Cardio, naked burglars, Jimmy Cliff, self-loathing, silliness

[sarahmichigan]

OK, a post with a little more substance. My brain is kind of skipping around a bunch of topics, though.

1. I'm happy with myself that I've improved my cardio to the point that I've shaved about 4 minutes off the time it takes me to jog/run a mile. When I started, I was doing about a 19-minute mile. I just did a 15-minute mile on Saturday morning. I'm trying to work my way down to a mile in 14:30. This probably doesn't sound too ambitious to the more athletic types on my friends list, but for me, this is exciting progress. I didn't have this kind of stamina when I weighed 40-50 lbs less than I do now! The only bad is that I'm experiencing some tightness and pain in my left leg. I think it's due to neglecting my stretching, because when I did toe-touches, that side was MUCH tighter than the other leg. I think I exacerbated this buy wearing heels on Friday. Yoga with dionysus1999 and rikhei on Sunday was very needed and my leg pain is almost gone. I think my new pair of good running shoes is going to help, too.

2. Did you all see the news story about the naked burglar in South Carolina? The moron didn't realize they didn't keep big wads of cash on the premises.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NAKED_BURGLAR?SITE=CARED&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

3. How could you be unhappy while listening to Jimmy Cliff singing, "Beautiful World, Beautiful People"?

4. I've been thinking about the Buddhist idea that no one really "hates" him/herself. What Westerners generally think of as self-loathing is actually, according to Buddhist thought, a result of having high ideals for yourself, falling short of them, and being disappointed in yourself. A combination of having more realistic expectations of ourselves, more modest self-esteem, and having compassion for ourselves could probably go a long way toward countering feelings of disappointment and self-loathing.

5. My sweet husband dionysus1999 frequently makes me laugh. He is a very silly man, and I really love that about him.

Comments

[lefthand.livejournal.com]

Little known fact, stretching doesn't prevent injury when running. It's useful to stretch after running to promote flexible but pre run stretching will generally only hurt the body.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm aware of that, but thanks for watching out for me. It pains me to see people stretching cold muscles and/or doing the bouncing stretches.