Prosthetically Hip

Running Progress

January 26, 2011

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

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.

 

I Promised to Stay. I Went Far Away

September 1, 2010

After the flurry of NaBloPoMo posts, I really needed a break. But soon after that came my return to the VooDoo, the return of the Saints (WHO DAT!), and a big rush job for myself and Bea, with a deadline of just before the 5th anniversary of Katrina.

So, overall, haven’t been feeling overly post-y. And tonight is no exception, but I actually have some content to write up tomorrow, and I will.

But before then, I have a correction on my last post. While the underlying riff may be similar-ish, I (and Bea) had the wrong song, which we discovered when Bea went back and checked every Opeth track. The track she was whistling was “Porcelain Heart“, but perhaps more specifically a more subdued version called “Mellotron Heart” – Not quite as heavy/metal as ‘Porcelain‘ or The Grand Conjuration, but excellent track(s) still. You can enjoy good quality versions of them here, if you so desire. More on the album via Amazon.

Unfortunately (for me), Mr. Åkerfeldt doesn’t get to do the switch from Cookie Monster to clean style vocals that he does so well, but I feel it’s a haunting song, and I think the video does it justice. And similar to The Grand Conjuration, the video is a full 3 minutes shorter than the song. Both are really worth giving a listen – they’re quite different from the last post, if you couldn’t quite stomach it.

Porcelain Heart:

 
Mellotron Heart:

Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

July 15, 2010

I’ve had a lingering tiredness lately, and I think I can pin it down to more or less two reasons:

1) I’ve been exceedingly busy. This too will pass.

2) I’m not exercising enough. I used to bike commute daily, and run every Thursday night. Hell, I used to bike everywhere. But now, I almost entirely work from home, and when I tend to go to the office, I drive. I also haven’t been to the hash, so that scraps my Thursday run. And unless there’s beer and a social and puzzle aspect to running, I don’t like it.

3) High fructose corn syrup. What can I say? A brother likes his Coke. I also happen to love the taste of that Full Throttle energy drink. They may help a bit, but the “crash” is really not worth it. I just need to scrap the syrup and revert to water again. And it being summer, drinking more than, if not at least, the proper amount of water is nothing but a good thing.

This of course reminds me of two germane videos, each worth watching (in my opinion):

 
So, if you see me with a Coke or other non-alcoholic, non-boozy drink in my hands, tell me to get a water. Seriously.

Spooks, Spirits, and Saints

November 6, 2009

I’m getting old. Well, not old in the numbers sense as I just passed the 29½ mark, but more in the “I’d rather stay in” sense. And I must admit, it’s not a bad thing.

For me, Halloween started on Thursday, with a VooDoo hash where I ended up running circle in a cemetery and talking with a newly-returned-home-Jason. I wish I could have run trail, but it wasn’t too likely due to the recent perpetration of hate upon my “bad” knee:

 
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just can’t have nice things. This happened after the Saints victory over the Dolphins the other week – I guess that since they’re doing so well, I have to compensate by hurting myself.

I fear to think of what might happen towards the end of the season and beyond.

Anyways, Halloween started out pretty awesome: a nice two hour, 2 bottle of wine lunch at the Bistro with Bea and my folks, which turned into an extra beer or two with them at Molly’s.

We got some downtime (not saying that the morning at that point was particularly tedious), and Bea whipped up her costume, while I shaved mine:

 

 
That first photo isn’t the best of me – even considering just how overwhelmingly handsome and über photogenic I naturally am – the photographer is all of 5 foot negative 3. Always take pics from above (when you can). For my costume, I went with the path of least resistance – Earl of My Name is Earl. Bea’s costume was whipped together in about an hour – vines from the backyard, a top I bought at a thrift store for me for a drag queen hash the other week, and my sister’s old debutant dress. We rock.

We headed back over to Molly’s to meet up with hashers and “regular friends” alike for the parade, and opted to just hang out there for the duration of the parade – just take it easy. Next thing we know, the parade is back, and we’re wandering around with friends. We walked down Frenchmen St. and next thing we knew, it was 11:30 and we were at home, calling it a night.

I know, exciting.

The real drag here is that I picked up some bug, and by Sunday afternoon when I had to hare the Black Dress Run, I wasn’t feeling so hot, and five days later, I still don’t. Witness last night’s Guy Fawkes Hash:

 
So, to those of you who came in town this weekend, I’m sorry and I suck.

Slurvivor Week

August 10, 2009

*phew* Red Dress week is over! It’s been a long week, and as much fun as it’s been, I’m glad it’s over.

For me, it started on Thursday. The VooDoo hosted a Red Dress Run, hared/led by myself and Fill Me Up (fellow VooDooer) through the Marigny. It was really more of a crawl, but still fun – about 50 people showed up – much more than our usual of high 20′s / low 30′s.

From the start at Royal and Frenchmen, we led them on a less-than-straight-line to the Friendly Bar on Chartres and Marigny, then to Markey’s in the Bywater, Marie’s on St. Roch and Burgundy, and finally back to the beer coolers in the Elysian Fields neutral ground by Royal St.

Friday was the official Red Dress Pre-Lube run, an event for hashers only. We started at Lucy’s, made our way over to the ferry (that was surreal) to the Crown and Anchor, had a food stop on Decatur, and made our way back. Despite the full belly, yours truly even managed to claim the title of “FRB” – also known as Front Running Bastard.

There are a bunch of pics on hashspace, which is unfortunately a private community so I’m unable to upload any pics. But, like most people, I downloaded my favorites (of me, duh), and put them up on flickr:

My best man ( Pistolette’s hubby, “Q”) and myself:

Q, my co-hare from the previous day, me, Bea:

Synchronized Jello shots w/ Neil at the ferry landing:

Neil and I, leaving the ferry, back on the Eastbank:

Needless to say, it was fun. And sweaty, which is a perfect prep for the mania that is the Red Dress Run.

This was my 4th RDR. Over these short years, I have almost seen it double. Each year. This year the estimate was that there were over 5,500 attendees. I’m guess that 1/11th of the participants were actually hashers.

While walking there (I had a huge-ass VooDoo banner, couldn’t ride), we passed a Mom and her presumable ‘tween daughter and likely friend, who asked for a picture. We obliged. We should have gotten a copy for ourselves – alas, no such luck.

When Bea and I had finally arrived, we were soaked – the skies opened up and rained in a way that can only really happen here. I wasn’t too concerned though – I knew we’d dry, it would help cool off the area, and my dress had been washed enough that I knew it wouldn’t run.

Words cannot describe the crowd that had amassed – the only thing I could compare it to are those photos of blood-red waters when whales/sharks are being slaughtered. I was so glad to be a hasher – we got balcony access – no lines for bathrooms or beer.

The crowds from there spread in all directions, a solid mass of red. The day progressed as one might expect – a huge, roaming mass of confusion. People assumed that I knew where to go – I did not, and eventually stopped trying to explain that finding the trail is all part of the game.

I carried that monstrous banner all day, and was glad to do it; everywhere I went I not only had shade, but also served as a beacon to other friends who knew what to look for.

The day proceeded as one might expect, as we consumed copious amounts of beer and liquor-infused watermelon-flavored jello. The later it got, the thinner the crowd became – we lost people all along the way – many stayed put on various bars on Bourbon St., I reckon.

I do remember that on the “final stretch”, a number of us decided to run. This is supposed to be a hash, right? Someone on South Peters yelled to us as we passed “Hey! This isn’t a race!”, to which I could only reply “And you’re not a hasher!” The sonner you get there, the more beer there is – it’s as simple as that.

After inhaling food on the balcony of the Ernst Cafe (and carrying Neil 1/2 a block and up a flight of stairs over my shoulders), 8 of us split for greener pastures. And by greener pastures, I mean bluer pools.

Bea and I picked up an extra 12 pack of Abita Amber, and in the pool, the imbibing may have even accelerated. The beer evaporated and was replaced by tequila, vodka, wine, and chartreuse. Q and I even managed to play a game of shot-glass chess (red vs. white wine) before the night was called.

After dropping off some others, I ‘d say we got home at about 1am. And believe it or not, I was in good shape the next day – a mere hint of a headache.

For more photos and further reading, I’ll point you to Pistolette’s blog post and flickr photos.

Man, I almost can’t wait till next year. Wait, no. Yes, I indeed can wait – I need a break.

Hasher’s Knee

May 13, 2009

Well, I think the trail I laid was pretty good, and got a lot of good feedback from it. If you want to read my write-up, you can at VooDooHash.com. The first hash I hared was a while ago with a friend of mine, and was a sheer and utter disaster for various reasons and as punishment, we each had our own bag of ice to sit on, bare-assed.

I think I’ve learned my lesson.

I have learned recently that I “suffer” from Runner’s Knee. Since I’ve started hashing, I’ve noticed that sometimes part-way through the run, often the day after, my right knee and hip have given me grief. It usually amounts to stiffness/soreness and a sharp pinching-like sensation in my knee and hip. It’s hard to describe, but it only happens on the right side.

I decided to ask Herr Google™ about these symptoms, and based on its description and recommended therapy/stretching, I have come to believe that it is indeed Runner’s Knee.

Before last week’s hash, I did the recommended stretch once or twice during the day, and also right before I took off to lay trail. I’m glad to say that neither during the run, or the day after, did I have any problems in either my hip or my knee.

And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaaaaay.

Well, I plan on attending this Thursday’s hash in Metry Brah, and the day after is the 2009 Tchoupitoulas Bar-A-Thon. 6 bars, 6 beers, 6 miles.

I guess I better start stretching.

Ruuunn for your liiiiiiife!

May 7, 2009

Ok chickens, I’m haring tonight’s VooDoo Hash. It’s in the Marigny – at Elysian Fields and Decatur.

What? Hashers? What’s the deal? I hear you say. Familiar with the Red Dress Run? That’s us on a weekly basis (sans red dresses). We’re a drinking club with a running problem, and if you ‘re interested in working up a thirst by hunting down a guy in a kilt running around leaving a trail of flower, and quenching said thirst with beer, then this is for you.

What to bring: (required)

• Sense of humor
• $1
• 6-pack of your beer of choice

What to bring: (recommended)

• whistle
• flashlight

We meet at 6:30, and I take off at 7:00. Come catch me!