Erick the Red: All we are is dust in the wind...

[Erick the Red]

This song popped up on Pandora while I was on a run the other day.   I had vague plans to organize my challenge around some of the lines.  When that looked like hammering a square peg into a round hole, I decided to keep the song after all, as a dose of fortifying nihilism.

 

Old School

 

More recent take

Dust In The Wind (1977)

Kansas

 

I close my eyes, Only for a moment and the moment's gone
All my dreams, Pass before my eyes with curiosity

 

Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind

 

Same old song, Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do, Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

 

Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind

 

Now don't hang on, Nothin' lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, And all your money won't another minute buy

 

Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind

Dust in the wind, Everything is dust in the wind

 

Mission: Run with my wife in the Scenic City Half Marathon in February 2016.

 

Goal 1: Run three times per week.  

I have a conservative training plan leading up to the race. Keep to the plan or it doesn't count.  The first week I am running two miles Monday and Wednesday, and then three miles on Saturday.  By the end of this challenge I will just be transitioning from "building the foundation" to "ramping up the mileage", up to ten miles per week and a "long run" of four miles.

 

Goal 2: Focused cross-training twice per week. 

I am going to use body-weight and dumb-bell exercises chosen specifically to complement my running: single-leg deadlift, dumb-bell lunge, glute bridge, things like that.  Extra exercise is a bonus, but I need to be more specific in my effort.  Twenty minutes or more per session.

 

Goal 3: Stretching and rolling daily.

I usually do some static stretching after running, but I need to re-incorporate foam rolling and using The Stick roller-massager.  Five minutes or more per session.

 

Non-fitness goal: Write every night.

Before bed, I plan to spend a few minutes writing.  Diary, creative journal, food log, something to get me writing.

[awesomesue]

Pretty solid sounding!  Looking forward to your challenge.  You can knock this out of the park!

[rowan]

THE RETURN OF THE STICK!  

 

 

The Stick is a harsh teacher.

 

Also, hooray for writing!  I'm doing NANOWRIMO along with a bunch of other people, so if you ever need a writing support group, we are all going to be banging our heads against our laptops and staring out the window...together!

[Princess Pineapple]

Good luck! Your goals are very similar to mine although I'm not looking at half marathons just yet.

[tinkerer]

Running. Strength Training. Success! Sounds like more than a few of us are on a basic but similar plan.

 

What sort of previous running training have you been working on? It seems like you have a pretty solid plan leading up to the half.

[The Swedish Ninja]

Yay!

Rolling FTW! And the focused cross training sounds like a great idea

[Erick the Red]

Thanks for the support awesomesue, rowan, Princess Pineapple, tinkerer, and the Swedish Ninja.

 

That sounds like a great line-up.

 

Anyway, responses:

 

I was all set to participate in NaNoWriMo, but we are going on a vacation for a week in the middle of the challenge.  I can nip away for a workout or two while everyone else is asleep, but cranking out 1666 words per day in a hotel room rather than strolling through New Orleans seemed like foolishness.  But I already have notes on paper and in my head, and I will probably start writing anyway, just not at that pace.

 

My previous running has been hit-and-miss.  A few years ago, I initially worked a very aggressive training schedule, working from couch to 5K to 10K to marathon training, but I was struck down again and again by chronic injuries in my calves and Achilles.  Since then I have worked more on strength training and have slowly reinforced my tendons to be able to handle the punishment of the open road.  I ran my first-and-only half marathon in Sept 2014, but did not build on that success at the time.  So here I am now, re-building (again).

 

The plan I am now using is very similar to the beginner half marathon plan at http://www.battlefieldmarathon.com/training

[Erick the Red]

Week 1, Day 1

2 Nov

1. Run three times per week: 0/3

2. Focused cross training two times per week: 0/2

3. Daily stretching and rolling: 1/7.  Especially painful with bruises from last weekend sparring at Gatalop 32 at Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama.

 

(click to embiggen)

(This is from a couple years ago, but you get the idea)

 

4. Write every night: 1/7. Journal and stream of consciousness.

[rowan]

day one, in the bag!  Nice opening volley, Mr. Red!

[awesomesue]

That looks like it would be so fun!  What better reason to be bruised than whapping people with a stick.  Great start!

[Jack Ryan- Rebel Recruit]

Good Start on the challenge! it is interesting to see how your challenges change between classes.

[tinkerer]

The plan I am now using is very similar to the beginner half marathon plan at http://www.battlefieldmarathon.com/training.html

That looks like a nice gradual plan. I haven't followed one of those before so I don't really have any insight but it seems like a good way to lay things out to me. Having tendons built up for new volumes of exercise seems like it's an under-publicized need. I know a lot of rock climbers run into the same thing where their hand muscles develop really quickly but tendons not as much. As in your case, this leads to a lot of injuries. Hopefully your weight training will serve your well on this go-around!

[Erick the Red]

Thanks for the support rowan, awesomesue, and tinkerer.

 

Vizzini, my class has changed over time depending on what I was working on at the time. 

 

Some people have found a good support group within a class, and then as their fitness goals and needs change, they stay with the group.

 

Others like me make connections in various class groups, and then move around based on the current top items I am working on.

[Erick the Red]

Week 1, Day 2

Tuesday, 3 November

1. Run three times per week: Still 0/3.  Sad to say, the siren song of sleep kept me in my bed longer than I intended.  Will run Wednesday, and then two more times later in the week.  Not ideal, as I wanted to get a day or two between runs, but actions have consequences.

2. Focused cross training two times per week: Still 0/2.  Another area with a weak start. I have a routine worked out and everything, I just need to make time to execute.

3. Stretching and rolling every day: 2/7. Made time before bed.

Write at night: 2/7. Wrote about the ideas behind my speculative fiction story that I will be writing. 

 

What are the characteristics that make someone human?  Cultures all over the world tell stories of people shaped as animals (temporarily or permanently), or of people without a body at all (like ghosts), and that doesn't seem to exclude them from the circle of humanity.  We still name them, and talk to them, and expect understanding.  The "housing" then may not be the limiting factor.  So is it then intelligence and sociability?  Is someone recognized as human if we can share an interesting conversation with them?  I am trying to work through these ideas.

[elinox]

Glad your writing goal has taken off strongly this challenge. Good luck getting to run today!

[rowan]

What are the characteristics that make someone human?  Cultures all over the world tell stories of people shaped as animals (temporarily or permanently), or of people without a body at all (like ghosts), and that doesn't seem to exclude them from the circle of humanity.  We still name them, and talk to them, and expect understanding.  The "housing" then may not be the limiting factor.  So is it then intelligence and sociability?  Is someone recognized as human if we can share an interesting conversation with them?  I am trying to work through these ideas.

 

Oh man I think about this ALL THE TIME.  I definitely think that personhood has very little relation to one's body, or potential lack thereof.  Conversation is actually a good starting place - that's the idea behind a turing test!  But I think there are some other interesting possibilities - maybe personhood is simply established by a professed desire to be seen/treated as a person.  So then, if an animal/computer program/spirit wants a seat at the table, we make that space simply because they ask.  And think about it - there are plenty of traditional human people that we can't carry on a conversation with, but who we can interact with using physical language.  To what degree is that different from the kind of physical "conversation" we can have with, say, a dog?  Or a machine?  

[awesomesue]

That is interesting to ponder.  No easy answer in my opinion.  I work with cadavers.  Are they less human because they are deceased?  Ask any of us and we say no so what are the characteristics?  Is it basic physical attributes that fall within limits?  Other have been thought not to be human when they are so deformed that some civilizations saw them as something else.  

 

Hope you got that first run and or cross training session in today!  Awesome job on rolling and writing.

[Erick the Red]

Thank you elinox, rowan, and awesomesue for checking in.  Thanks for your thoughts.  I realize that there are no hard-and-fast answers to these questions, since I am thinking about this in terms of social norms which change over time and place, and definitional boundaries are slippery anyway.

 

Week 1, Day 3

Wednesday, 4 November

1. Run three times per week: 1/3.  Good run, a little over 2.5 miles, including up and down a long hill.

2. Focused cross training twice per week: 0/2 still.  Did not make time last night.  Will need to do it today (Thursday) -- it looks like our fighter practice may get rained out tonight in any case, so no excuses.

3. Stretch or roll daily: 3/7.  Good stretching session after my run.  I should have rolled too.

Write at night: Wrote about nostalgia -- you don't know what you have until it is gone.

[Jack Ryan- Rebel Recruit]

Nice update- I will be watching for how the Focused cross training goes tonight.

[theophilus]

I love everything about this challenge, especially the writing bit. That's fantastic. I could go on and on about the sticky situation that is trying to define personhood. I agree that we can't tie it to physical bodies or any sort of faculty, because of the problems that creates for persons who are differently abled, whether physically or mentally. But, then, where does that leave us??? Even "rationality" doesn't cut it. Toddlers are beyond irrational, and they're certainly persons...

 

And nostalgia.... what a great topic. Got me thinking of "Midnight in Paris" and the nostalgia shop from Gil's novel. What's interesting in that film is that Gil's longing for the past and (imagined?) immersion in it brings striking clarity to his present.

[rowan]

Ooh, what kind of cross-training are you doing?

[awesomesue]

Stretching and writing...check.

1/3 runs...still on track.

Cross train...waiting to hear about what you decided to do!  Cross training definitely keeps it fun.

[Erick the Red]

Week 1, day 4

Thursday, 5 November

1. Run three times per week: 1/3 still.

2. Focused cross training two times per week: 1/2. 

 

I had to re-image my desktop computer last night because I think an intruding program changed my admin password, locking me out of the administrator account.  That process took a couple hours, with a lot of waiting time.  So I broke out the dumbbells and did HIIT circuits with the exercises I found that are supposed to specifically help with running form (and some others too): bridges, dumbbell single leg stiff-leg deadlift, squats, dumbbell overhead press, pushups, dumbbell bent-over row.  So today (Friday) is all right, but I expect tomorrow to hurt all over.  My single-leg deadlift form is terrible -- it is a new exercise for me, and I need to figure out what "right" feels like.

 

3. Stretch/roll daily: 3/4.  With everything else I did last night, I forgot.

 

4. Write every night: 3/4.  Another casualty of an interrupted routine.

[rowan]

Haha, that is the BEST way to respond to computer issues.  BREAK OUT THE WEIGHTS!  Hope the DOMS are treating you well today!

[Jack Ryan- Rebel Recruit]

It is great that you posted so we can offer you encouragement to make it happen today!