I Pee My Pants for Quiche

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Monday I drove to work and then ran home. Tuesday I rode my bike to work and drove home. I was feeling pretty good yesterday and planned to run home again, leaving my bike and car both at work. But then a little idea in the back of my head started to slowly build up steam, making increasingly fervent attacks on my conscious thinking. “Quiche,” the voice said, “Hey you, Quiche!”

You see, we have some friends who keep chickens. Spring is currently exploding all around us, with everything waking up. The chickens are feeling frisky and have really ramped up production. By Wednesday morning we had something like 36 eggs. So the quiche idea really made sense but it didn’t jive with my desire to run home as I’d have to stop at the store on the way home for a few ingredients.

Then I had a mental flash – I could drive to the lake, run, drive to the store, and then drive home to eggy veggie Bisquick goodness. The only problem was that I had my light grey shorts that turn darker grey when went. When I run and sweat and then sit in my car, it looks like I pee’d my pants. “Whatever,” I thought, “I’m bigger than that.” So ultimate sacrifice: I ran and then went to Fred Meyers, trying to make steely eye contact with every other shopper, daring them to look down and accuse me of incontinence.

I managed to make it back out to my car without any kids yelling, “Pee pants! Pee pants! Look at the dirty bum, Mommy!”

At last check we have 4 eggs left. Brit made yummy egg salad and I got a little carried away and now we have quiche to last us, and give to all our friends.

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

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Reading other people’s running blogs, for me, is like a health benefit. Just like I take vitamins for my health, I read blogs to get me up and moving and motivated. Maybe like vitamins, there isn’t really any benefit to the reading, but it sure seems that way. I’ll keep doing it like I do other things for my health – namely drinking beer and coffee.

Susan and Jeff both made posts recently that stuck with me. Jeff made a clever analogy you should go read if you haven’t already. Susan who is currently suffering from PMDS (post marathon depression syndrome) had a good post about why she runs and whether or not marathoning is worth it. One thing we agree on is the obvious health and mental health benefits of getting out there and picking ‘em up an putting ‘em down.

Running News:
Ran home last night. Is running to work a possibility? Maybe, I’ll have to scout out the summer time access to the showers.

Swimming News:
The school’s pool shut down for the summer. If I want to work on my lap swimming goal of being able to do 12 continuosly crawled laps, I have to go to the Y and pay seven bucks a day. Sux.

Biking:
The ride into work was really pleasant this morning. I have to use my car tonight. I think I’ll drive home, drive back to work Wednesday, ride home, ride in Thursday, drive home – do that switching off between riding and driving for a while and then possibly ramp up to riding every day, both ways.

biked to work

Took me 25.0 minutes, hitting all the lights, not a bad way to travel.

Bad Motor Scooter

Bad Motor Scooter
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

When Brit and I first started dating, one of the things we did a lot of was riding. I think the first epic adventure we went on was the Oregon City Bike Tour, which is about 200 miles in one weekend. Recently I’ve had a hankering to get the blue bomber out and get back in the saddle. Last weekend I took it for a short shake down ride and it seems all systems are in the green.

Today I took it out of the valley for a 30 minute cruise. I purposefully took it on some gravel roads and off a curb to test the innertubes and general, "will this bike get me to work or not-ness." According to the forerunner, I was averaging somewhere between 4-5 minutes per mile, which means that if I leave 35 minutes before work I should have ample time to get changed before the start of the day. Tomorrow I drive to work, and run home. Tuesday I have to drive to my moonlighting gig after work, but Wednesday, you-are-mine.

Tri'ing to Run to Work

After a two month trial separation period, I’ve decided to go back, embrace schizophrenia, and post to two different blogs. Henceforth I will once again blog exercise related topics on Scott’s Running and everything else on the Clark Creek blog.

Today was my first day back in the pool. I hope this will become my first regular swimming in over ten years. I swam laps on my lunch break today, keeping going without any significant resting for 45 minutes. After the first 4-5 laps I was totally beat and had to spend one pool length doing a lazy back paddle. After that, I crawled one length and then did the sidestroke or elementary back stroke back. My goal is to try to steadily increase the number of crawl laps I can do without losing my breath.

Boy, do I have a long way to go – both fitness wise, and in learning technique. I’m lucky to have an enthusiastic coach as I am learning that unlike with running, improving my swim technique will rely heavily on external observation and suggestion.

I was pretty beat after lunch. My quads, tri’s and back were aching, but I used almost none of the muscles I do when I run, so I ran home from work. On the way I listened to an interesting podcast of an interview with Olympic runner Frank Shorter. Just as I was getting to the last mile and thinking that while I wasn’t really tired, and far from pain, I was getting a little bored, my darling wife showed up to pick me up. She decided that 45 minutes was long enough to leave me out there after first swimming day and came to get me – now that’s love.

Posted Here For the Bobsy Twins

I originally posted the following on my other blog and am posting it here again because it is exercise related and I'm reawakening this blog:

In the exercise/career development area, easily the best news is the possibility of becoming the junior frogman. Our college has a series of swimming and lifeguard training classes that run at noon. I’ve been talking to the instructor and trying to get in there to lap swim on my lunch breaks. He is someone that I work with in a few other capacities at the college and have come to know over the past few years. Anyway, yesterday he approached me and told me that he will be retiring in another few years and hasn’t identified anyone to take over his classes and that I might consider it. How much would that rock? Teach swimming and CIS courses online and do my administrator gig as a supp contract or additional duty? I could get a big chunk of the summers off and maybe even be my own kids’ swim teacher/coach. Obviously I’d better not try to get a job in the English dept. with all my incomplete sentences. Over the next few years, I’d have to get certified as a lifeguard and swim instructor and then state certified to teach lifeguards and instructors. I was a fairly strong swimmer in high school and the military but that was ten years ago. He said to meet him Tuesday at the pool and he’d “get me started.” I think that may end up being a euphemism for kicking my butt, we’ll see.

Joe's Ugly Green Shoes Ride Again

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Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Brushed the sawdust off my old street bike and took a spin. The tubes held pressure up to the end of the road and back. Next goal is riding down to the office and back to see how long that takes.