yesterday's tease

The humidity dropped but the cloud cover remained, and it was actually pleasant walking around later in the morning and biking to work in the afternoon.   It was still warm, but low 30s C is just warm these days.  It felt like a turning point, the end of a ghastly experience.  I've been in hotter places, but these were also much more interesting places.  This town's chief charm is moderation, not too big, not too small, some conveniences here, some boredom there, a bit of noise here, some solitude there....it's surprisingly nice for a small army town, and nice overall.  But once the weather and thus everything having to do with being outside or going outside became decidedly un-nice, there wasn't much left.  Yesterday, I was walking around and actually enjoying being here again.  I'd forgotten how that felt!

Unfortunately, that was yesterday.  But today isn't so bad.  There are still clouds and the chance of rain, and the highs aren't too much higher.  Is it too early to tell if we are in Summer's taper?  Tomorrow will be August.  I soon can shove the 2nd hottest but most miserable (it beat Virginia) July of my life into the past, and I hope that this August won't also be such an overachiever.

I feel almost broken down again--it's kind of funny how I alternate between feeling busted and feeling infuriated--but I ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill then did Zwow #5.  I looked at #27 but the "buy-in", 3 minutes of squats, turned me off again.  And I like squats!   I'm still evaluating why the buy-in concept repulses me so much.  It's not like I'm actually paying an additional unofficial fee to secure some service that shouldn't require it...I'm actually not even paying for the workouts.  I guess "buy-in" has descended into the same category as "administrative fee" and "handling charge" in my estimation.

So I figured that, heck, I'll at least pick my own buy-in: 1.5 miles on the treadmill.  Empowered by choice, I pushed harder than I have before with this workout and completed five rounds for the first time, although I was working from memory and might have left out a 4th exercise.

thank you, clouds

It was overcast this morning, which has become unusual.  I considered it an invitation.   The cloud cover made conditions muggy: the humidex was about 36C even though the temp was about ten degrees lower.  It smelled like wet dead vegetation outside.  But there was no roasting sunshine!

The dog and I walked about 1.5 miles.  We checked out the creek for the first time in about a month and, as I'd expected, it's now a series of stagnant ponds, some smelling of dead fish, some not, but all of them too gross for him to enter--rather, for me to let him enter.  His standards are lower and he doesn't consider consequences.

Then I did zwow #12.  I'm not sure if pistols got easier or if I got lazier, but I kept having to remind myself to go lower until I felt certain muscles engage.   My energy level this morning is quite low and I seem to be dehydrated even though I was drinking a lot of water yesterday.  I did spend a fair bit of time in the sauna outside, though: three rounds of bake-cold shower-rest over a couple of hours.  Guess I underestimated how much I was sweating.  It felt nice and relaxing, at any rate.

I don't want to jinx the weather forecast, but it's looking like the rest of the week will be like today, please, please, please.

bad air, bad attitude

Man, this blog is swirling down and down.  Sorry.  I have cabin fever and a deep set dislike of this place that is tunnelling steadily deeper.  I was outside for about a half hour this morning, watering valiant plants and feeding the fish and the dog (he is enjoying his breakfasts al fresco these days), and the air felt thick and dirty even then.   Now it's 37C and still rising, the humidex is somewhere around 40, and the temps will be like this for the next 10 days, and I seem to have lost my appetite.  Fortunately, I have protein and iron supplements.  LOL

I got onto the treadmill and, since my breathing is already slightly uncomfortable, I managed to find an "easy" pace at about 6.2 mph after warming up.  It wasn't going to be any easier, and actually this pace is approaching one of my mechanically easier paces, about 8:15/mile outside.   I bumped the TM up to almost tempo pace, at 6.4ish mph, and held that for 20+ minutes until my breathing started to feel too constricted, although I was still breathing at a relaxed rate and feeling mechanically super smooth.  Then I dropped back to about 6.0 mph and tried to loosen up and shove down the slight panic that lurks beneath constrained breath.  No, I didn't lose control of it!  I'm not sure flirting with this margin is healthy, and I'm still feeling the effects (drinking hot tea seems to be helping).  If it gets above 40C, and it might, I may go outside because that tends to open up my lungs and make me feel better too.

Total run in one hour: 6.06 miles.   This run felt similar to a marathon-pace run, and it was kind of fun because it was mechanically easier than slower paces, and seeing the numbers go by a bit quicker was a psychological lift.   It's probably not beneficial to run at this sort of pace all of the time, but once a week should be fine.    Maybe it could count as one of those slower and longer tempo runs.  At this (low) point in my training, any hour-long run is better than none, and I got over the lazy Sunday hump that has been cropping up recently.

Olympics!

Friday, I did absolutely nothing apart from sleep and eat and work super fast so that I could extend my Olympic-watching breaks without damaging productivity.  I was even more drained than usual for some reason, but I played ABBA and pushed through.  Somehow, ABBA reminds of the Olympics...

Today, I jogged for an hour, 5.71 miles, and then did resistance exercises.  We're still in a heatwave and the air here seems to be poor again; I feel like I'm not breathing as fully and as clearly as I should be, but I kept things relaxed and didn't experience an overbearing heaviness of breath this time.  My focus was economy of motion; I gradually increased the speed as I felt fit and did my best to minimize the effect of the increases. There were a few moments that were deliciously effortless, and by the end, I was running 5.9 mph with ease.  Not bad for a stingy treadmill and a hot room.   The air conditioner is set for 24ish C, but the treadmill is in an upstairs room which is warmer.  I've gotten used to it enough that sometimes I don't use the fan--I did use it today, however!  I'd hoped to keep things as easy as possible today so that I will feel more inclined to do at least that much tomorrow and thus, perhaps, squeeze a fourth hour-plus run into the following week.   Will see how things go.

At any rate, I'm very happy with this past week: despite allergies, fatigue, a hundred or so chigger welts (I'm still itchy, but less so), and TMImonthlywomaneventTMI, I completed the important workouts, 3 hr+ runs and 3 zwows, plus 3 lighter resistance exercise routines and a shorter run.

My husband and I will likely be doing a diet detox starting Monday: no dairy and no refined sugar for about 10 days.   Hopefully this will improve my energy levels.

a storm! some rain!

(Thursday's post)
Yesterday, my energy and ire levels were quite low, but I did zwow #5.  I also took allergy medicine at long last, but it didn't seem to help.  There was an article in the KC newspaper about how quite a few people are having similar symptoms mainly due to the heat and pollution, and not pollen, so maybe that's what's going on for me too.

And then we got storms late last night.   The drizzle this morning was not to the dog's liking (he doesn't like water sprinkling or stepping on wet lawn, thus he won't go), but it was light enough a drizzle for him to go on a short walk and rock a piss or two.    The little guy has super-canine bladder control, but I worry about his kidneys more than he does.

After the dog was deflated, I ran on the TM for an hour, 6.05 miles, including 6 X 5min tempo, 1 min jog.  Resistance exercises afterward.

I have just one more long run to do this week, and maybe I'll do a bonus zwow, who knows?  Not bad for what has been a miserable week.

Olympics tomorrow!

So this place has made me angry

I'm trying to keep the language in this blog as friendly as possible but I have finally reached a similar expletive-laced point I'd reached in Virginia during that miserable swampy hot summer there.

___ it, you ____ ______, I ______ hate you and I will beat you.

The combo of heat and unusual allergies was irksome enough, but the hundred or so itchy chigger bites and the wilting edges of some of my pond plants (how hot does it have to be that things growing in water are suffering???) and the recent drought advisory that we should be watering the house have brought things to a boil.  Yes, I have since found out that what I have are probably chigger bites, and not baby tick bites, although I did pull a few adult ticks off in the melee.  And watering the house means dampening the dirt around the foundation so that the dirt doesn't crumble away and the foundation and everything above it crack from the lessened support.  It bugs me enough to waste water on grass, and I usually don't, never mind on inanimate objects.  Anyway, I was beat down but now I've gotten mad.

And it's pointless to get mad at the weather, unless that rage fuels a 70 minute treadmill run and some weightlifting afterward, like this morning.  Originally, I thought about doing zwow #5, but I am still feeling the aftereffects of the pistols.  I was doing them in the evening at work too.

Something special happened last night.  I was alone and facing my reflection in a glass cabinet door.  I lifted one foot off the ground and lowered down until I felt my other heel about to rise off the floor--my butt was at least several inches below my knee so it was an honest squat--and I pushed myself back up.  I think that's as deep as Z goes.  This was on my right leg, and I couldn't do it on my left, nor repeat it on my right later on, but now I have one true pistol to my name.  Finally!  It's very exciting.  This is the 6th week that I've done zwow #12 and my watered-down but still strenuous interpretation of its pistols; now I have seen results and I will continue to plug away at it.  And at running.  In anger.  For the time being.

Things will get better. Chigger bites generally stop itching after ~4-5 days, and Thursday still might harbour thunderstorms, and the Olympics start on Friday!

pistols

zwow #12 and general tick bite misery.  I have a lot of bites, ~33 on my left foot alone, admittedly one of the most concentrated areas.  Looks like I might be gliding through work on Benadryl.

Almost all of these ticks were babies, so I guess it could have been worse.  But who has children during the worst drought since 1954 or whenever?  Highly irresponsible parenting.

The trip was well worth it.  We got to spend a few perfect hours cooling off in a small bay we had all to ourselves.  Take that, shitty Kansas, I still won, no matter how many more hot days you spew.    The next 10 days are all supposed to be above 37 C except for Thursday, which might go as low as 30 C with thunderstorms.  PARTY TIME!!!!!  Or, at least, maybe the slats of my deck furniture will stop curling up.

tick bitten

I have dozens of itchy welts but we're fortunately in Kansas where Lyme Disease is fairly uncommon.  If I'd acquired this collection of bites back in Maryland, I would be having major bullseye anxiety.

Anyway, I jogged 1.5 miles on the TM, and it felt very relaxed and loose.  I think I'm getting to the point where I could jog 15-20 minutes as a daily minimum.  That's what I used to do, although most of my easy runs were longer.

After the jog, I tried Z's new workout, #26.  It's more complicated than the other 25, which works for people who like that kind of thing.  As for the clumsier and less adept me, I will try it again because some of the exercises seem really useful--and the sit-up/knee clutch exercise is amazingly satisfying--but I got more of a coordination workout than a true burn.  The intervals were just 30 seconds long.  By the time I wrangled my limbs into (the close to) correct movement, it was onto the next equally extremity-snarling thing.  I definitely need at least one more go at it!

last long run

It was touch and go.  I slept in and then we spent the thick of the day on a trip to a lake--at least an hour of hiking was involved, but most of the time there was spent in the lake.  The dog got a good workout at last.  I guess the temps were about 37C while we were there, but it was dry, and the hiking was mostly through shady forest, and it actually felt pleasant. The lake water was like bath water.  I think this is the first time that I've entered a lake without having to brace against initially chilly water.

And then we made a slight detour and got and ate takeout hamburgers and fries at Local Burger.

Meanwhile, we pulled dozens and dozens of baby ticks off each other, but it was worth it!

So after all of this fun and adventure, I felt more sleepy than eager to run, but I got on the TM and stayed there for an hour, and, yes, the belt was moving at a jogging pace.  5.6 miles.  Rows and deadlifts afterward.

My easy cruising speed has quickened.  When I first put batteries into the display, maybe a couple of months ago, about 4.7 mph was comfortable.  My log says that, in mid June, it took me just over an hour to cover 5 miles, and now I'm still breathing easy even at 5.9 mph sometimes.  What this actually translates to on real ground, I don't know.  I still haven't calibrated the TM, and I probably won't bother.  The numbers still measure progress even though they are askew.  Sticking to a consistent if still kind of mild routine (3 X 1hr+/week) is the main thing.  And I need to take the results to heart so that I can work past the heat and allergies and tiredness this coming week.  This past week was rather draining.

And, then, 6 days till the Os, and hopefully better weather too!

One week to the Olympics!!

I can't wait!
Meanwhile, my respite from allergies has ended, but I just have sniffles and itchy eyes so far, and no respiratory irregularities.  I'm wiped, though, and decided to do a familiar workout: zwow 5.  One of my favourites!  And I wimped: I was using 10 lb dumbbells for the first exercise, but today I stuck to 5 lbs.   And I was using 15 lb dumbbells for the sumo pull, but today I stuck to 5 lbs.  It felt like I did enough, though!

Which leads me to recent musings of workout regimen continuation.  I'm very inconsistent long-term.  Much of it has to do with moving somewhat often, and most of the time I can't keep things together when even a short trip is thrown in.  But there's more to my shortcomings than that:

The workouts don't get easier.  Never!  They stay hard.  At least, they should.  However, I've recently realized that I cling to the classic learning curve, the struggle and then the coast thereafter. Workouts should become more biomechanically familiar over time, but once they get easy, they are not as effective.  The solutions to keeping them hard are a faster tempo, heavier weights, and sometimes adjusting the exercises (example, propping feet up in pushups).

I haven't been consistent nor mindful enough to manage this.  Yeah, I have put more weight on my dumbbells from time to time (and taken it off more recently), but mainly, in the past, I've added more exercises and more reps, making my workouts longer and more boring and eventually abandoned prematurely.  I couldn't see past a certain plateau.  My thought was, hey, it's starting to feel easy, yay, thank goodness, so just do more of it.

No, it will never feel fine!   These days, I'm taking that concept to heart.  No matter how many times I do zwow 5, or whatever, it's got to feel hard.  I will find success not in an easier workout but in more weight, more speed, etc, so that in real life, lifting that box/bike/toolbox will become easier.  But never the workout.

I've stuck to 3 zwows/week for the past six weeks and I feel that my body is adjusting nicely to the load. Things in real life have become easier.  Part of my job is washing OR ceilings and walls once every two weeks--since the army moves my husband and I often to random places, I'm always the new person and I get to do those tasks, although this job is altogether the best one I've had since leaving Asia 7 years ago, by far.  Heck, virtually no poo (actually, I don't mind poo), no verbal abuse from emotionally damaged/demented/special needs people (except from one nurse, but we're cool now), and I'm expanding my musical knowledge (got acquainted with Curtis Mayfield this week).  Anyway, when I first started, it hurt to clean one OR per shift with someone else helping me, but now I can do all three in one shift on my own and feel fine.  Another gauge are the stacking step stools they have: lifting two at once was kind of hard at first, but now I can lift--barely--four of them.  I think they weigh slightly more than ten pounds each, and they are a bit awkward to grasp too.

So, do I add another zwow, or do I try to make the 3/week harder?  Or both?  Still deciding.  Option 1 would be my old way, option 2 would force me to dig deeper, and option 3 might be too daunting at this point.  I won't be doing 2 or 3 until after the heatwave ends, at any rate!

Precipitation!!

Last night, I biked home accompanied by very distant flashes of lightning.  No rain, just the tantalizing promise of rain which almost always skirts about the town fetchingly and elusively, a swirl of dark cloud here, a sliver of electricity there, and then, nothing.

But, no, this time the harlot stopped and squatted over the neighbourhood for a good long while.

So, now it's humid again and I suppose I will have a yucky bike ride/struggle to work, but at least the air has improved.  Yesterday afternoon, before work, the breathing tightness hit me hard even though I was just sitting around reading in an air-conditioned room, and I was beginning to wonder how it would go down.   However, it was so toasty outside, about 40C, that the warmth opened everything up and I recovered and felt amazing!  Hasn't failed yet: the high 30s C days suck but the hottest 40+C days are great.  Maybe just for me, a former sauna habitué, but I'm clutching this upper hand close to my chest.  Take that, Kansas, your worst is my dessert.

Well, anyway, I woke up and decided that the rain dampened down whatever it is that I've been reacting to recently.

I also tried a new workout drink.  My husband tends to buy various supplements from time to time and then move on to other things, so I've been finishing up whatever doesn't contain gluten.  Granted, the last jar I finished was a recovery mix, and this new stuff was a pre-workout drink, but for someone in my position (not poised on the knife edge of world-class athletic conditioning), some valine is better than no valine.  Anyway, this new stuff tastes good and it helped.

I also tried some new workout music.  My husband had pulled out a Franz Ferdinand CD earlier, and I wondered about it, was there a bunch of slow tempo filler in there that would bog me down?  But, no, there wasn't, and the tunes helped too.

It ended up being such a good run that I was too pumped afterward to nap properly.  I even tossed the equivalent of a 2-mile tempo run in there.  6 miles in just over an hour.

No resistance exercises because after that run, the sweat was pouring off me so voluminously that it felt embarrassing even though I was alone in my own house.  The room is rather warm, but I've become quite fond of the detox effect.

Pistols

I did Zwow #12 again, and my pistols still aren't like her pistols, but I feel stronger and can go a little lower without losing my balance.  I've also noticed that my Asian squats have become easier and more steady, and there has been a subtle shift in form.  I'm not falling into into the squat so much as being held into a more comfortable position by various newly-revamped muscles.  yeah!  Eventually, I will be strong enough to apply this to a one-legged squat as well.

It's still hot and I still have this weird reaction going on, but it's subsided to a dull throat/chest ache and a few mouth cankers.  I also had hives on my legs yesterday after my workout, but they went away.   Things felt a little more raw after the workout today, but just a little bit more, and I don't have hives today at all.  I can deal with this until the Olympics (mentally/emotionally speaking).  9 more days!!!!!

My husband has pointed out that I could be having a reaction to airborne wheat particles: it's a local crop and the drought and wind have probably sent all sorts of dry particles in the air.  Could be!  I'll try running again tomorrow and see what happens.  Meanwhile, I'll drink lots of water and sleep and take iron pills.  I'm also going to try to get some local bee pollen because that supposedly helps with allergies. There's not much else I can do besides wear a mask while outdoors and in my sieve-like house.  Um, no, not at that point yet...

Fortunately, the rooms I'm in at work are well-filtered, if not kept at negative pressure as well, so I can catch a break.

1 hour

And 5.23 miles this morning.  I was aiming for 70 minutes and I was feeling great, running nice and easy and relaxed, until about 55 minutes later when things suddenly turned sour.  I felt like I had asthma.  But I don't have asthma!  But my chest constricted and my lungs started to feel sore.  Is this what asthma feels like?  I was breathing easy until then, and I still wasn't gasping for breath, but it felt like a chore to breathe.  I stopped running, splashed myself with cold water, and coaxed myself to do just five more minutes to get to the hour.  It sucked.  The run was finished shortly after 7 am, and now it's almost seven hours later and my lungs still feel raw.  I had a 3 hr nap--twice as long as usual--and I woke up with a burning throat too, which subsided after I gargled with hot salt water.  That didn't help my lungs, though.

I've felt like this on a few days after my trip to work, and once while running outside in the morning, but this is the first time it's happened to me indoors.

I wasn't dehydrated and the room wasn't especially warm.  Yeah, I got only about 4-5 hrs of sleep, but that is pretty much normal, hence my daily nap.  What the heck?

I checked the weather--the air quality is moderate today, not bad.  I fancy that something in this place is unleashed when the high is about 37-38C--actually, I don't know if there's a correlation or not because we've had too many 37-38C days already and I was bound to feel subpar on at least a few of them.  But the days in the high thirties have been the worst.  The days above 40C have been significantly better!  More tiring but more comfortable.

And, of course, the 10 day forecast is a string of 37-39C days.  Didn't we just finish a heatwave?

So, what is there to look forward to?  The Olympics are in 10 days!  Ten days of heatwave and then a tangible reward at the end, and hopefully after two weeks of lying about in A/C and watching other people exert themselves, I will finally get some normal temps.

Short run Sunday

I ran longer runs on Friday and Saturday, and the residual fatigue was more mental than physical: I got on the TM with the intention of getting one of the three weekly hr+ runs out of the way, but I couldn't draw my eyes away from the numbers moving ever so slowly...

1.75 mile super easy jog, then Zwow #25.  The learning curve was steeper than normal because lateral movement is not my thing, but I pushed through it and got adequate exercise.  This workout also had a "buy-in": 30 burpees.  They had to be completed prior to the workout.  This is a new thing for Zuzana, I think.  I like the idea of a warm up more than a buy-in, and with that translation in mind, I did the 30 burpees with less effort than expected.  Granted, I did competition burpees.  I used to think these were harder because you have to go completely to the floor and back up instead of just in and out of a plank, but they are proving to be far easier with my questionable form, mainly because my knees help with the upthrust.  Googling about this has revealed similar opinions from others.  I suppose I will do the harder burpees when there are less reps, and try not to cave into doing the easier ones when faced with 20 or more at a time.

Meanwhile, it's hot.  Judging by seasonal weather data, the next two weeks tend to be the hottest stretch of the year.  I suppose I should be thankful that we've already been sort of exposed (acclimatized would be too strong a word) to hot weather, but, man, been there, done that.

I was recently told about the Tonganoxie Split, it's name and vague reputation (restricted rainfall and general crispiness, I gather) only, and will embark upon research shortly.

Why is this blog so much about weather?  Well, it's totally cramped my style for like at least fifty zillion days.

Last run done!

It was a bit tough squeezing it into a surprisingly busy Saturday, but I hopped onto the treadmill, coasted for an hour, then hopped into the shower, into the car, etc.

It was a very easy run; the first ten minutes or so were kind of rough, as usual, and then things loosened up and I forgot I was running.  At times I found a nearly perfect stride.

It's become sort of hot again here.  Tomorrow's high will be 36C (and every other subsequent high for at least a week afterward) and I'm not sure how early, or late, we'll get up.  Our "long" run might not be very long.

Rain

It's raining!  Hopefully it will rain enough to flush all the dead fish out to the river so that I can cool my dog off in the creek.  Meanwhile, I don't think he is missing longer runs too much.  In fact, it's hot enough that he seems content with 15-20 minutes of walking.

And I woke up early enough to bypass mournful canine eyes!  7 miles on the TM, including some tempo sections.  I was trying to follow one of the workouts from run club that I'd looked at yesterday, without looking at it again today, and so I misremembered it and did one less repeat, but my rests were much shorter than specified.   It was a satisfying workout.  Afterward, I did rows and deadlifts and clamshells; unfortunately, I probably won't complete a 2nd such workout this week, but I should be able to do the third hr+ run tomorrow.

And my left hip and right shoulder weren't an issue at all!  The hip soreness did return when I sneezed after the workout, but that shouldn't count.

And the gallbladder was gone yesterday!  I have nothing to do with the crash cart it was sitting on, but I'll start looking there more often, although I think this was a case of "why is there silverware in the pancake drawer?" Or perhaps not.

puppy guilt

It is imperative to wake up before the dog does so that I can start my treadmill run without seeing any pleading eyes.

This didn't happen today.  I'm wiped.  Due to deteriorating sleep hygiene (just ten more minutes, yes, I've taken them a few times recently), I haven't been able to nap once this week.  I slept soundly and woke up too late.  

Another factor is my body wanting to start naps earlier this week.  I'm not sure why, but I've been ignoring these signals.

So we walked and then I did Zwow #24.  My dive bombers are improving--major breakthrough today: I figured out the best way to breathe during them.   It's amazing how sometimes I will struggle with an exercise and then realize that I'm holding my breath.  Last year, I couldn't even do a dive bomber!

This leaves me with 2 hr+ runs to complete this week.  It's still possible.  

NAPTIME.

Update:  Oh, yes!  There was a hiccup because the stove was cleaning itself and the smell woke me up, so I moved the nap to downstairs and woke up 1.5ish hours later.  And now I remember that I forgot the gallbladder at work.  I found a gallbladder--not on the floor, in a proper specimen bottle--and I have no clue if they put this sort of thing in some sort of preservative that doesn't require refrigeration, or not, so I was going to take it to the lab and ask on my way out....but I was tired and I completely forgot. (Maybe not the first one to do so with this poor gallbladder).  I guess forgetting my very first external organ at work is a good mark of sleep deprivation.  

Real Wednesday

I'd edited last night's entry.

Anyway, my naps have been messed up these past two days and now I am pretty tired. 1.5 miles with the dog, mostly walking--the heatwave is over but it's still hot and humid (humidex 29C before 8 am).

Then I did Zwow #16.  This is also one of my favourites, once it's over!  Still, it was good to do a slightly longer workout for a change.  I've been hitting the 10 minute ones perhaps too exclusively.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll wake up early enough for a longer treadmill jog!

A new obsession

Or an old one rejuvenated?

I must perform a proper pistol/deep one-legged squat.  About a decade ago, a sunny summer day on the slope of Mount-Royal, I was strolling with a couple of friends from northern England and the subject of one-legged squats came up.  I'd never envisioned such a thing, but I was informed that performing such a squat was a mark of superior fitness, which none of us claimed that day.   I flirted with acquiring the skill, but there were so many other things to do that summer, my last in Montreal, and I moved on with my life.

So, I can't say that I've spent the ensuing decade in strenuous pursuit of the successful one-legged squat, but the last few days have perhaps made up for that neglect.  It's gotten under my skin.  I've been practicing at work and at home, one on each side, now and then.  It's gotten almost comfortable to drop down without falling over, but I still cannot get up.

Today, I jogged for an hour, 5.3 miles, and then I did Zwow #12 in shoes.  That felt weird.  Apart from the treadmill jogging, all of my household activities, and most of my backyard activities, are done in bare feet, and I've done weights and x-training in bare feet or socks for years.   I don't like wearing shoes, and they don't seem to help in this pursuit.

The solution, therefore, is not an artificial heel lift, but a greater core and squat strength.  I must hold myself up at the sweet spot, far enough down to count, thighs past parallel to the ground, but not so far down that my heels lift up and I cannot get back up.  I can lower myself down but I seem to accelerate somewhat and I shoot past the sweet spot.  I am not strong enough to resist gravity.  Not yet.

Someday on a summer stroll, or whenever, wherever, I will balance on one foot and float down and back up effortlessly.

got up early to run with the dog

And about a 1/2 mile later, we saw a loose dog on the road.  And it wasn't road-smart.  After stopping traffic and getting sour looks from "nice" people in nice cars, and coaxing the dog to follow us to a workshop where I asked for a rope or something while the dog skittered off and around the block, me and my dog in pursuit, until we wound up back at the shop where we got a rope tied to its collar and I'm so proud of my dog for being such a good boy while we caught and brought home a stranger...anyway, back at the ranch, the dog wanted in, but not without a bath and possibly deworming, and animal control wasn't open for another 2 hrs (9 am), and the dog was starting to get yippy unless I was in sight so I sat on the floor by the door and read and waited.

It was an old schnauzer type dog, probably female but I couldn't tell for sure because of the fur and the large tumour on its underside.  That probably made it uncomfortable for the dog to sit down;  I didn't see it sit down once.

Anyway, an animal control officer came and got her, and now it's almost nap time.  So much for our run! My dog got some mental and emotional stimulation at least, and now he's pre-nap napping.  For our first loose dog event here, we got off very lightly.  There are so many pit bull mixes around here, and my dog being one himself, it's not always the best mix.

The other dog got considerably more exercise than it normally does: it was pretty tired by the time we got home.  Hopefully it goes back home to its home soon.  Dogs are hard-wired by ten thousand years of co-habitation to go indoors, any indoors, but this dog had a collar and a fairly new trim and, I suspect, sofa privileges somewhere.

I was going to try out my new Stars of the Lid album on a treadmill jog after the dog jog.  Tomorrow, I guess!

post-heat wave

After strolling about downtown Kansas City yesterday in 42C (humidex?) on an impromptu mini raw seafood crawl (oysters and sushi!!), both of us were so relaxed and/or wiped that we slept in and didn't run at all, even though the heat wave is finally receding.  My body is slumping too much in relief to do much, but I did do a time challenge thingy posted by Z: 50 X 3 low jacks-1 push up/pike-1 jump.  It took me just over 9 minutes.

I did it outside because the temp is actually a refreshing 25 degrees Celsius for the first time in ages, and there has been a large cicada hatch.  I imagine it is weather-related.  We have windows and the back door left open for the first time in weeks, and the metallic chorus of cicadas drew me outside.

The heat itself wasn't too bad--I've been in considerably worse during a summer trip to Egypt and Kuwait--but the humidity was nasty and the bad air even worse.  how could a small town almost in the middle of Nowhere, Midwest, have bad air?  It could be pollen, it could be pollution from the forest fires in CO, and it could definitely be pollution in general judging by the local ads to reduce fuel consumption.  At times, it rendered my head into the anvil of a merciless hammer.  Pain killers don't do anything, except for the strong ones that knock me out, but at least I found out that adrenaline helps.  Fortunately, I don't get headaches that often.  Conditions have to be just wrong.

At any rate, there is still more of summer to come, and apparently the historically hottest part is still ahead of us.   It's a close tie right now, but in due time, this summer might unseat those horrible months in south Virginia as my Worst Summer Ever.

This week, the highs will be in the 31-35C range.  Hopefully the humidity won't jack up in compensation.  The temps were supposed to be lower, but we were supposed to get thunderstorms...somehow, this spot misses a lot of action in more ways than one.

pistol whipped butt

Zwow #12 again today.  I think I'll do this workout every week because it hits the (rather soft and weak) target.  And I experienced a minor triumph today: I descended fully in a one-legged squat for the first time in my life without losing balance!  Both legs too!  but I couldn't get up.  Part of the problem was that I was barefoot and my heels were rising from the floor: the added heel lift from shoes might have been enough.   With more strength I might find that I can drop ever so slightly less, too.  Right now, it's kind of an action potential all-or-nothing situation and maybe I'm going past the point of no return.  Next time, I'll wear shoes.  Meanwhile, I'm thrilled that my efforts are paying off.

Next week's plan:

3 long (hr+ runs), and hopefully one with some tempo running like this week.  I'm starting to feel the need for (relative) speed again.
3 zwow or other strenuous circuit workouts
2 bouts of clamshells/deadlifts/shoulder rows

Friday

5.56 miles on the TM.  Started at 6:30 am before the room got too hot.  Third hr+ run of the week done!  All I have to do tomorrow is a circuit workout of some sort, equal in difficulty to one of Z's.

I have been missing my easier circuit workouts recently and I'm starting to feel the lack of clamshells and deadlifts.  These exercises are very important and help counteract my asymmetry/scoliosis/etc.  My right shoulder and left hip became less (and now recently and gradually more) bothersome.   Next week, I will try to do at least two sessions.  These are easy enough to tack onto any other workout.

It's still hot out.  I'm reminded of a trip from Bangkok to Pattaya, an hour or two drive.  I can't remember if the van had air conditioning: everything felt hot.  The transition from ~0 in Korea to ~30+C in Thailand had been a bit abrupt, but I got used to traipsing about with a light sheen of sweat, removed periodically in public toilets, which were Indian-style with water and not paper.  Perfect for a bit of a refreshing splash.

Anyway, I'm in this van, sweating, and sitting ahead of an older couple almost shivering in pashmina cocoons. They told me they were cold all the time in Thailand because they had come from India.

I still want to go to India, and I think now would be the time to go.  It's cooler and much rainier there now.  Kansas could use a monsoon season too.

Meanwhile, I've adjusted to the heat somewhat in that I don't notice the heat as much, I'm not eating much of anything besides fruit and popcorn (and protein supplements), and I'm definitely more lethargic, even though I've been sleeping and napping very soundly.   As a test, perhaps I will see just how much of tomorrow I can sleep away.

Fingers crossed that Sunday will indeed cool down as forecasted.  Only 31C!!  It's amazing to consider that a good day for a long run.

maybe it's too hot to type

But I have AC!  Thank you, Willis Carrier!  Last two summers, we turned the AC on maybe 3 days the whole summer, and this year, it's been running almost constantly since March or April.  This makes me sad.  We don't keep it set super cold, usually 76-82 F depending on the day, but it still seems like a waste.  And then I step outside and thank science for the technology.

Seriously, though, I really hope that this is the last old largish house we live in.  We didn't have much time to find a place, and this one fit the bill location-wise, but it is a sieve/energy hog.  Fortunately, we don't own it, and we will likely be moving again in Dec.

Anyway, the dog and I did 1.5 miles at about 7 am, when it was already close to 30 C.  The run back became a walk for various reasons, the most visceral of which was a mass casualty event.  We jogged to the creek, to the portion where it's convenient for him to enter, and found umpteen dead fish.  I've never seen even one before because of all the feral cats.

I'm not sure what the culprit it, heat or some sort of pollutant, but it effectively nixes runs with the dog for the time being, unless upstream looks better.  Will check later.  Meanwhile, we'll walk.

4th of July

No work for me today, so I got a couple of workouts out of the way.
6 mile treadmill run, including about 20 minutes tempo effort.  On my stingy treadmill, that is about 6.6 mph.  LOL.   The room was rather warm, but I think I've actually gotten somewhat used to that sort of thing.

Then I did Zwow #24.  Originally, I'd hoped to do one of the longer workouts, but I wanted to start one asap after the run and it was quickest to pick the newest.   It turned out to be one of the ten minute workouts.  I couldn't quite keep up with Z, but I was close.  More impressively, I actually did some dive bombers.  I've never been able to do them properly before, and I'm not sure I was doing them properly today, but I was going through the entire motion without collapsing at least.   For one set, I did 7 in a row, and this hobbled me for the sets after it, but it felt like a triumph.

This leaves me with one more circuit workout and one more hour-long run for the week.  I think I can manage 2 workouts in 3 days.  (knock wood)

Heat wave

More heat.  Maybe I'm getting used to it.  yesterday was a bit of a respite, a high of only 36C, and it felt almost normal.

Yesterday: 1.5 miles with the dog
Today: Zwow #5 again.  I am pretty drained these days.  This morning, I decided to do a workout asap and get it out of the way before I got into the kitchen or on the computer or wherever, and #5 was the only one I have memorized.

In the shade of a tall prison wall

Saturday: nice 6 miles on TM.  Weekly workout goal met!!

Today: 13.3 miles outside.  We took the dog for a couple of miles down to the creek and back, and then we dropped him off and ran onto post and around for a bit, then back home.

That sounds deceptively simple.  We're still in this heat wave, and we slept in a bit longer than we should have, so the run was done in ~32-36 C (humidex?), and it became more and more walking.   Probably the last 1.5 miles were walking.  No shade and big hills.

However, it wasn't bad.  We took our time, walked when the uphills were too steep, drenched ourselves completely at a couple of water spigots on post (a benefit of running on post: random water access points), hung out in the shade from time to time, stopped in a store to get icy cold drinks and chips, and generally didn't let our heart rates climb too high.  Near the end, we were on a path that didn't go the expected way and so we had to backtrack through an especially muggy section...that was the low point.  Other than that, it was not overly uncomfortable.  And it took us 3 hrs.  10:20/mile when we were actually running.  LOL

My goals for this week: 2 more 1+ runs, and three Zwow (or MarC) workouts, definitely including another stab at the pistols.

Oh, yes, at one point we were running in the most refreshing shade ever, cast by the old prison wall.   Old stone like that can impart a surprisingly chill even on hot days, and the psychological dampness in this case added extra coolness.

Happy Canada Day!