Nomad Jay

Hello fellow scouts! I'm a little late, but Happy Solar Rotation to you all! This year, I will be attempting to run two marathons one week apart.

Ah, I see that you, too, are a man of culture.

In addition to the 2019 Read Harder Challenge posted elsewhere in this forum, what are everyone's reading goals for this year? Last year, I attempted to read Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy. I got through Volume One. This year, having learned from my failures, I'm only attempting Volume Two...

Random strangers, yes. My male buddies are still fair game as far as I'm concerned. Particularly comb-overs. I'm grey-haired and you're bald, just accept it.

I hate hate hate hate HATE HATE HATE HATE running on treadmills, so that's a no-go for me. Our local YMCA does have an indoor track, but I'm too tall to use it. I mean that literally. The ceiling is ~2 inches shorter than I am. Right after I wrote that post, we got an Indian summer in my area of the country. It's been pleasant.

Stretching for aikido yesterday, both hips popped loud enough to be heard four feet away.

I'll admit, it's difficult to motivate myself to get up when the morning lows are in the teens (that's -7 and below for you metric folks). The warmth of a gym with a stationary bike is much more tempting.

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. Can you clarify what you mean by pain? Is the joint tight and difficult to move or does it hurt like you slammed it into something?

1. Dilnad did a better job on running form than I ever could, so I'm going to skip right over that. 2. The short, but misleading version, is "yes". The more truthful version is "Yes, but not at a significant rate". As Dilnad pointed out, concrete has the least "give" of any running surface other. The more give a surface has, the more energy is dispersed into it each time your foot strikes the ground. The less "give" a surface has, the more of that energy is reflected back into your legs. That energy reflection increases the physical stress on your joints. However, the energy reflection difference between the two is incredibly small (something like 1% if memory serves). Translated into a concrete (heh) example, it's basically taking one extra stride for every hundred strides. Form is way more important than what surface you're running on. 3. Just keep running, just keep running, just keep running, running, running... 4) Yes.

Welcome. Diggin' the user-name.

Most things in life need more D&D.

I've been doing a lot of hikes lately, so I imagine snow-shoeing wouldn't be that much of a stretch. It'll definitely keep me from being bound to the concrete jungle of town.

Depending on how carb-adverse you are, might I recommend refried beans? I've been making a batch each the weekend and keeping them in containers in the fridge. It's inexpensive, fillings, and relatively healthy.

Technically from yesterday, but my dojo did a stick-and-knife fighting demonstration in front of our Friendly Local Gaming store in honor of Walking Dead Day.

I think it's more that McKay's willing to entertain a variety of guests / topics without necessarily agreeing or disagreeing. He's interviewed Jordan Peterson but he's also interviewed Adrianne Huffington (founder of the Huffington Post) and done episodes on "unschooling". I do think the historical episodes tend to be his best work.

You might check out Jordan Harbinger. He used to host Art of Charm, but since split off and started his own thing. His whole schtick is interviewing interesting people and finding out what makes them tick. Personally I can only take him in small doses, because he can come off incredibly smug at times, but he has done some excellent interviews with truly fascinating people.

Micro-spikes? I've been ice-climbing and I never even thought of that. Any brands you recommend?

Ha! I'm not dumb enough to throw down with any Scouts on this board. But I do have my eye on a couple of trail runs (a peak-to-peak run in Bozeman in particular) and races around the state when the weather warms up. Speaking of which, how do you folks from the Great Frozen North (TM) deal with snow in terms of running? I don't mind running in the cold, but the snow & ice is a different story. And we just got our first snowfall of the season this morning...

Ran the Montana (Half) Marathon this morning. 1:48:26, which averages out to an 8:17 pace. Not my best showing, but not bad.

Okay, that makes more sense. If the Fizzup app is not linked to the Darebee work-outs, you're going to get conflicting work-outs. Generally the Darebee exercises are done as a set (do X exercises without stopping) with a rest in between each set. I would follow the Darebee work-out as written. Hope that helps.

My dojo just started a lending library so I picked up "The Aikido Student's Handbook" for some light pre-bed reading.

Is this your first time doing deadhangs? If so, what you're feeling is the same sort of delayed on-set muscle soresness (DOMS) that you'd feel in any other muscle group you haven't worked in a while. Grip strength is one of those these things we don't really thing about until we need it. I recommend soaking your hands in Epson salts dissolved in warm water. Very gently make a loose fist and then release it and stretch your fingers out as far as you can get them in the water. The warm water will help loosen up the muscles. If you can stand the smell, put a VERY light coat of either TigerBalm or camphor on your hands and leave it for a while. These will increase the blood-flow and circulation to your hands. The increased blood flow will help the muscles both relax and heal just a little faster.

Which program / work-out on Darebee are you looking at? I agree some of the work-outs aren't clearly worded and you need to read them two or three times to understand what they're asking from you. Which app program are you using?

I saw a bunch of teenagers out taking a walk instead of sitting around their houses. Yes, I'm a curmudgeon.

Instead of my weekly posts, I decided to just do one end-of-challenge assessment to see how I did. The results are in: No alcohol: Frederick Russell Burnham. I sample some delicious bourboun while in KY, but beyond that, no alcohol. This one wasn't a big deal for, I don't think I have a drinking problem or anything, I just wanted to test myself. No carbs: Franklin Douglas. For the most part I did pretty good here. With one exception, these were late nights on the road by the time I reached civilization the only thing open was fast food. As for the exception (men of NF, back me up on this), if a woman goes to the trouble of baking you sourdough rolls from scratch for dinner, you eat a doggone roll. No dessert. Frederick Russeel Burnham. I also did pretty good here. I did have one very small chocolate, about half the size of a Hershey's kiss, during one of my distillery tours. Work-out six days a week: Booker T. Washington. I did only get four work-outs in one week due to travel schedule. Distance runs every Saturday. Booker T Washington. I did miss one week, but I moved it to the next Monday so I'm going to give myself partial credit for that. Overall: Booker T Washington - While success is its own reward, irritating your critics is definitely a bonus. Your invitation to dine with Teddy Roosevelt at the White House is probably in the mail. So, what did I learn? When traveling, pack some snacks that conform to any dietary restrictions I might be on. You can make a meal of snacks if you have enough of them. Life without chocolate is possible. Have some bodyweight work-outs on tap for those days when I only have 20 minutes in my hotel room to work out.