A Night in a Snowglobe

I spent the night in a snow globe. This is a view from my Starbucks...listen to me...I still say "my". This is the store I used to work at. I am spending the evening here to study. I'm sitting next to two gentleman that used to be my customers, but now are my fellow patrons: Bruce (left) and Steve (right).

I'm learning lots about Old verses New Institutionalists and why Veblen and Galbraith liked one group but not the other. And how von Hayek refuted Galbraiths theory. No...I'm not using big words and unknown people to sound super smart, but to perhaps entice you to google them and learn something cool.

Anyway, the snow is coming down so pretty and I learned this really cool feature of taking a panoramic view picture that I couldn't resist taking a break from my studies to blog about it.

Ah the beauty of snow on a winter's night. [Big smile...Sigh]

Improvement!

I know, I know...I haven't updated in over two weeks. My apologies. I'm getting busier with studies and by the time I think of blogging my brain has turned into butter left on a hot stove.

I am finally noticing improvement in my knees. Two and a half weeks ago I decided to try biking instead of walking. The pain in my knees and surrounding ligaments had become very painful when I walked. So I got on the bike and rode, and rode and to my delight it did not aggravate my knees!

I did that twice and then started mixing it up. I usually start on the bike and then move to the treadmill. I also began adding in some exercise on the weight machines (which I finally found...funny story). Last night was my best night yet.

11 minutes on the bike

26 min walking

Leg extension

Leg press

Stretching

And I got that all done in under and hour...you should have seen me rushing out the door to get to my car. UCCS (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) has extremely limited parking for it's 8,000 + students. So you either have to pay big $ to have a parking pass or pay an hourly parking fee ($1.75/hour). I didn't want to pay for two hours last.

Thank you, Jesus!

I have the hardest time finding shoes, especially dress shoes. But tonight I stopped by Goodwill and casually browsed the shoes. I found TWO pairs of nice shoes, in my size AND they weren't frumpy!

[Happy Thoughts]

Slow going

So apparently my imagined "hit the ground running" expectation for training was a fantasy. It is frustrating to be getting off to such a slow start. Seven months ago I was jogging between 12-15 minutes, consecutively. Apparently just seven months can render my knees and hamstrings in such poor condition that walking 20 minutes aggravates them.
[Pooh]
I'm hanging in there and learning patience...patience with my body. Thanks for hanging in here with me. :)

BIG WORDS!

I am reading a book for my class "The Great Books of Economics". It's called "The Worldly Philosophers - The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers". It was first published in 1953. This book is full of big words -- words that I have had to look up. I can normally guess the meaning of the word based on the way it is used in the sentence. However some of these left me clueless. I've listed some and their definitions.

Frontispiece: an illustrated leaf preceding the title page of a book.
Dicta: an authorative pronouncement
Disquisition: a formal discourse or treatise in which a subject is examined and discussed; dissertation
Jurisprudence: the science or philosophy of law, a body or system of laws
Rapacity: inordinately greedy, predatory; extortionate
Vermicular: of, pertaining to, or done by worms
Abeyance: temporary inactivity, cessation or suspension
Sinecure: an office or position requiring little or no work, esp. one yielding profitable returns.

I might add, I am only in chapter 3!

Shoe check and fur hood lining

I took a walk at dusk tonight. I was scheduled for a 20 minute walk today but got distracted playing with my new Netbook (basically a mini-laptop). I looked up and was startled by the diming sun light. So I bundled up to go for a walk around the park just east of my house. It was WINDY. Anyone who lives with lots of wind knows how much colder it can be when it's windy.

I was trying to be tough and not use my hood but I couldn't do it! There must be some lingering Floridian in me trying to keep warm. I pulled on my hood and snapped it closed but that wasn't enough. The wind was still blowing into my hood. I had to use the draw strings to pull it tight around my face. I look like an Inuit when I do that.

At this point I have to interject that I am terribly fond of the faux fur lining on my hood. It is amazing at keeping the wind off my face and therefore keeping it much warmer. If you have never had a hood with fur lining, go snag one from a friend and try it. It's really quite amazing.

The walk was a good one. Walking in a public park on the earth, not a sidewalk, does pose certain areas of concentration not found on a treadmill. For example, you have to watch out for divits and holes so you don't trip. The other, you can imagine, is why I do a shoe check before I come in the house...yes, the dreaded doggie fertilizer. Hee hee...thankfully I was fertilizer free after my walk tonight.

The Spirit of the Marathon

Has anyone ever seen the documentary "The Spirit of the Marathon"? It was available for online viewing on my Netflix account. The program was really well done. They followed 7-10 people through their training to run the 2005 Chicago Marathon. Those they followed included one of the "Elite Runners" -- those that actually run a marathon to win it -- all the way through an over 65 gentleman training to run his third marathon.

The history of the marathon was appropriately intermingled with personal stories. From a woman's perspective, one of the most intriguing parts was the history of woman runners. Apparently after an early Olympics, in which, after completing an 800K run several women collapsed in exhaustion, the powers that be decided that woman are not long distance runners. They attempted to protect women by eliminating all women's long distance competitions.

One actual and ludacris documented reason that women should not run was because "their uterises would fall out". However, as the Boston Marathon grew in popularity a woman, Katherine Switzer, registered to run (1976), by simply using her first initial rather than her first name. So she was registered and given numbers.

The press jumped all over it when they saw a women running. They were amazed and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the moment. However, there was a race official, who taking great pride in the race, jumped into the road, grabbed her and litterally tried to throw her out of the race. Coming to her rescue was her training partner, who came full on with a shoulder block aimed at this man, throwing him to the side of the road instead. The two took off running and both completed the race. Her completion of the marathon sparked a resurgence of running for woman all over the world. To see more about this you can visit her website at www.kathrineswitzer.com.

If any of you watch this documentary, I'd love to hear what you thought.