Running in the Cold Rain Feels Good

Even though I ran in the rain, it felt good becasue I'm starting to see some progress.

I set my alarm for 6AM this morning. I awoke to thunder and lighting outside my window. I decided to go back to sleep and ignore the alarm, since I correctly assessed the situation to be rather dangerous because the thunder sounded rather near by.

A woke up again at 9AM. This time I started to waffle, should I do the Ballet Boot Camp and count it as a cross training day or just brave the elements? Finally, around 10AM I made up my mind. Running it was! It took me about 10 minutes to get my head out of a funk and get dressed for the run. By the time I got out the door it was still raining, but the thunder and lightning had moved on.

I lost track of how many laps I did and tried not to berate myself for cheating. Yea, cheating! I decided to run the inside lane on the track as opposed to the outer lane that I usually run. After about a lap and a half, I determined that I wasn’t cheating and that psychologically it felt better to just run on the inside lane.

Unfortunately, I lost count of how many times I actually ran around the track, but that’s OK. I started around 10:20 AM and got back around 11:00 AM. 40 minutes. I can live with that.

I ran to the Indie Christian C25K, week 3 and I loved it. Running in the cool air (I believe the weather channel said it was 73 F) felt great. As per usual, I ran the last 5 minutes of my cool down, I believe I made it about 1 and a half times around the track during the five minutes plus the 3 minute run. Hmmm…that’s 8 minutes of running without a walk break. Did I do that? Wow, running in the cooler air really does make a difference! Also, it started raining harder during my last lap. The rain was dripping off my hat whenever I looked down to avoid the puddles and fiddle with my mp3 player.

The hill on the way back, turned into a shallow river on the trek back home, at least the left side was. The right side seemed less effected by the downpour. Fortunately, the small army of construction workers were no where to be seen, so it was a gawk free run.

By the time I got to my door, I wasn’t huffing and puffing up the three flights of steps like I normally do. It felt great!

Regarding form – I still need to work on my left leg, but it did cooperate with my right foot much better today. I have hope that my left foot will consistently land on the ball of the foot. It takes a lot of mental effort to focus on correct form.

Running straddling the line between the lanes has been really a blessing. It keeps me focused on my arm movements. I have a tendency to swing my arms past the mid-line. By being aware of my arm placement,  I can keep nagging neck and shoulder pain from interfering with my training schedule.

Going Gluten and Chocolate Free in Chengdu

Going corn chip crazy in Chengdu.

I think today is my fourth day going wheat free, unless that licorice I ate had wheat in it. I should probably look up the ingredients in a German dictionary just to make sure…

Fortunately, the diet here is more rice based than in the Northeast. Also, it is easier to get corn products here, yea, yea I know mycotoxins are in the corn. I really need to get over my feeling of corn deprivation already.

D. has been sick for a few days, don’t know if it is a cold or allergies. I have a bit of a sore throat right now. I’m gonna chop up some raw garlic and see if that helps. It did the other day.

Despite everything, my diet has been lousy and D. hasn’t been eating much at all. Just checked with him. Nope, still not hungry.

Oh yea, I have to congratulate myself. No chocolate for 4 days now. How about that? Going chocolate free is probably one of the better ideas I’ve had in a while and let me tell ya, Chocolate is everywhere here. No kidding! Really, every Chinese store sells Dove bars and/or Hershey bars and Ikea sells huge chocolate bars for only 8 quai and they sell this absolutely divine chocolate mousse too. OK. Enough chocolate talk. I sound like a drunk talking about booze already!

So how about that. No wonder I’m such a mess. I’m going through chocolate and wheat withdraws at the same time. Oy Vey!

Edit – OK last night I ate some pasta and today I had  2 coffee chocolate bars and a piece of carrot cake at Peter’s Tex-Mex.  guess I kind of blew it. Oh well, I think I need to be kind to myself and look at what I have accomplished as opposed to beating myself up about how I blew it.

What’s Stopping Me?

Black shorts remind me of Wooster & Jeeves encounter with Spode and his band of "black shorts."

Got another daily kick in the butt wisdom for ‘ya.

Running long and hard is an ideal antidepressant, since it’s hard to run and feel sorry for yourself at the same time. Also, there are those hours of clearheadedness that follow a long run.

Monte Davis, runner

I don’t run long or hard, but I totally get that anti-depressant thing.

I haven’t run for, well, today is the 3rd day. I am dressed and ready to go. What’s stopping me?

Shredding about 15 years worth of documents…

No Motivation

Somehow, finding the motivation to run when your the only fat laowai huffing and puffing around the neighborhood race track is more than I can handle.

I sincerely want to run and a serious NEED to run, but I have little, to no motivation and I keep coming up with excuses in my head.

The latest excuse, all though it is a valid one, is to stay indoors as much as possible until the radioactive Iodine that has been detected through out Shandong and most of the eastern portions of China has dissipated. Dad says it has a half life of one week.  Fukushima is still churning out fisonable material and it doesn’t look like they are going to have it under control anytime soon.

I looked at some of the real time maps and it seemed to indicate that this latest plume is heading over South Korea and Shandong way

No iodine tablets can be purchased to my knowledge, and if they can be purchased, I have no idea where. I was, however, able to locate some synthetic over the counter thyroid medicine.

Anyway, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

The Road That’s Always Traveled

The view of Fred Howard Park's causeway facing the Gulf of Mexico.

Yesterday, I walked inside Countryside Mall. I had too. I had skipped a day per my usual schedule, but I could tell my legs were going to get jumpy come nightfall.  I wondered into Dillards after the walk and ran into “Queen.” She is one of those personal shopper types who works there. I’m sure she works on a quota.  Anyway, she was a huge help and I walked out of there with a gorgeous brown dress. It is one of those floor length deals that is so lovely. I bought a cream-colored “shrug” too. I don’t think I would have given it a second look except for Queen bringing it to the dressing room for me to try on. I wanted to buy the same dress in purple, but it wasn’t on sale yet. I think I’ll go back in a week or two to see if it is on sale then.

Edit: I did go back, but the purple dress was gone. I still have the brown dress. I had to get it altered. Chinese washers are brutal on your clothes. BTW- I have yet to wear that dress in public. Chinese women wear short dress/skirts with high spiky heals. It’s like they try to dress as young and as slutty as possible. I really don’t understand Chinese fashion. It’s like a gang of pedophiles are dictating fashion. Now Koreans get fashion.

Today I waked 2.4 miles at FHP. I didn’t get there until 8AM which is too late. I had to put on sun screen. Fortunately, there was a gentle breeze and it wasn’t too hot. I stuck to just walking on the island. Each time around is .8 miles. I went around 4 times.

I listened to … I decided to nix mix 3 because I felt 20 minutes of continuous running would be too much. As  a result, I have discovered something. I need …intervals if I’m not all juiced up on caffeine. Taking my cues from the transition chords helps me get motivated to run until it is time to walk again. The great thing is that it has great intrinsic value for me because I’m more inclined to give it my all since I know that it is just for a short time.

During my cool down,  I listened to Chinesepod’s – Do you have…? It is modeled after a conversation that may have taken place in the 80′s, complete with authentic pop music. “mei2you3“

Interval Do Over

The last time I ran was on May 21st. It has been a full week since I ran. I gotta tell ‘ya I just wasn’t happy about that, but the good news is that I was able to complete week 3 interval and it didn’t kick my butt!

I’m kind of anxious to get out there and run again tomorrow. I feel like I need to make up for missing out on a whole week!