A New Attempt

I am trying out a new addition to my exercise routine.

I am still running five days a week like usual, but since my recovery from plantar fasciitis, I have not been hitting 50 miles a week... but instead hovering in the 30 - 36 mile per week category.  But, a lot of the decline was related to my tiring of running loopy loops around the indoor track.  Now that I am back outside, I am hoping to gradually work back up to 50. 

But, I was also thinking about my goals to strengthen my upper body as well.  And, of course some of this I will try to do the "traditional" way by going to the U gym and trying to improve at lifting weights.  I am hoping to incorporate that three days a week.  

However, I also tried out something this morning that I am seeing if it is beneficial.  I have decided that instead of my running occuring Monday through Friday during May and June (the time of my class), I am instead going to run on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Tuesday and Thursday being my class days seems like days I may benefit from not running as I have to yammer so much both of those days.  

But, in order to keep active, I tried this morning to WALK VERY BRISKLY for three miles, while holding a 10 pound (4.5 kg) kettle ball in each hand.  I picked 10 pounds for each hand simply because those were the two kettle balls I had sitting in the basement.  While walking briskly, I did all sorts of movements with my arms..... outward, forward, backward, upward etc.  Even though 10 pounds may be miniscule.... I did feel it in each arm by the time I was done with the walk. If I keep up doing this, I may need to buy a larger pair of kettle balls.  

I am at a loss how to write about my yearning for my pipes any longer.  I feel rather stuck.  I would like to just jump back into them.  But, I also feel hesitant.  It feels awfully tiring to try to think through a way to go back with the "guardrails" I feel would be best.  This morning, before I left, I opened up my pouch of "Three Star Blue" and pinched out a few crumbles of the leaf and put them on my tongue just to try to get a tiny bit of that flavor.  It was not the same as smoking a bowful, very obviously.  But, I wistfully did capture a tiny bit of the raw flavor and the pouch aroma which was better than nothing.  In some ways it was pleasant, but in some ways it felt rather melancholic.  

It was really so nice getting to talk with my friends at the shoppe last week.  I really enjoy that camaraderie.  I do not really know if I will go out there tomorrow or not.  It is going to be so hit-or-miss on whether I find a friend there or not.  

If I do go, I will try to finish up "Hidden Valley Road" (the book about schizophrenia).  I had been thinking I was going to relish my newest book which was "reported" to be a biography about Erik Satie... the French composer from the late 1800s into the 1900s.  I have been relistening to many of his works, and thought I would look for a biography about him.  But, when the book I chose arrived, it was what apparently was perhaps a "vanity" press publisher... because the book was not really any sort of biography.... but instead had about a page of Wikipedia-esque "biography" material and the remaining ~170 pages were little sentence fragments of the AUTHOR (not Satie) on his opinions of some of the phrases of a small subset of satie's work.  Yet, there was no table of contents, no index, no citations.  I typically hold ALL books in high regard... but this was just a poor joke of a work..... as much as I would hate to admit it..... I would not even give a damn if this "book" fell into the hands of Guy Montag*.

PipeTobacco

 * I presume most will get my alluded to symbolism, but if not I will reveal it tomorrow.