Today's Take it and Run Thursday topic is food.  This is where I come out.  

I'll do all kinds of things to improve my performance.  I run in all kinds of weather.  I run fartleks and negative splits.  I make careful plans and I faithfully log my miles.

However, I'm barely on speaking acquaintance with vegetables.  I also go through at least a pound of cheese a week.  I'm not even repentant about this. 

My favorite dish?  Cheesy rice.

Here's my recipe:

Cook your rice so that it's just a little bit soupy.
Then add four ounces of cheddar cheese cut up thin and stir it in until it melts (this is for one serving of rice, mind you).

Now you have a creamy, happy, cheddar cheese rice dish that you can snarf.  Mmm.  Cheesy rice.


There are few things quite as much fun as going out and running seven miles or so, getting all cleaned up, and eating your cheesy rice knowing that you've already burned every one of those 700 calories.  Life is good.

Today's activity level was a little higher than I might generally prefer.

I lifted weights for an hour this morning, then I had my swim class this afternoon.  That's normally fine, but he ended class by having us do 50 front dips on the side of the pool, 50 crunches, then 50 back dips, then 50 more crunches.  

I can do crunches all day long, but my arms are wrecked.

I did manage to shave 20 seconds off of my 450 yard swim.  It's still nothing to write home about, of course.  We have to swim 450 yards in ten minutes to get 70%.  Today's time: 11:24. 

I'm also not winning any awards with my weight lifting.  I don't think I impressed anyone in the gym with my three sets of ten reps at 70 pounds on the bench press today.

I've never cross trained. I'm a runner. I like to run. If I have time to exercise, why the heck would I waste it on something that's not running?

Unfortunately, I've been unable to run for the past month because of my knee. However, I needed to take out some financial aid this summer. To qualify, you have to sign up for a class, and the little one credit PE classes are perfect for this.

Normally, I would have signed up for Run Conditioning. No running means no run conditioning class for me, so I signed up for Weight Training instead.

I'm having a ball.

Now, I'm laying off of just about anything that uses my knee, which means nothing for the lower body, at least for the moment. Still, I'm already figuring out how to work lifting into my schedule once the class is over. I don't know what it will do, ultimately, for my running. I know it will be fun, though. This has been an unexpected benefit of being injured.

People usually talk about cross training the same way they talk about eating your vegetables. It's the kind of thing you should do. It's good for you, and good for your running. It strengthens your bones. Yadda yadda.

Why didn't anybody ever tell me how fun much fun it is?

The Supreme Court in California handed down a decision today legalizing same sex marriage. My wife and I are among the people who got married in San Francisco's City Hall. Four month later, our marriage was annulled. It looks like that decision still stands, but California is now one of two states in the nation where same sex couples can get married. Massachusetts is the other state, but you have to live in Massachusetts in order to marry there.

Saying "for better or for worse" in City Hall and then signing our marriage licenses was an amazing experience. It meant more to me than I would ever have expected. We argue for the rights, and they're important, but feelings are important too. However briefly the state recognized my marriage, it made a difference to me.

Not being allowed to marry is a pretty strong indication that the society I live in doesn't believe my marriage is real. I came out when I was sixteen, and I simply never dreamed that I would be able to get married.

I don't know if Becky and I will be heading back to California to get hitched for the third time (we had a ceremony for the family after our somewhat impromptu San Francisco Wedding). We're really broke right now, and I don't see any way that we could afford it.

I'm still excited!

• Running in the new development by my house
  •  I'm not terribly excited that it's there, since it's stupidly large and they cut down an awful lot of trees to create it.  Still, it's going to be a nice place to run, where cars aren't whooshing past me at more than 55 mph, as they do on the country roads where I usually run
• Running in the early morning
  • I really hate to get up early in order to run, but I really love morning sights, sounds, and smells.
• Running more this year than I ever have
  • I'm on track to do this, but I need to get this knee injury sorted.
• Shaving my 5K time
  • I've already beat my stubble time.  I just need to get it together so that I can beat it in November or December.
• Doing another half marathon
  • I really like that distance.
• Doing the Uwharrie Mountain Run
  • I want to do the 8 mile, not the 40 mile run.  If injury keeps me from doing this run ONE MORE TIME, I'm going to be pretty mad.  This is the run I was training for when I had a brain aneurysm.  I signed up two years ago, and then had to withdraw because of an injury.  Last year, I had only been running post-injury for a month or two and was nowhere ready for a race this intense. 
    

My doctor handed down my diagnosis.  It's the one I had already diagnosed myself with.  My mom always did that - she would walk into the doctor with a diagnosis already and then feel superior because she had gotten it right.  I would have been more pleased if the doctor had been wrong.  I was secretly hoping she would send me home and tell me that there was nothing wrong with me.

I almost cancelled the doctor's appointment because it feels a lot better today.  However, since I've been having this problem off and on since the beginning of March, I decided that wasn't the most brilliant idea I have had.  Plus, my wife would have killed me.

I have physical therapy on Thursday.  I'm hoping they'll be able to tell me when I can start running again.  This is probably not the right attitude with which to go into physical therapy.  I'm not sure what's the right attitude, but that's probably not it.  It's two weeks since my last run and that's making me grumpy.

Am I wrong, or does that diagnosis just translate into "your knee hurts"?

2. fig. A condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected; a contradictory outcome of events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness of things. (In F. ironie du sort.)

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So, right after this post about priorities, I find that I'm prioritizing my schoolwork over running. This is okay with me, since it's really temporary. I have a week left of the madness that is the end of my semester.

It is, however a mockery of the promise of my fitness.

(Definition thanks to the OED)

Jimmie Markham posted an interesting article about the women who ran negative splits in the Women's Olympic Marathon trials on Sunday.  Markham noted that only four of those who raced had negative splits, running faster at the end of the race than at the beginning.  This included two of the three women who made the team, Deena Kastor and Blake Russell.  

First, I have to say that I am in complete awe of anyone who can run a marathon with negative splits.  I have never managed this in a 5K or even in any of my training runs.  I've only ever managed it on a treadmill, and somehow I can't believe that really counts.

That said, I think that Markham's argument may well be true.  Runners who run negative or even splits in a marathon clearly have a good idea of exactly what their body is capable of doing on a given day.  My own problem with negative splits surely has a lot to do with the fact that I'm spectacularly bad at judging my own pace.   This makes it pretty much impossible to manage my pace in any kind of a strategic fashion.

I'll never be an elite runner, but I am getting better over time.  Maybe I'll manage negative splits on a run sometime.  Outside.

It's good to have a goal.

I watched the women's Olympic trials online this morning.  Damn, that was impressive.  At mile 14, Deena Kastor was just under two minutes behind Magdalena Lewy-Boulet.  I really figured that she was running for second place at that point.  That shows what I know.  She ended up beating Lewy-Boulet by 44 seconds.  

Really, the most impressive part of the whole thing was watching Deena's form at the end.  She looked like she had just started the race, when she was at mile 26.

She also looked giddy at the end.  It was neat.  She checked to make sure there wasn't anyone right behind her, then she grabbed some spectator's flag and finished the race waving the flag.  That was one happy woman.  I think that kind of cheerfulness is part of what makes it so fun to watch her.  It's really inspiring to watch someone who really enjoys what she does for a living.

I am running up a hill, my labored breathing a sign that I'm struggling.  I remember this hill.  Less than two hours ago, I was running down it.  I shared a brief chat with the heavy-footed woman running next to me.  

"I bet this is easier on the way down," I say.

"Yeah.  This one will really get you on the way back."

She is a pleasant woman.  My guess is that she's a decade or so my senior.  She says that she has run this half-marathon several times.  

"I learn something every time," she comments.

Eventually, I pull away from her.  I suspect that I will see her again.  I know that my pace is too fast.  I know that I will pay for it later.  I decide to ignore strategy.  I decide, instead, to enjoy the feel of running and feeling strong.  I don't particularly care that I am knowingly making a rookie mistake.

At the last water station, the woman passes me.  I recognize her thundering stride a moment before she goes by.  She says something encouraging.  We have about three miles to go.  I mumble something to myself about "run, Forrest, run," and I keep her in my sights.

I want to drop into a walk.  I would drop into a walk, but the nice heavy-footed lady is just in front of me and somehow that motivates me to keep running.

My world has narrowed to her shoulders and my breath.  She is ten yards in front of me, then five.  My heavy breathing is punctuated by expletives.  I never get any closer, but I keep running anyway until I reach the finish.  You learn something in every race.

Expiration.  Inspiration.

My motivation, post-race, is somewhat predictably in the toilet.  In case you were wondering, this is not an optimal location for one's motivation.  I skipped my run Friday, promising myself that I would do a longer run Saturday.  Then I skipped Saturday's run, too.

The weather has been rainy and chilly, and I absolutely hate running in that kind of weather. This continued today, and I came this --><-- close to skipping today's run, too.

Instead, I had a brilliant idea.  My wife is out of town, so I have the car.  Finally, it hit me.  I could drive somewhere new and run there!  I could run a whole new route somewhere I've never run before.

I've been meaning to hit some of the unpaved portions of the American Tobacco Trail.  I grabbed some directions and hopped in the car for my run.

Although it was drippy and damp outside, it wasn't actually raining.  I accessed the trail at White Oak Church Rd.  I first went towards Chatham.  The trail there is unfinished, which gives it a slightly more rustic feel.  However, there's also no bridges built, and I had to turn around at the stream at mile marker 8.25 (the lot is at 5.5).  If it hadn't just rained, I might have made it across, but I'm just not that intrepid.  Instead, I turned around and ran past my car to mile marker 4.0.  

Tall pine trees give the trail an almost cathedral-like apperance.  Tulip poplars stood out against the pine with the bright green newness of spring leaves.  The pretty yellow flowers of Carolina Jessamine (I think), had fallen onto the trail in many places, a cheery yellow counterpoint to a somewhat dreary day.

There were several people on horseback out on the trail, so I had to drop down to a walk every once in a while.  I didn't begrudge it, though.  I love horses.

I'm so glad I did this.  I really needed the change, and I really enjoyed running through pretty woodlands and past fields and old tobacco barns.