Prosthetically Hip

Running Progress

January 26, 2011 9:27am

Well, my new shoes feel awesome. It’s been quite cold here lately, so I’ve had to institute my weather rule more often than I’d like.

The rule goes like this: If it’s colder than 40°, I’m not running. It’s pretty simple. When I was a kid, I had a pretty rough case of bronchitis, and it seems to flare up when I exercise in the cold – hence my rule.

I did finally bring Bosceaux today with me, and he was great. Managed to find my fastest, most comfortable pace: 9:00/mile. I know I can go a bit faster – the first mile of me at my own pace the other week was 8:30 – but 9:00 is really my comfort zone, which is good to know. And today, I managed not to drop pace until about 2.25mi into the run.

Runkeeper has been helpful – every 5 minutes or so, it’ll pause my music ( currently Ricky B’s Shake it fo yo Hood and The Sword’s Age of Winters ) and a voice will tell me my average pace, total distance, total time, and then resume the music. It’s not a race, it’s just relevant, helpful data.

And this may just be to normal fluctuations, but I weighed in at 163.5 when I got home this morning – 4 pounds less than the last post. So, progress, it would seem.

Tomorrow brings a video-game/nerd themed hash and Friday is another run. Three days in a row, then a weekend of comic-con.

Maximum Capacity

January 5, 2011 1:22pm

Disclaimer: the number in this post isn’t what bothers me. I don’t want to hear bitching about numbers (mine especially or yours), unless you’re unhappy about yours and want to do something about it.

I hopped on the scale recently (something I’ve never owned before, and still rarely step on), the other day, and saw a number that was new to me: 167.5.

This is the most I’ve ever weighed, topping my post-Katrina expansion. And I don’t really care about that, because it’s all relative. I don’t care that I weigh that, I care that my BMI is high. I also care that I wasn’t able to button a pair of pants.

The problem is I have become sedentary. I’m traditionally used to a much more active lifestyle, and that just isn’t happening these days. Between the day job, the design/development LLC that Bea and I formed, the housework, and the less-than-happy knees, I just haven’t been exercising. And I /need/ to. I want to.

I just have to make the time. And I am. My friends Chum Dumpster and Everything Butt Sex have been meeting up at NOMA M-W-F at 6am-ish to run 5k. Chum and EBS are hashers who have been concentrating on the drinking part of hashing over the running part. While they run a slower pace than I do, they’re doing the hard part: getting up and doing it. This is what I need. So, Mondays I plan on bringing one dog, and Friday the other, leaving Wednesdays to myself. The pups need exercise too, especially chubby little Indy.

And as for the knees/etc, I’ve already taken the first step, so to speak: I went to the Louisiana Running Co to get fitted for a new pair of shoes: K-Swiss K-Ona C. They’re meshy on top and drain out of the bottom! THE BOTTOM! I really liked that place, too. Just a two-person startup, and I didn’t feel like I was being “sold to” – he just wanted to help me run how I wanted to (no races / half-marathons / full marathons). I definitely recommend them.

Now, obviously running won’t fix the problem alone. I have plans to mountain bike (at least a few laps at the spillway) every few weeks, and do Wii Fit on an almost daily basis.

There are of course dietary concerns, and all I’m going to say is that I’m already making a concerted effort to eat better, and especially cut out as much high fructose corn syrup / crap foods overall. I also understand that it’s just not practical to go whole-hog on that effort, so it’ll be within reason. The last thing I want to is stress out about what I’m eating. If you are (or if you aren’t) familiar with the next handful of months in NOLA, then you should read Pistolette’s excellent rationalization on eating and goals in NOLA.

And as usual, she has inspired Bea and I with our life this year. We have a list of goals, broken down into months, for the year. We’re gonna get a lot of shit done that we’ve been putting off. We’re tired of a project being 85% done.

 

Where’s the Oil? Oh, There it is.

September 7, 2010 9:48am

This past Friday, Bea and I packed up the 4Runner with both the dogs, a bunch of food and booze, and met up with the inlaws in Gulf Shores for a nice relaxing weekend.

And for the most part, it was just that. Here’s Sunday, in photo form:

When we got to the beach, Bosceaux, well, I don’t know what the hell he thought was going on but he barked at the waves while Indy stayed well away from them:

 
Eventually he got over it, and actually got in, a bit:

 
But then, we found oil. This is one of the bigger pieces I found, and these tarballs were all over the place:

 
We found other traces of petroleum byproducts quite easily too:

 
This only reminded me to keep Boz from drinking the water:

 
There were a decent amount of people out. All I know is that if those were my kids, they wouldn’t be in the water.

Platforms and barges decorated the horizon:

 

 
On the way back, Indy wasn’t walking on his right front paw and Bea decided to carry him. I decided to check his paw, and removed the burr:

 
Overall though, the weather was beautiful:

 
Not all the local wildlife was dead though – this crab had a lot of fight in him:

 
A couple of miles on the beach is a bit of a workout though. Always remember: a tired dog is a good dog:

Travel Day

July 11, 2010 9:38pm

I know this is another non-post, but I think I get a little slack as it was a wedding weekend, and I officiated.

Today was an almost complete veg day. We watched some T2 while getting ready to check out from the hotel this morning, and managed to snag our first Mississippi geocaches on our way back home. I even managed to update the map on my Geocaching profile. Nerd.

From there, it was all about the TV. Watched the new Eureka (yay!) and a handful of Stargate episodes – both SG-1 and Atlantis.

While being worthless on the couch though, I was able to snag this photo of Bosceaux:

 
I think that a funny photo of your dog with just the slightest bit of his tongue sticking out totally makes up for this non-post. Zombie dog to the rescue!

Save the Date!

November 16, 2009 4:24pm

The most difficult part of wedding planning has to be the guest list. Unfortunately, we can’t invite the whole world. And if you haven’t received the following in the mail yet, you probably won’t. Sorry.

 
We joked that we should say underneath the Sherri & Will some text like “But don’t tell Bea!“, as most people don’t know that Bea’s real name is Sherri. I thought it was funny.

I am working on something for post-reception festivities that everyone (well, minus kids) can go to. It should be fun, and I’ll keep you posted.

Here’s the current state of “the family”:

 
That’s kinda weird to think about.