5k!

Just ran my first 5k. 29:14, not a bad time (9.25min/mile or just under 6.5mph). My calves hurt quite a bit, which I expected. I was really hoping to go slower but that kind of pace is just demoralizing. Anyway Special H and I are running in another one in just a few weeks; hopefully there will be less pain by that point. I'll just keep up light workouts, stretching, maybe a little swimming. Yay me!

Historically I've run much further and faster, but (a) it's been a long time since doing any serious running (high school was in 1989, friends) and (b) I gave it up for a few years in '05 when I started getting pain in my calves that wasn't going away.

Hopeful that it's just a stumbling block this time around.

I could go for a nap right now. Whew. The guy at the coffee shop told me I should run more often- I guess he prefers better red-faced and exhausted over my usual can't-stop-can't-shut-up.

hot

it's too hot to think. too hot to move. I just dunked my head in the shower, and it granted thirty seconds of clarity. not long enough to make decisions or write down instructions for myself. now I know how that guy in memento felt.

I need your help

Hi all,

My birthday is a month away. I expect none have you have been thinking about it. Neither have I. Putting away some laundry today I saw that although winter clothes have mostly gone away, summer clothes were not taken out yet.

Which brings me to the focus of this post: I don't need or want any more clothing for a few years. I really do have enough. I hope it's far enough in advance for you to not have bought anything yet. With this in mind please don't buy or give me any clothing such as:

Handkerchiefs
Sunglasses,
safety glasses
Hats,
helmets
Scarves
Socks
gloves
Ties
T-Shirts
Shorts
Underwear
Shirts
Sweaters,
coats,
windbreakers,
jackets
Boots
Shoes
Sandals
Accessories
Watches
Bangles
Baubles
Jewelry
of any material for hot weather, cold weather, all weather; for any style, form fitting, comfort, saggy, baggy; for any purpose, casual, business, performance, sport-specific or general athletic.

I surely left some things out but I'm also sure you get the drift. I would really appreciate it.

If you have your heart on sending me great-grand uncle Alexand-tholomew-ford's medicine ball, that he used to win the medicine-ball-eating-contest where he met and married Chiquita-Consuela-Harmonica, where they had the stillborn child who I was so well named after, since it is the three-hundredth-anniversary of that meeting and wedding, I'll find a place for it. But please help me simplify this year,

Thanks!

nook, cranny

I wanted to juggle in a nearby park while killing some time waiting to meet a friend today. But the park was full of strollers and kids - I'm not a juggling clown. Not now, anyway. So I found this little spot, tucked away across the street.

It's a tiny little garden attached to a school. The bush is more overgrown now, but my control has improved enough so it wasn't really a problem. Perfect place in the shade to throw up for twenty minutes- a nice afterwork prebeer treat.

By the way, Bierkraft is one of my new favorite places to go- and apparently the sandwich shop next door is pretty great too! Too bad I was carrying such a heavy pack because we were then off to Ample Hills Creamery for dessert, and a good mile home from there. This is not a good rest day for legs, but I am emphatically NOT complaining.

horn-tooting, chest-beating, up-throwing

This is a post about juggling. Just getting that out there. This is the kind of thing I should just have on the wall and not brag about; but that's what blogs are, right? The everyday stuff you really don't want to hear me talk about...?

I've been juggling for awhile. A long time. I think someone showed me basic 3-ball when I was 15 or 16.

Anyway I've been working on a basic 5 ball pattern since last spring. Excluding two or three three-week breaks, I've been working reasonably consistently at it since. There are a lot of videos around to show what it should look like, and how to do it, if one were to look.

It's tough. It gets boring. Frustrating. The good news is, I'm finally getting somewhere. For the last six months or so, I made just 20+ catches about once a month. And here's a summary of highs of the last four days:

Thurdsay: 22 catches
Friday: 23 catches
Saturday: 25 catches **
Sunday: 27 catches **

(** beats previous record)


Last week I took a short video of myself to look at the pattern- not that the exercise was very illuminative, but something about changing my focus seemed to help. I talked to a lot of people about different things to try, in case there was a parallel training regiment I hadn't tried or something. Nothing new there either. Just one of those plateau-feeling-places that it appears I'm getting toward the edge of. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's my dear love being away for days at a time. Anyway I feel gratified, and since there's nobody to *tell* I'm just putting it here.