Bird droppings

A month ago, at Zion, I discovered that I now possess the ability to run and jump like I never have before.

Then I got sick and injured and have been grounded since then.

As soon as I'm better, I'm going to start pouring some of my energy into running again. I briefly did it as a teen and loved it. I should do more of this.

I want to move. I want to flow. I want to feel that again... that and more.

Today's the third day in a row that I've ridden my bike to work.
Tuesday: ~5 miles to work, then given a ride to parmonster's place.
Wednesday: ~5 miles to work, ~2 miles to Planet Granite, 1 mile to Coco's, ~8 miles back to home: Total: ~16 miles. (Actual odometer read 15.3 miles)
Today: ~5 miles to work. I plan to bike to downtown Mountain View to meet up with elphie and then head home from there. It's mostly the same route I take to work, so I'm guessing maybe another 6 or 7 miles today when it is all said and done. I should have about ~11-12 miles on my bike today.

What's amazing me is the ease with which I am handling this. Could it really be the case that the reason that I wasn't active for most of my life was primarily due to asthma? And now that I have an inhaler, I can handle this stuff without a problem? My hiking and biking have improved so much now that I can actually *breathe* when doing it. I did an ~8 mile hike in the desert with only foot pain to worry about (I really need to get my Vibram Five Finger shoes!). The ~8 mile bike ride home from CoCo's was a bit long, but what bothered me on that was the cold of the night, not the ride itself. Although when I got in, I was completely exhausted.

What's really annoying, though, is that I don't appear to be losing any weight yet. I'm not eating too terribly much, but looking through what I ate yesterday, it did come out to around 2000 calories. I should probably get back to the calorie counting and reduce it down to 1700 or so. I *did* try 1500 or 1300 for a few days, but to keep up with that is quite challenging. I really need to write an iphone app to help me track this info, or just find one that already exists.

Anyways... good biking! I'm going to keep trying to avoid using my car for the next few weeks. See how much I can accomplish without the car. I know I'll need the car on Saturday when I go fly model airplanes with dana_grrl, but we shall see what other events I *really* need it for.

I went ice skating last night again. I absolutely can't stand the rental skates, so I bought my own skates. I figure that they'll be worth it in the increased enjoyment I get out of skating, even the little skating I might do in the future. I do enjoy it, so I'll probably do it at least a few times a year, and that will definitely make for a good use of skates.

I find that, after I hit about 40 minutes of skating, I start to get really tired and have more trouble keeping my balance. My first time skating, I fell about 45minutes in, and I did the same thing this time. Fell really hard on my ass, and I'm finding it hard to sit today, as everything feels painful. I also have some really annoying whiplash. :( Hence the ow's in the title.

I tried to learn some stopping techniques this time, as well as practice some longer glides. I'm pretty good at your basic forward stroking. Push off with one skate and glide on the other, switch stance and kick off with the opposite skate, repeat until going very fast. And I can turn no problem. But staying on a single skate for very long really seems to unbalance me still. Going to keep practicing at it. Maybe try some crossovers during turning.

Doing the ice skating is also whetting my appetite to finally get that new pair of roller blades that I've been wanting. I think I'll buy a new pair in January. My current pair is complete shit from 15 years ago and barely works.

Fun stuff. I may even take some lessons at some point. Any of y'all out there enjoy this enough to join me?

I went fake rock climbing for the first time today! It's at a place near where I work called Planet Granite. One of my coworkers is a member and goes constantly. It is so much fun! Once I am able to belay other people, I'm definitely going to have to bring some of my friends along. It's so crazy awesome!

I only panicked twice during the climb. The first time was on my first climb. I got about half-way up the wall, and then started to feel scared. My belayer offered to let me fall a little so that I could see how it worked. When I did so, I felt a lot better about the whole thing, and my panic subsided.

The second time was on my last climb of the day. It was my third climb of the day, and by far the most difficult. The climb was rated a 5.6 and was comprised of very small foot and hand-holds, much longer stretches, and moved over two different rock faces, slanted in opposite directions. It's still a pretty easy climb, but for my first time out, that was a hard one! I was almost to the top, stretched out pretty far to grab the tiny hand and foot holds nearby. My right side was on one rock face, and my left side was on the other. Something about that just totally broke my brain and I lost my shit. I was practically crying, I was so terrified. I was only a single step away from the top, too. I think I'm going to make that one my first climb next time, to try to get over that.

Even with the panic attacks, I had an absolute blast. It was so exhilarating to be climbing rock faces 30 feet into the air! It was quite a workout as well. I don't think I've ever even used those muscles before. Well... I have when I've done more minor bits of climbing in the past. However, those climbs were always up much gentler slopes. These climbs were more completely vertical.

Discovered an interesting thing about the way I process vision. My coworker and his friend were trying to show me how to tie the knot, and I discovered that I simply could not understand what he was showing me or talking about. It made no sense to me. But then he guided my hands through the motions, and I figured it out in just a few tries. By the end of the day, I could tie my rope correctly all by myself. Apparently, I can't understand the shapes of things, but I can quite easily grasp the motion of things once I've done it with my own hands. I guess that makes me a kinesthetic learner or something?

Anyways, I had a ball and totally intend to go back many more times.