Musings, Miles, Kinetic Revolution Training Program, and a Gratuitous Pic of my New Hoka Mafate 3's

I had a catastrophic failure on my 5 year old HP Pavilion notebook a few days ago. It is odd how we use the word 'catastrophic' to describe incidents that really are not. It's akin to the disturbing overuse of the word 'awesome' - which seems to have started with the hipster community and moved into the lexicon of the general population at an alarming rate (although I should point out here that I'm not truly 'alarmed' by this occurrence). In a similar vein, I've always found the British use of the word 'brilliant' (to describe things that are particularly not brilliant) to be hilarious. If you spend about five minutes watching the BBC (or its ilk), you'll see someone say something like, "I managed to get the last drops of jam out of the jar by using a long spoon rather than a knife." To which the response is always, "Brilliant." Is it really? I don't know, maybe it is. Maybe that is the outer limit of the person's mental and physical capacities. But I like to think that a species that is able to land a piece of equipment on a passing asteroid some billions of miles from Earth, would be able to find a more suitable descriptor for removing a gelatinous sugary sludge from the depths of a glass jar.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the computer. So, because I can't work, buy things I don't need, or seemingly wipe my ass without a computer, I made the immediate decision to purchase another. I got on my iPad within an hour of accepting the fact that my HP was not going to return to life, and ordered another device. Because I have an iPhone, an iPod (Shuffle), and the aforementioned iPad, for the first time in my life, I decided to splurge and buy a MacBook Air. As of this writing, I'm still getting used to the new machine - which seems to do everything my old machine did for four times the price (but it did come in better packaging). So I am now fully part of the Mac minions. I'll have no more comments on the subject until I do comment on it in the future... Let's stop now.

On to running. What a wonderful week. It was cold and windy. I braved the outdoors on three occasions (18F, 19F, and 26F), and ran on treadmills, an indoor track, and an elliptical trainer three times as well. The main issue I had on the outdoor jaunts was what to wear. Every winter it takes a week or two to figure out how to stay just barely warm enough, but not too warm. Sadly, I have failed in all three cold-weather instances so far. I have been over-dressed, and have returned to my house at the runs' conclusions with clothes that are about as sweat-soaked as if I had run wearing them in the middle of July (that's summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, for any readers from OZ or S. Am). With there being no choice but to continue to experiment, I'm sure I'll have more to report in the near future - including how I can cleverly trap moisture next to my body by wearing a wicking shirt, but covering it with a non-wicking windbreaker (my career as a sports clothing designer is obviously a bust).

So, with the weather being what it is, I opted to leave my brand new Hoka Mafate 3's untested until I can try them on surfaces I know that aren't slightly snow-packed.

These Herman Munster-ish shoes are so fun to look at that I've left them out in my living room. Every time I see them I smile. I've walked around the house in them a couple of times. They are ridiculously comfortable. I will have an update in the future.

One thing I have been doing while being stuck indoors is to start James Dunne's Kinetic Revolution 30 day challenge. http://www.kinetic-revolution.com/30daychallenge/ This program is easy and free. I would suggest it to everyone. Worst case, it will offer some new stretches and add a little muscle. Best case, it will improve your core, balance, and speed. Following the program takes 5-10 minutes each day for 30 days (duh). I'm on day 9. I find myself incorporating stretches and balance exercises into my pre and post run warm-ups/cool-downs. Having had hamstring issues, and having been to PT because of them, I can attest that some of what the program offers is exactly the same as PT. I have a runner friend with a bit of a sciatic issue who found one of the stretches to be quite difficult. It is one that I used to find difficult/painful as well. But I have a feeling that doing the exercise as suggested, with repeated pulses, is going to be a big help to him in the very near future. I heartily recommend that anyone reading this try out this remarkable running-improvement site.

So, next week I hope to have more info re: Hokas, an update on the Kinetic Revolution 30 day Challenge, and maybe a race report on the Sanders Saunter 25K and 10K - put on by the Lawrence Trail Hawks on the very challenging Clinton North Shore Trails.