Went out for a brief run this morning. I thought I'd deviate from my usual blog-writing habit of sitting down to write after I've come back from my run, stretched (sometimes), and eaten breakfast while reading the paper. Today I thought well, when I write about running, I'd like to be a bit more connected to my recent run. Especially these days, when reading the paper is like walking into a blizzard in a short-sleeved shirt and deciding just to ignore the weather; that is, after you've read the news, just thinking that you'll ignore it doesn't make it go away.Yikes! So here I am before having even looked at the paper and still having trouble ignoring it. I feel like this pole I saw on my run. (Whew. Glad I'm back to writing about running.) The pole, which struck me as looking seriously alarmed about something, is part of an outdoor exercise area at the Pleasanton Senior Center. I like to stop off there during a run and do a few ugh-ughs to break up the left-right-lefts. (Ugh-ugh is the sound I make when I'm attempting pull-ups, push-ups dips, balance-beam walking, etc.)
Weather this morning? Mild--about 47 degrees and overcast, with very little wind. Internal temperature? Ranging from tepid (while exiting the apartment) to warm (while doing two Yassos at the middle school track) to hot (while in the process of trying for good ugh-ughs).
I am taking a class through Ironhorse PT and Pilates in San Ramon and, as the class title promises, I am learning ways to bulletproof my run. Right off the bat, for the class I had to be videotaped running and then (shudder) I had to look at the tape. Interesting how many aspects of my form obviously could use some tweaking.
So this morning's run, among other things, was a tweaking practice. Lift those knees! Lower those arms! Push off from that forefoot! Keep your head high! Now try running like that. Ha ha!Recently I started reading Younger Next Year, a fascinating quasi-scientific book on aging. In the book, it says that your body (and mine) is cellularly always in one of two modes: growth or decay. According to the authors, the key to avoiding the latter and enhancing the former is strenuous activity six days out of seven. This morning I decided that if today is day one of the seven days of this week, I'm already 100 percent in compliance!
I saw these blossoms as I ran up First Street this morning. My first thought was that this image could be called "February in Pleasanton."
My second thought was that it might be better to say it's "Mid-Winter Growth, Not Decay."
For the remaining six days in my week, my wish for five of them is that they should be all about growth! Growth for me and growth for you. Keep on moving!
As I reach the end of this post, it strikes me that it has jumped all over the place. I'm going to excuse my monkey mind on the grounds that jumping all over the place is just part of keeping active, just as I hope from this point on to do six days out of seven!
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