early morning awakenings, severe weather, running through pain and injuries, etc. After giving our bodies a chance to digest Christmas food for a couple of days, Tina, Rosie, Chai, Nick, Michael, and I met at Joe’s Crab Shack at 6:45 A.M. on Sunday for a 10 mile jaunt. I haven’t run with this group before and they have recently started doing the Jeff Galloway run/walk marathon training in preparation for the Los Angeles Marathon. In this case it was a 5 minute run with a 1 minute walk break. We didn’t run the usual route but rather, we went out 5 miles and back 5 miles. Around Toledo to 2^nd St., down Ocean Bl., to the corner of Alamitos Av., then turn around at the bike path on the way back to the finish. It felt good running in a pack of 6 people who stayed together for the whole 10.25 miles. That should have taken care of the Christmas calories, don’t you think? The five other people in our group were training for the L.A. Marathon and I’m not, so what business do I have running with them? Just for exercise, the calorie burn, and the pure enjoyment of running with other people. Thank you very much Tina, Rosie, Chai, Nick and Michael, for letting me join you last Sunday. I’ll be back to my extra half hour of sleep this coming Saturday and will be running with the 7:30 group.

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Raiding The Closet After The 10 Mile Run Last Sunday

I went through my closet to sort out things I needed, didn’t need, haven’t used or seen in years, can live without and can dispose of. These are some of the things that I found:

A receipt for my first ever laptop computer – a 1986 vintage Toshiba T1100 with two floppy disk drives. The price: $2200 dollars! By the way, I still have that laptop and can’t bear to throw it away because it could be a museum piece one day if it’s not already. The computer still works if you know MS-DOS.

Check registers all the way from 1983 and savings account passbooks from 1981. Bank of America, I’ve been so loyal to you!

Volleyball kneepads which I haven’t used since the late 80’s when I used to live in Torrance and played in adult volleyball leagues. I’m keeping the Debbie Green-autographed volleyball. She was an Olympian in 1984 and a setter extraordinaire for the U.S. team. I attended one of her workshops after they won the silver medal in the L.A. Olympics, and had her sign my volleyball.

An ex GF’s high school yearbook and some of her pictures. I’m not even sure where she lives anymore.

Two cotton Nike running tanktops and two Brooks technical (at the time) singlets which I haven’t worn since my racing days in the 80’s.

Three old Los Angeles marathon painter’s caps which came with the goodie bags in those days.

A bunch of worn and unworn cotton or polyester gloves for cold weather running.

A box of potpourri from 1989 given to us by the airline on my way back from the Philippines, to commemorate then President Cory Aquino’s trip to Vancouver. She was of course seated in first class on that flight.

A couple of soft sided carry-on luggage. The first, a parachute cloth bag which I used in 1980 when I moved here to the U.S., and the other, something I bought from Woolworth’s and used on my visit to the Philippines in 1989. Gives literal meaning to the term “old bag”.

A gag gift given to me many, many Christmases ago by the aforementioned ex gf and her roommate. It was a small pouch called One Night Stand consisting of a small vibrator, massaging gel, and a couple of condoms.

A Samsung camcorder, rarely used, but now obsolete, and a Ricoh Mirai camera which I used extensively as an amateur photographer in the late 80’s.

I probably forgot some of the other things I found, but under the disposed of list were: the receipt, kneepads, tank tops, painter’s caps, a few gloves, the potpourri, old luggage, gag gift, camcorder, and camera. The check registers and bank passbooks, I shredded. I’m keeping the old laptop computer and mailing the yearbook if ever I find the new address of my long lost friend.

The more I took out of the closet, the more it looked the same. Darn!

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Dropping Acid?

Well, no. In this case, it was rising acid which was probably caused by all the greasy food consumed at Christmas. Deep into the night and in the middle of what could have been a dream I can’t remember, I suddenly felt something slowly rising up my throat (cue the “JAWS” music). It was a case of nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux. I immediately propped my head up with another pillow and went right back to sleep, not even knowing what time it was. Luckily, it was not one of those throat-burning sensation situations, otherwise it would have kept me awake the rest of the night. My only thought upon awakening was if I had any more antacid left, which it turns out I’m not going to need because I was already burping a lot on my own. The only reason why I have antacid at home is because I had one worst case of heartburn last year. It’s just something that doesn’t happen to me often. What surprised me about this reflux occurring is that I didn’t go to bed on a full stomach, which is usually one of the reasons why it happens. I’ll take rising acid any time over dropping acid. Besides, I’ve never used LSD before other than the one pertaining to running called Long Slow Distance.

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A Tangled Mess, etc.

Well I finally did it. I finally replaced the bedroom TV that I referred to in this post: http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2009/05/shake-rumble-and-jolt.html . I found a refurbished 19 inch TV advertised on Tigerdirect.com which I considered a good deal (no sales tax and free shipping), ordered it, and got it in the mail last week. Then I went to the Salvation Army website to schedule a donation pickup for Monday afternoon. I was given a window of 3:30 to 6:30 P.M. and they showed up at about 4 P.M. They promptly hauled away the 43 inch console TV, a digital tuner, and the manuals for both which I had saved through the years. Thank you so much for offering this service, Salvation Army. I appreciate your pickup more than the tax deduction I might get for donating to charity. I now have a more manageable and appropriate sized TV in the bedroom which is more unlikely to kill me in case of an earthquake.

I removed the rest of the contents of the TV stand, tightened the screws, dusted it (it is surprising to see how much dust collects between nooks and crannies over time), then moved it to the living room with the intention of transferring the TV there sitting on a lower stand to the higher stand. Prior to leaving work earlier the same day, I asked my co-worker if he could help me with that process because I didn’t think I could lift the TV by myself. However with some maneuvering, positioning and finding something to grip on the TV, I managed to lift it by myself from the lower position to the higher one, but with some difficulty because the wires that were connected to the DVD player, stereo amplifier, karaoke machine, Nintendo WII and laptop computer, became taut and needed some tugging before I was able to successfully transfer the TV. Transfer accomplished, but it left me with a tangled mess of wires, some of which got disconnected. I had to figure out which wire went where after moving all of the equipment to the higher TV stand.

While I was emptying the TV stand of DVD’s and CD’s earlier in the bedroom, I found my old music cassette tapes which I purchased in the 80’s. I have maybe less than a hundred, but what was I to do with them? I posted the query on my Facebook wall and some suggestions were: sell it on Ebay or keep them as collector’s items. Of course there’s the option of converting them to digital format (mp3), but that is a laborious process which I don’t have the patience of doing. So as of now, I’m undecided on what to do.

Well, the wires are still a tangled mess but all the connections appear to be in their proper places and everything was working well when I checked them. The next day, I vacuumed whatever dust I scattered all over the place in lieu of lifting weights. I figured dust can’t wait but weight training can be put off for another day.

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Running Naked Against The Elements

I was woken up Tuesday morning by the wind rattling the windows of my bedroom. Running outdoors yesterday was going to pose a challenge. I don’t know why I decided to run outside when I could have done it on the treadmill in the comfort of my living room, but I couldn’t resist answering the challenge. Not only that, I also made up my mind the day before that I was going to run naked. Well, don’t get any ideas, I didn’t really mean unclothed. What I meant was that I was going to try to run without orthotics thus leaving my feet and ankles naked of extra support. I was doing this as an experiment to find out if it would work better for my stride and aching ankles on the premise that maybe I’m getting too much support with the orthotics. Running without orthotics and braving the elements…it was going to be an adventure run.

While taking the trash outside, I could already feel the bone chilling effects of the wind gusts. Starting the run, I was buffeted by flailing winds and even got hit on the face by a tree branch early on. Rather than running like the wind, I ran into the wind instead. It reminded me of the conditions during the 1987 or 1988 Long Beach Marathon when it was windy the whole time and also had spots of rain.

Although I wasn’t wearing orthotics, it felt like my new Brooks Addiction shoes gave enough support so as not to make me overpronate. It was hard to judge the effect objectively though because I was concentrating more on keeping myself upright while the wind was trying to toss me around. Besides, my whole body was too chilled to feel the pain in my ankles too much. I managed to run for 52 minutes even though my target was only 45 minutes. I didn’t want to go too long during my naked trial run without orthotics.

When I got home, I checked the temperature and wind speed and found out that I ran in 55 degree weather with winds blowing 20 to 30 MPH, with gusts up to 45 MPH. At 30 MPH, that would have resulted in a wind chill factor or 40 degrees. Who would have thought of talking about wind chill factor in sunny California?

Challenge accepted, elements braved, adventure accomplished, bare naked orthotics-free feet survived, joy experienced. Thank you.

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From Famine to Feast

From a low of about 20 patients last Tuesday night to a full capacity of 36 patients by Saturday, our mental health unit has experienced another one of those famine to feast situations. The patient count was so low last Tuesday that I was sent to the medical unit again. In contrast to what happened last time I was there, I got lucky because the night was very uneventful. The patient I was watching slept all night. It was so quiet that I was able to whip out my netbook to write a rough draft for a blog entry, then discovered an unsecured router in the neighborhood. Not only was I able to write a final draft, I was also able to upload it that same night.

After having three days off, I was still expecting our patient numbers to be low. To my surprise when I got to work, our unit was full. All the regular nursing staff were able to stay on their home unit. Our patient numbers have been fluctuating so much lately and there seems to be no trend anymore. Maybe it has something to do with the economy, or perhaps governmental budget cuts. I don’t know. As long as I’m working, I can’t complain about inconsistent trends in the number of patients.

I don’t know what it’s going to be like this week with Christmas coming up. I hope the patients who don’t have anywhere else to go for the holidays will decide to stay in the hospital and keep our numbers up.

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Should I Even Have Been Running?

With my new left ankle woes, I had doubts about being able to run on Saturday with the small AREC group. Sure I took five days off and hadn’t run since Monday morning, but the nagging discomfort stayed on the ankle all that time. I even woke up at about 3:50 Saturday morning and couldn’t go back to sleep because of it. Off I go to meet the group anyway to test what the ankles would feel like once we started running. The right ankle problem is a given while the left side is relatively new. Linda and Colleen said they were going to do a slow 4 minute run/1 minute walk interval for 8 to 10 miles. I was just as glad to do it with them so I could give my ankles a break. For sure, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with Cyndi because running hard with her the past several weeks is what started the left ankle pain after all. Please excuse me while I try to heal, Cyndi. Hopefully if I do, I can run with you again soon. So Cyndi takes off after about ¾ mile and the three of us tread gingerly on the streets of Long Beach: Linda with the knee problems, Colleen with sore muscles from being new to Pilates, and me of course with my bum ankles. The two girls were yakking while I trailed behind them. I didn’t mind them setting the pace this time. My hearing must be going bad because I could barely make out what they were talking about and I couldn’t even hear my watch beeping to alert me when it’s time to do a walk break. So I just followed their cue.

Along the way, we encountered Kate twice as she was on her way out then back. We also saw Dennis, who just started running again recently after a couple of years of nagging injuries. He was out for a four miler and his stride looked good and strong to me. Nice to see you running again, Dennis. A little bit of AREC history: Dennis was the organizer of the first ever Long Beach Marathon training group five years ago when it was still the official marathon training program. After that, Todd took over AREC training and the Beach Runners group took over the official duties for the Long Beach Marathon Training.

The paths of the 7:30 starters (us) met with the early 7 a.m. starters with two miles to go at the corner of 2^nd Street and Bayshore, and we were able to run together until the finish.

Other than some minor discomfort on my ankles, it didn’t seem like I aggravated them. But then, the pain usually comes much later. We’ll just have to wait and see how they feel in the next few days. My current stride isn’t working very well anymore so I’ll have to figure out a way to push off my feet without causing the ankle tendons to overstretch.

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A Mix of Emotions

So I’m feeling pretty emotional today (Friday). First, I was thrilled to see on Facebook how my friend SN is having a wonderful relationship with her bf JB. They seem so sweet and right for each other. That gave me a smile so early in the morning.

Then on my way out to the store at noon time, I saw my neighbor’s brothers changing the locks on his door. My neighbor has been sick for a few months and was in the hospital so I asked about his condition. The brothers said that LM passed away the day after Thanksgiving. That made me sad. LM was the first person who welcomed me in our condo complex the day I moved in and he was a really nice person. I’m going to miss him.

While having lunch, I watched the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It”. I got very engrossed and mesmerized by the movie. It was a series of videotaped rehearsals that MJ had in preparation of what was supposed to be his upcoming concert, but even with that, he was in very “good voice” and the performances were very entertaining. I was glued to the TV set for more than two hours. After watching it, I turned on the surround sound and played some of the songs again and they sounded even better. We have truly lost a tremendous talent in MJ. He was a good singer and performer, and I’m saddened once again about his loss. Despite that, I felt uplifted after seeing this movie.

Then I read Kristin Armstrong’s (ex of Lance) blog. She is such a good writer and she writes very inspiring pieces. Here is her entry for today: http://milemarkers.runnersworld.com/

Off to odd/strange news I go and I find this one about a man with superhuman effort. This article made me smile too: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20091218/D9CM0KDG0.html

Well, it’s just mid-afternoon and I may still find other inspiring, uplifting, or even sad things that might grip my heart and soul. So far it’s been a good day to experience a broad spectrum of emotions.

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My Left Ankle Hurts :(

My left inner ankle has been hurting quite a bit lately and has not been recovering well between runs. In fact it hurts more and the pain lasts longer than the one I have on my right ankle. Could this be the start of the deterioration of the posterior tibialis tendon on my left ankle? The symptoms are similar to when I developed the problem on my right ankle more than four years ago and I’m afraid that if this gets worst, I may definitely have to stop running altogether. It would even be difficult to walk with two ankles hurting. Right now my walking gait when in pain looks like a penguin’s waddle. The funny thing is that it doesn’t hurt too much while I’m running but the pain gets sharper several hours later. This comes at a time when I have been able to do pickup intervals again during the shorter runs. It just feels good to be able to put a hard effort in, but the consequence is it makes my ankles hurt. Shall I be satisfied and content just to put in the slow miles which tend to get even slower as time goes on? After last Saturday’s rainy day run and experiencing pain, I decided to take the whole week off and not run again till next Saturday. When Monday came around I was only going to do the stairmaster or stationary bike or a combination of the two, but when I saw how sunny it was outside, I went out for a six mile run anyway. Now I’m suffering the consequences of that decision. I hope I can hold myself back and not run again till Saturday when we are supposed to cover ten miles. For sure, it’s going to be a run/walk situation for me.

It doesn’t help that the cold weather is making me eat more and the excess calories are beginning to gradually show on the weighing scale. All I can do is try to increase the intensity of my other cross training workouts to match the effort I am able to do while running. Trying to stabilize my eating would help a lot too. In the meantime, with the extra days off, I hope my ankles recover.

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A Good Day to Waddle

Rain? What rain? Sure, the sky was dark and ominous, but only small droplets were falling as we started our waddle. After running with early starters Rosie, Michael, and Lena for about 3/4 mile, I turned back to look for people who might show up for the 7:30 run. I was already dreading having to run by myself after seeing nobody at the parking lot, but fortunately someone emerged from her car and I finally got to meet Sonja, a new addition to our small group. The clouds continued to hold so it was turning out to be not a bad day for a run after all. As we made our turnaround at Nieto Street, I could almost hear Chicken Little whisper in my ear “The sky is falling”, which got louder as we went along. The heavens opened up ever so slightly so that we were now waddling on the street, at the same time dodging puddles. We didn’t see any other runners out there. Come to think of it, not even ducks were out, which we were doing a fair job impersonating, or induckinating. The rain started to fall more steadily but not quite a downpour. It was just enough to soak us a little bit. We eventually finished the run without slipping on the wet pavement even though our shoes and socks were heavy with moisture. I could only thank Sonja for showing up because it made running in the rain more bearable.

In other rain related news, I had to break out my old, hardly used but ever trusty Goretex suit just for this special rainy day occasion. I’ve had my Goretex suit since December, 1980, which was a Christmas present from my Uncle when I first moved to the U.S., and because of our fair weather here in California, it’s very rare that I get to wear it. It’s so old that it’s older than some of the people I run with and so old that the company – Sub 4, doesn’t even exist anymore. I’m surprised that the suit hasn’t fallen apart yet.

I had to run half blind because I couldn’t wear my eyeglasses which don’t have wipers, and my old contact lenses are too cloudy to wear anymore. I figured it was safer to run without eyeglasses than to drive with cloudy contact lenses in weather like this.

Today, we got to play in the rain and it was quite satisfying to be able to accomplish something you love to do regardless of the inclement conditions. Today, we got to waddle like ducks J.

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At the Mercy of Plumbers

Unfortunately, the plumber didn't look like this:

My next door neighbor has had plumbing problems for at least a couple of months. I know, because they asked me if I had problems with my bathtub drain, which I didn’t. I could also hear their tub faucet leaking. Not just dripping, you can actually hear the water flowing (I hate it when water goes to waste like that). Last Sunday I heard someone trying to unclog their drain which I learned later was the plumber. When I woke up from a short nap and was getting ready to go to work, I noticed that dirty water had seeped into my bathtub which came from next door. I notified my neighbor right away and they in turn made the plumber aware of the problem. Little did I know that it was just the start of my own woes. My next door neighbor’s problem had become mine too because we share a main pipe. Somehow, when the plumber ‘snaked’ their drain, the area that was plugged up moved and clogged my drain as well. That started several days of sponge baths and showering in standing water, which I had to scoop out first so as not to overflow the bathtub.

The plumbers did not address the problem until Thursday and they got here just as I came home from work. So while they were trying to figure it out and fix it, I could not go to sleep. They left for a few hours and didn’t tell the affected residents where they went. When I finally called them, they said that they had to wait for the resident downstairs so they can make a hole in her ceiling so the plumbers can attack the problem from there. When they restarted the job, it was already 4 p.m. and didn’t finish until 9 p.m. All the while I haven’t slept and was up for more than 24 hours already.

When the plumbers were done, I was presented the bill. I was shocked when informed that I had to pay $150. I was anticipating maybe $100 at most. I asked them how the bill was broken down and they said that the homeowners association will be charged about $800, my next door neighbor about $300, and me, $150. Even though I didn’t create the problem, I still had to pay for labor and parts for the area of the drain on my side of the building. This is what pisses me off. I was not at fault but am affected financially nonetheless.

I was doing well with my Christmas budget up to now, then I get hit with one of life’s little emergencies. This just adds to the stress of the holiday season. Even though I know in my mind I didn’t cause the problem, I can’t really confront the neighbors about it or plead my case with the homeowners association, or not pay the plumber, because I’m afraid of the possible repercussions in offending these people. First you have to coexist with your neighbors, second, the homeowners association could assess my condo by putting the blame on me and my neighbor, after all they were billed a major part of the bill, or third, get sued by the plumber. After negotiating, bargaining, and pleading for mercy with the plumber, and even though in principle I’m not at fault, I’m still out $120. I’m eating ramen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next couple of months.

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Tiger Woods

Tiger On The Prowl In The Woods

This is my take on the recent Tiger Woods saga, not based on facts but just on my own conjectures. How this all started in my opinion, is that after their family Thanksgiving celebration and after Tiger took his Ambien for sleep, Elin looked through his cell phone because she had seen him texting earlier during the party. Upon seeing the suggestive/salacious messages, she got into a rage, woke him up to confront him and during the argument, he got out of the house, got in his car to leave, all the while Elin followed him with a golf club and smashed the windows as he was driving away, thus causing the car to crash. Of course the effects of the Ambien didn’t help, which is probably why witnesses say that Tiger was asleep and snoring on the ground after he was pulled out of the car. Then it was all downhill from there. Privacy was gone, and just like long lost relatives appearing out of the woodwork in the life of a big lottery winner, women of all kinds started to claim having a relationship with Tiger.

After this, I suggested to women at work that if they wanted to become instantly famous, they should claim that they too had an affair with Mr. Woods. Speaking of wood… oh, never mind. Fame, fortune, wealth, and good wood. Looks like Tiger had them all.

What’s your take on the subject?

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Waffling: Out or In?

On the day after a rainstorm, do I venture outdoors in the bitter cold? Or do I stay in the relative warmth of my living room and run like a hamster on the treadmill? Using the treadmill presents some problems because my heavy stride and the sound of the motor create a lot of noise which sometimes bothers the neighbors. If outdoors, do I run non-stop, or do I do the run/walk intervals and for how long? Despite the bright sun, it was still very chilly outside.

Having stepped outside in my running shorts earlier to take out the trash and feeling the chill, I felt I needed more protection. I dug out my very old Sporthill running pants and put them on over my shorts. Still, I could not make up my mind. Run outside or run indoors? I ventured outside once again, this time bent on hitting the road for the day’s run. Alas! Even before I could take a few dozen steps I felt my ankles aching. Back indoors I went, deciding finally to use the treadmill with its more forgiving cushioned deck. Off with the running pants and the jacket, up on the treadmill for 50 minutes in 78 degree temperature instead of the low 50’s outside. Correction: the temperature outside on Tuesday morning was in the 40's at 8 A.M.

For all the waffling I did, I should have had maple syrup to go with it.

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Running Into Cougars, et al.

The temperature dropped last Saturday morning and it was colder than it had been in the past few weeks. As I arrived at Joe’s Crab Shack, the trail running group was leaving the parking lot to head for Carbon Canyon, and all that was left was a pack of cougars mingling around. I started a very slow jog for my warm up and turned around after about a half mile out. On the way back, I encountered the cougar pack of about 10 or so heading towards me. With a smile and a wave, I gave them a wide berth, then noticed that they were a group of women from the AREC running club who usually run together. If they ever read this blog, I wonder if I’ll suffer their ire for referring to them as cougars. They’ll probably have some non-complimentary choice names for me too. However, this was a pack of cougars you would rather run with, than run away from J.

I had a fairly good run on Saturday morning. During my warm up I also saw Jon and a friend hauling butt. I don’t know if they were racing each other or just doing a tempo workout. We saw Kate coming down 6^th Street hill on our way up. I found out later through Facebook that she was out for a ten mile run, then did a twenty mile ride on the bike. Amazing! Rich and Colleen joined us on Saturday too but they just did six miles. Colleen, I heard about your mom’s passing and my condolences to you and your family. It was nice to see you and Rich back out on the road.

Well, ok, so I did 1.2 miles on my warm up jog then ran with our small group. As a group, we did a mile warm up, then the pace started picking up to what felt like a tempo pace to me (probably just a jogging pace for the two women I was with). I ran with Cyndi and Patti at that effort for the next three miles and really pushed the pace up 6^th Street hill before joining Linda for the last 5 miles doing the four minute run/one minute walk intervals.

To sum up: 1.2 mile jog + 1 mile warm up + 3 miles tempo + 5 miles of 4/1 intervals for a total of 10.5 miles. Nice variety huh? The run/walk intervals probably saved my ankles so I could run another day. This was my longest run since the Long Beach Marathon in October.

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@ My Home Unit

Thank goodness for small favors. With my home unit semi full, I didn’t have to float to another ward or get cancelled today. If we keep the patient count up through Tuesday, I may even get a long five day weekend, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed till then. We currently have thirty two patients out of a possible thirty six and if we keep it at twenty eight and above, then all the regular staff gets to work here. I find myself more productive when I work in my home unit because when I get sent somewhere else, I feel like a bumbling idiot. I can’t seem to find things, the regular workers there might have their own way of doing things, and I don’t want to appear like a hindrance to their work. What I usually do is ask them to tell me what to do and I’ll try do it to the best of my ability. When I work in my home unit, I am able to visualize almost everything that needs to be done and make sure all those tasks are completed. Send me somewhere else, and you’ll have to hold my hand and guide me, which makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Not that I mind too much about working somewhere else. That’s a better option than getting cancelled and not earning anything, and the unease only lasts for 12½ hours. I’m sure other workers who have to float here feel the same way.

Update: unit is almost full with 34 patients. New one admitted as I was finishing this entry. Things are looking up.

Definition of FLOAT – the act of being sent to work on another unit due to overstaffing or low patient count.

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Enduring a Bad Run

Yesterday, I experienced one of the worst runs I’ve had in recent months. I felt flat, heavy, uncoordinated (now, how much coordination do you need to run?). It was one of those struggling efforts from start to finish. The breathing never stabilized, I was huffing and puffing and breathless the whole way. Picking up the pace didn’t help, slowing down didn’t help either. The stride just falls flat and doesn’t feel like you are being propelled forward. Even though the terrain was flat, it felt like running uphill the whole time. Not even tuning out on the MP3 player worked. I was thinking that 40 minutes would be enough, well maybe, 45 minutes, but I went out a little too far so I managed 50 minutes with another half mile to walk back home. Some runs just end up that way regardless of whether you are injured or not and there’s nothing you can do about it except push through the discomfort until you’re done. You just have one of those days when nothing feels good and you just hang in there and finish your time or distance and call it a day. My right ankle was hurting when I stopped and it took a few minutes before I could walk straight again. It was one of those survival runs. I did, done, made it through a bad day, which made me feel much better afterwards. It’s days like this that you can look back to when you have another bad running day, and think that you have made it through a tougher time before and you can make it again. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, or so I’d like to think.

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Remiss In Blogging About Running

Darn! I haven’t written about running in more than a week already! Isn’t this supposed to be a running blog? I guess I’ll tell you about last Saturday mornings’ run then. Linda, Cindi, and I started out together. Would we do road intervals, fartlek, or a slow and steady jaunt? Well it turned out, neither of the three. With Linda having some knee problems and Cindi feeling tired from Black Friday, I was content on whatever they decided to do. So we did the four minute run and one minute walk Galloway training method for eight miles. The first mile and a half was pretty brisk, then we backed off because Linda’s knee wasn’t cooperating. We continued the process at a slower pace, or so we thought. I say this because it felt like we were slogging through the workout: my legs felt heavy, Linda’s knee was aching, and Cindi wasn’t feeling too hot either. Upon finishing the run and checking our average pace on the GPS watch, we were surprised to see that we ended up running 10:06 per mile. Believe me, it felt more like 10:30 to 10:40. I must have lost my perception of pace through the years. But then again, with the run/walk method, I find it more difficult to get a feel for my pace based on effort. But, it doesn’t matter, whatever takes us from point A to point B regardless of pace is good enough.

On a solo run/walk workout Monday morning, I managed to get the average pace down to 9:57 minutes per mile over six miles. My ankles protested afterwards and I had to ice them three times in a span of two hours when I got home.

We are expecting someone new to join us next Saturday. She found my blogpost last week on Facebook under the AREC Group and contacted me for info. We shall welcome her with open arms.

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Computer Frustration

Computers are at times so quirky, fickle, and unpredictable. On Saturday my Uncle called me so many times asking questions about his computer that I started answering my phone “tech support, how may I help you?”. He was having problems getting on the internet again because his computer was not connecting with the wireless router even though he moved the router closer. Well it turns out the USB dongle receiver had detached from the computer. Not knowing this, Verizon advised him to just hard wire the DSL modem to the computer’s Ethernet connection. That should have taken care of the problem, but nooooo…He called me again to ask about this and I told him to turn off the modem for about a minute, then turn it back on. Still no luck. I thought maybe there was a brief interruption of service in his area so I advised him to wait about an hour and try again. An hour or so passes by and I get another call saying there was still no internet connection. I was out of ideas so I looked it up on the internet and called my Uncle back to give him step by step directions. Turn off the modem, unplug it from the electric socket, turn off the computer, plug the modem, turn it on, start up the computer, and BAM! The heavens parted and the internet came down and showed itself to my Uncle.

On Sunday I had computer problems of my own. I started up my back up laptop so I can update the antivirus software and Microsoft Windows. However, while the computer would connect to the router, it could not connect to the internet. Despite several Microsoft suggestions in the Help and Support section of Windows Vista on how to fix the problem, still no cigar. So I tried something that Microsoft did not suggest. I turned off the DSL modem, turned off the wireless router, waited a minute, then turned everything back on again. Problem solved.

My co-worker just bought a new computer and will be getting a wireless router soon, and she needs help. Noel’s tech support at your service, ma’am.

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