Started this text on the bus yesterday.
Planning to run Green Lake today. It’s about three miles. Doing some unit conversion, this is also known as an eternity. Man do I hate running. But hey, it’s good for you. And I’m trying to get svelte for graduation.¨Ü On the nutrition side, I’m recording my meals on Fatsecret. I hate weighing in on the site because it doesn’t account for water weight. Every time I weigh in, it tells me that my weight has changed at an extreme weight and either I’m going to reach my goal in 3 days (instead of 8 weeks) or it reminds me that gaining weight is the wrong direction for my goal.
Anyway, I did end up running it.¨Ü Or jogging it.¨Ü But no walking, which is sort of a personal triumph. I ran with three friends and had a little speed burst about halfway through and got ahead of our pack.¨Ü As I was hitting the final curve, I started picturing the Secretariat race.¨Ü Once I got back I was ready to stretch out for a few minutes and have them find me with lying down on a hill chilling with my hands behind my head.¨Ü But I turned around and they were probably only 10 seconds behind me.
It was my first time running Green Lake, or actually even spending any time there at all.¨Ü Really nice park.¨Ü Especially on a really nice day.¨Ü Through my life when I’ve said I hate cardio someone’s usually said just do it outside it’s so much better.¨Ü And then I’d do it outside and still hate it.¨Ü But yesterday I finally felt like, hey, this is pretty nice.¨Ü At the very least, you’re forced to finish what you started.¨Ü The part that’s definitely better is running with friends and other people.
There’s a trail at the base gym on Whidbey Island which is essentially the same length.¨Ü Except there’s a forest section that I’d always end up running through alone.¨Ü There’s different paths and fences so I pretty much always started thinking of velociraptors.¨Ü And snakes which were actually there.¨Ü Anyway, I don’t like running that trail.
Then there was a trail outside of the IBM Silicon Valley Lab called the Parcourse (since it has the Parcourse stations which most people recognize but probably wouldn’t call them “Parcourse” by name).¨Ü And all I ever heard when I mentioned anything about it was “Oh, watch for rattlesnakes.”¨Ü And usually more: Rumors of wild hogs, possibly badgers, and definitely tarantulas.¨Ü Tarantulas and rattlesnakes are at the opposite end of the spectrum in respect to Jessica Alba and whale sharks on the “Things I want to see” list.
I plan to run Green Lake more often.¨Ü All my friends do it, that’s the good kind of peer pressure.¨Ü In the meantime, I recommend listening to Carly Comando’s Everyday and watching muted clips of yourself shooting a basketball.¨Ü You’ll get a smile out of it at least.