I Just Knew Too Much

I remember when
I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space

          - Gnarls Barkley

An oldie but a goodie. I download lots of those, I have such a good time, I tell ya. 

This is my week. My gym has this app that's pretty cool and really has a good recording function for your work outs. If you are on a cardio machine you can even just snap a pic of the final readout and it'll add it to your log for you. Pretty cool, and I like being able to get weekly and monthly stats. My Fitness Pal can do this too, but I'm not nearly as consistent about recording my food as I am my workouts so I'm not as good about going into MFP, even though I do have it on my phone and I even subscribe to the upgraded version. 

Anyway, this is so boring and isn't everyone so glad I started blogging again?!

Gotta Keep On Walkin'

And I want you to know 

When your body fails you 

Know that I won't 

              -Loamlands

I'm really mad I didn't know about this band until now, since it looks like they must have broken up or something. They aren't touring. 

Anyway, I worked from home today and watched an entire season of "My 600 Pound Life", which for anyone who knows me, knows it is unusual for me to watch that much tv. This particular show makes me feel guilty, such horrid voueurism. But it's also like looking into a very strange and distorted mirror, and I look and look, trying to find what's a real reflection and what is just the funhouse. 

I did do some work, but did not go to the gym. I'll go tomorrow so I'll have four for the week. And I'll go with chris, which is good I want him to show me how to use this set of abdominal machines. 

Don't blow, mountain
Please don't show us, mountain
That the end
Is as close as it's ever been

                                  - Loamlands

I'm not committing to blogging more than once a week, just to be clear. And I'm not going to be all pressured to come up with a song every time, either, the pressure is too much! Although now I have Apple Music, and am thus unleashed on the world, and Sandy and I are total music sharing fools, so maybe it will be easier, I don't know.

Anyway, I am SO on board with this year's goal! Everything counts!! I have made a pretty firm commitment to myself to not do distance goals any more, they just suck all the joy out of working out. I started out with the 1000K running goal with Sandy and Chris and by the end of the year I was the only one realistically still in it and I was completely miserable. I ended the year well over the 1000K but only after agonizing about whether or not to "count" the damn elliptical miles I was forced to do throughout November because my foot wouldn't stop fussing at me, likely due to all the downhill running I had been doing.

So today I ran four miles (making three.... [what, what are we calling these? sessions? workouts?] for the week) and I tried very hard to go to yoga. I worked from home since it was single digits all day here with snow, but I drove to the gym, and then drove to yoga, but when I got there they were closed, probably assuming nobody would be venturing out in this weather just to pay someone to lay around and breathe (it was gentle yoga [please... like I am going to do actual hard yoga after already having run four miles, who the hell do you think I am?]). They underestimated me.

To my myriad fans, sorry I was away so long. Google stopped supporting the Blogger app, which is how I had been posting, using my phone. Then, with one iOS update or another, it stopped working. So I needed to do the thing where you can email posts to publish, but then the election happened, which obviously threw me in to a pit of dark despair from which I will likely never emerge fully, so I mean, what the hell are you gonna do, you know? If nothing matters, blogging certainly doesn't matter. (Although none of it made me skip a beat as far as working out, that continued uninterrupted and at my usual levels, and was really one of the only things that made me feel better, which I knew it would.)

Bones

There's bones in my closet but you hang stuff anyway
- John Bellion, Guillotine

The DJ on my alternative station last week listed this as his favorite and I'd never heard of the guy. Thanks to the wonder that is Apple Music, I was able to download it and I listened on my 3.5 mile neighborhood run/walk today which was very much not pretty. I enjoyed the music though and this line made me laugh. I guess we all want someone who hangs stuff with the bones, right? My closet probably doesn't have room for anything else though.

Booty hurty

I can't tell you how nice it was to go to yoga tonight and just do yoga. I didn't arrive sweaty and breathless and already tired from a run. I didn't have to worry about getting a run in after. I was noticeably less strong - it's been about three months since I last went - and I struggled with the push-ups. It wasn't a very difficult class but my muscles were fatigued after and I will likely have some soreness tomorrow. But I feel so relaxed. I may even want to run tomorrow. And I'm sure that some days I will want to run to yoga. But the key is I'm not bound to any plan. So many options!

Walking on

Walking on with no one left
Speaking softly underneath my breath
Sayin hey world you ain't seen nothing yet
Great, now it's raining.
- John Mayer - Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey 

Today I did a really cool hike in the Superstition Mountains for a couple hours with fat dog at my side. She's limping around tonight so I feel bad, I probably pushed her too far but she had a great time. Her running days are over but she still makes an energetic hiking companion, and everybody smiles at me when I'm with her, which makes it nice. I also spent an inordinate amount of time thinking up phallis jokes about this picture. But maybe it's just me. Anyhoo, I've been contemplating my goals for 2017. The goal of 1000k makes running a real grind, a chore. And it devalues any sort of other exercise. I want to have my exercise be challenging but also inspirational and enjoyable (stay with me here). For me, exercise can almost be spiritual at times, especially when I'm in nature. So I contemplated the reasons I exercise:  1.  To maintain good health, physical and mental. 2.  To maintain my weight and look good (call

me vain if you will). 3.  To be fit enough to do the things I enjoy like snowboarding and other sports.  These purposes are all served by a variety of activities. So my goal this year is to exercise purposefully 4-5 times per week. My default will likely still be running as it always has been, but hiking counts. Swimming counts. Snowboarding counts. And I need to incorporate yoga once per week as well, which counts. I know my body needs the strength and flexibility it provides. It is so decreed, 2017. 

The wrap up

So I don't have any profound or insightful lyrics to close the year with. Truth is, I'm exhausted. And damn happy to put this year behind me. I've struggled with asthma and weight gain and my running all year while traveling more than I ever have and helping J navigate senior year and contemplate his future, along with nursing a broken heart. Add to that the dark comedy of American politics and social tensions, and I'm ready to move on. There will always be better days. That's from THATH, so I guess I do have lyrics that made an impact this year. I fell short of our 1000k goal. I ended up with 530 miles (618 was the goal). Started with a bang and went out with a whimper - only 10 days and 32 miles in December. I haven't made time for yoga in a few months and I can feel it in my hips. But there will always be better days and the mountain will always be here. Don't go, mountain.

Coming undone

Tonight I ate a delicious greasy wine burger alone at a small town country bar and chatted with the locals. I haven't run since Christmas Eve when my attempt at the mountain was thwarted by rain. I did go snowboarding yesterday, which counts as exercise. But I haven't run in the cold. I just really don't want to. So I figure I'll call it a year and start over January 1.

Late

But I must admit it, that I would marry you in an instant
Damn your wife, I'd be your mistress just to have you around
But I was late for this, late for that, late for the love of my life
And when I die alone, when I die alone, when I die I'll be on time
- Cleopatra, Lumineers

Another shout out to my Blista Sista for this little diddy. I did 5 miles today, not because I'm ambitious but because when I got to the top of the trailhead I realized I had to poop so I turned around. False start as it were. I had a beautiful person reach out to me this week and yeah, damn his wife I'd be his mistress.

How it falls apart

Well there's no need to be nervous
I'm not dangerous anymore
Yeah I've cleaned up and found Jesus
And he's waiting at the door
- Saint Motel

Thanks to my Blista Sista for this gem. December has rapidly fallen apart after a 55 mile November. I've been gone almost every week for work. Once I even forgot my suitcase. Traveling that much makes it super hard to be energized and organized enough to run. And I looked at my calendar today and haven't been logging any runs so I'm not even sure how much I've gone. Ugh. Back at it.