johnguinness's Diaryland Diary
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Starting Week 2
Remember when I posted that pic of Chrissie Wellington's neck, showing the big vein, and talking about flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, something I desperately need to work on? Well, she wrote a blog post about her World Record performance at Ironman South Africa, and posted this photo of her calves.
I don't know about you, but I've followed sports for a big chunk of my life, and I've never seen anything like that. How low of body fat are we looking at, and how highly trained are the muscles and cardiovascular system?
I've mentioned before about all the non-organized sports I used to play, and the running and cycling and stuff. But right now, she's probably the most fit female athlete in the world. I'm a guy, but I'm on the opposite end of the fitness spectrum. So far I'm one week in on a very unimpressive bit of walking. I'm still dealing with new shoes and changed muscles and strained things, and wearing the night splint to bed for as long as I can take it.
I just had my Monday morning ceremony with my heart rate monitor, and earned the little trophy on the watch face for the next week. It sounds like a simple, silly thing. But I'm pretty sure it removes the decision about whether or not I'll attempt another walk in the new shoes in a few hours. I'm pretty sure I'll find a break between storms and go, even though I don't expect to enjoy a minute of it. The question is, how long will I keep it up this time?
The plan for the week is to do the same course as last week in the new shoes every other day, letting my muscles adapt.
Tuesday and Saturday would be my Wildside Walk days, with lots of hills, if I was fitter and had gas money. Thursday would be the 10 kilometer nature walk around Cahokia Mounds. So Tuesday and Saturday I'm going to add a bit of distance plus one steep block. I'll figure out Thursday on the fly after I see how things are going.
I've been scrounging for food. I finished my watering duties Sunday, so I don't need to spend money on gas, but I'm living cheaply, and below recent standards, for the next week.
Remember how I said that Kickass had lots of stuff I hate in movies, but they made it work, and maybe that would be the case with Super? That didn't happen. I forced myself to sit through the second half of it late one night. It was pretty vile. I saw it from the start Saturday, and people in JTV chat left in droves, declaring the movie awful. I've seen the whole thing now, and my life isn't any better for it.
I saw The Roommate. I think I caught that one in three or four sections. All it did was make me afraid of Leighton Meester.
Friday night the place was all tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms and stuff. One hit the airport. Here it's just been rain and rain for days, not quite long enough to start Googling ark construction, but dust is definitely not a problem.
I'm afraid the highlight of my week is going to be Tuesday when the police have the derelict car towed out of my spot. Saturday night, mine was parked at an angle near the entrance to the alley - real close to the edge of the sidewalk, because my car has a wide door, and the catch is broken, so I need space to open it all the way. I headed out to go to the supermarket before they closed for Easter, and someone had once again parked halfway in the alley and made it so I couldn't get in. A skinny person with a working door could have, if they didn't mind the door edge touching the other car, but I checked a couple of times before midnight then gave up.
Camelot didn't even have a new episode on Friday night, despite what their Facebook status said. I'm afraid I had to respond to the woman who said the people complaining should chill, as it probably wasn't on because of Easter. Anyway, Game Of Thrones was on tonight, and it's far and away the better show. I still don't have a clue about the seven countries and all that nonsense, but their new sword scene was a zillion times better than Camelot's Excalibur, and the wolves are cool, and the blond princess...I'll stop in case I'm spoiling it for someone. I need to take that first trip back to the library like I said, so maybe I'll head over and get the book this afternoon, if I happen to be awake.
Contador and two of the pals on his team went to Italy and Austria to check out some of the monster climbs from the Giro d'Italia. Sunday morning, the bug Italian sports publication posted a video with a couple of minutes of the training / reconnaissance rides. If you want to understand why I love watching a sport with so much outside the racing drama, start the video, do something else for a minute, then start watching when the music starts. It's only two minutes.
Have a great week.
1:57 a.m. - Monday, Apr. 25, 2011
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