A few days ago

This week's prompt for the Group Blogging Experience is "Two Days Ago"

I am changing my theme to a few days ago because it took me some time to consider this post.

Permit me to take you back to Sunday, June 15, 2012

Happy Fathers Day, Dad!!!

I visited my currently favorite metro park to complete a 3 mile walk/jog.

At regular intervals of about 1/5 a mile I stopped and completed an exercise I learned with my Personal Trainer.
Mountain climbers - on benches
Assisted push ups - on benches
Prison squats
Walking Lunges
Knee lift with chops down (sounds weird right)
I really wanted to do some squat thrusts but too many dog-walkers do not feel the need to clean up their doggie poo.
Yes. My plan was pretty ambitious. My Trainer did not give me homework, I just really want to get into shape. And I voted for the last levy and dammit, I am going to get my money's worth.
I started the running application on my smartphone and set off in my expensive running shoes and wicking running clothes.*
I observed some things during this adventure. I spot an older gentleman with his little dog during my first 1/2 mile. He informs me that this dog found a baby toad. He picks up the thing to show it to me. I am relieved that the creature is still alive after being sniffed by the dog. I leave the man to seek out other small creatures in the grass.
I see nothing more exciting than walkers, joggers and runners out for a nice stroll before the thunderstorms began by the end of mile number one.
I round the corner back toward the entrance to begin my second mile and I see that more people have arrived.
First, three boys have found something interesting by the shelter-house.
I noticed them yards before they saw me.
I knew it had to be something gross. They had too much excitement for it to be something as simple as a monarch butterfly.
I had to ask.

Yep. They were proudly presenting a discarded snake skin to me.
I told them that the were lucky to have found it.
They excitedly pointed to its original location.
I suggested that the snake used the rough surface of the shelter-house to make a break in its skin in order to sloth off its old scales.
I am at heart an educator, after all.
One young man interrupts my lesson to say.

Then his friend says,

The boys then run off to discuss the identity of the lucky bastard who found the nasty thing.
I continue my work-out.
I stop near a tree to complete some high knee lifts.

I see this

I want you to know that the top most gum looked gooey.
As if it had been affixed to the trunk just a few hours before I saw it.
I gotta wonder.
Why?
Seriously...
Why?
Look at it again.
It is a picture of a series of dried pieces of gum stuck to an innocent tree. What did the tree do to deserve such treatment?
And in answer to your question, YES. I will be tracking the progress of the gum line as I visit the park in the future. NOT because I am curious but because I appalled.
Completely grossed out.
Around the 2.5 mile mark I finally see a orange butterfly but I am too focused to stop and take a picture. So here is a cheat I found on the official metropark website.


I got pretty tired after that second mile and my walk/jogs became more walk/walk intervals between the breaks where I completed some silly exercise to impress my Trainer who will never really be impressed with my progress. He irks me yet I cannot quit him....
Back to my story....
I was so pleased when the running app RunDouble chimed "slow down for your cool-down."

As I completed my casual stroll to my car equipped with a long-range car starter (think air conditioning) I spot this pretty thing

I hope it lives long enough to become a butterfly and no little boys, gum chewing runners or dog-walkers destroy it.

The thunderstorms began about 5 minutes after I exited the park.

My final stats  from  C25K Couch to 5K by RunDouble for Android on AppBrain

Stage	Distance	Time	Pace
WarmUp	8 yards	0:05	19:16
1	3.00 miles	65:47	21:55
CoolDown	233 yards	5:00	37:37
Total	3.00 miles	65:47	21:53
inc WU/CD	3.14 miles	70:53	22:33

 
 *I  think a future post will focus on my search for the perfect sports bra. Perhaps the theme could be "Trial and Error"

If I had my life to live over

If I Had My Life to Live Over…

I would have gone to the University of Cincinnati for Graduate School.

I would live work in Puerto Rico.

And see things like this all the time.

I would not have to visit PR in between meetings while attending a conference.

I would spend my leisure time being leisure and not accumulate hours and hours of vacation time. I am up to 340hours.....

I would know how to work my personal technology.

For example, this was my response when I realized my camera was not actually taking a picture.

I would not have hips that create the perfect mound upon which the cat likes to lay herself.

Yup. She is on my hip. I am on my side. I was reading a book until I decided to snap this picture.

I would avoid the SMALL number of instances where I clearly had to much to drink in public around large groups of people who ALREADY know me.

I will never forget when Jamissey suggested that I drink a glass of homemade wine given to her by one of her college students earlier this year.

I made a sangria out of it (with vodka) and descended into a sloppy drunk within the hour.

The next day, I woke up on her couch with a hamburger bun stuck to my shirt.

The mustard stains are the only evidence from that day which remain.

She dumped the wine after my drunken adventure and keeps saying "I told you not to drink it"

I don't remember that.

That leads me to another thing I would do differently if I had my live to life over....

I would remember and take heed to more warnings given to me.

Meaning, I would have paid more attention to my cat when she attempted to tell me about the possum living under the dining room in the basement drop ceiling before it had wandered into the living room and wiped out my 'new roof' savings.

http://www.word-nerd-speaks.com/2012/06/gbe-2-blog-on-week-56-if-i-had-my-life.html

Active Reflections

I started high school in the of Fall of 1985. The only event I remember from that Fall is attending my only Homecoming dance. I was never asked again..... I wore a dress, full of lace. A Senior wore the same dress. I looked better in it. I would not lie about something like that. She wore a jherri curl after all.

Back in the 80s, I watched aerobic shows on TV. I wanted to get into that kind of shape. So the Spring of 1986, I joined the track team to give me access to weight machines and work-out routines.
I followed the program. I had an slim athletic build. I had pretty good endurance. I was a part of a team.
I made a new friends.
I see them in town now. Very few of us have our HS track physiques. My BF in high school was a sprinter. I can only imagine that he only has the time to sprint to and from his law office to the courthouse. The belly must get in his way. snicker

My mother had introduced us to fitness very early. She had the Jane Fonda videos and the Jayne Kennedy fitness albums. She belonged to a group of women who would dancersize in each other's basements.We tagged along.

One of the most enduring images of the Olympics	I learned about all of the track field events back in High School. This helped me to follow the 1988 Olympics. I felt apart of the action pack then while I watched Carl Lewis lose and then latter win the gold.

Remember when the father came out of the stands to walk his injured son over the finish line? I still get choked up thinking about it.
I can not imagine Mom trying to save me from a coked up aerobics instructors.

Dinosaur Motivation

But none of that helped me when I ran. I came in last every time. Actually I almost tied for last place once. I had no real interest in the competition aspect of track.
I tried to challenge myself to come in second to last. The younger runners laughed at me. I didn't care. Really, I sought to have elegant legs.
Being in track did not improve my PE grades because I hated running the mile. But it did give me something constructive to do after school. I stayed on the team until my Junior year. I spent my Senior year working a part time job and preparing for college.
In college I maintained a thin profile because I refused to reconcile campus cuisine with my mothers cooking.
After college,I finally began to gain weight.
For years, I kept a membership at the local YMCA. Now, I belong to the recreational center at my job.
I came to realize a few weeks ago that my current exercise plan is the same plan that I have been following since 1998. With hypothyroidism, narcolepsy and a genetic predisposition for diabetes, I decided I needed a challenge.

http://fav.me/d2w2s62	My friends have lost tons of pounds by joining the local extreme fitness gym. I, on the other hand, do not want anyone yelling at me.I do not want to run with pounds on my back. I do not want to be one of a group anymore. I want to learn exercises that will push me which I can do on my own with the equipment I have. I wanted a program that I can do at the gym by myself or at the park. More importantly, I wanted a Personal Trainer who looked like Wil Smith.
Workout fail by Basalt	I elected to participate in the personal trainer program offered at the campus rec center. In some ways it is like being back on the track team. Everyday there is a different workout. Everyday, I curse. I wonder if the trainer is out of his mind.I wonder if he is this dedicated to his coursework. I imagine him getting his degree and doing this as a extra job. I just do not understand why a perfect stranger would look at me and think that I was capable of bicep curls with 20 lb,

Yesterday, he instructed me to hold myself up for 30 seconds and then, while still on my hands, try to punch him with each hand 5 times. AFTER powerwalking for 1/4 mile. I tried. I really tried. I wanted to punch him.
Last week, he forced me to complete three sets of 25 inclined push-ups after power-walk intervals. One day after a particularly grueling session, being a little lightheaded, I looked at my PT and said something I have come to regret.

 "Promise me that you will not become a gigolo." 

I watch too much cable.