More general thoughts

I wonder how long the friendly folks at blogger will let me go on without switching to their new version. I plan to hold out as long as I can, but they've already gone from encouraging messages and notifications that it's available to making the sign-in screen all but force me to make the switch.

Your Questions Answered:
*The new blinds came from JCPenny.com (I don't think I spelled that right) and I got the second set today. SIDE NOTE: They actually addressed them incorrectly, so the blinds ended up on the Army boys' porch. And the boys looked close enough to see that the box actually had blinds, because one of them announced when I got home, "Erin, you got some blinds that got delivered over here!" I just hope that the same thing doesn't happen whenever my birth control pills show up. Which I use for keeping my acne clearer, in case you were getting ready to judge me. Heh.
*Motivation for running/walking. This is actually not hard for me right now, because the weather is PERFECT for running outside and I already have a gym membership for when I can't be outside. And right now, getting out and moving my body just feels good. However, it's been a long road to get to this point: I trained hard for an entire year to prepare to run/walk the Flying Pig marathon, ran an entire marathon 3 weeks before the Flying Pig as part of that training, and then ran the Flying Pig in a blazing finish time of 7.5 hours. Right after the race, I decided to take a break from running because the plantar fasciitis was wickedly painful. Then, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, I let myself slide over the next 3 years until I wasn't running or even walking, and found myself getting winded after a single flight of stairs. For some reason, on Saturday, I felt completely disgusted with my current physical condition, and finally decided to get off the GD sofa and do something. Of course, I could have just circumvented a LOT of pain and misery, as well as lots of sadness, by having never stopped running in the first place, but hey -- hindsight is 20/20.

Running observation, day 3: Handicapping. I've been thinking about this as I crawl along the streets of the 'Wood. I think I should be able to handicap my minutes/mile in direct proportion to my weight. For example, flat-out running gets me about a 12-minute mile (each subsequent mile gets slower) Let's say I'm 200 pounds**. And let's say I have a friend who also runs a 12-minute mile, but she weighs 120 pounds. So we are both running at the same rate of speed, but I am essentially lugging around an extra 80 pounds - like if I were carrying a big Army pack with me. I'm not saying that I don't want to try to go faster. I'm just saying that my fitness level should be considered as higher than my 120-pound friend, or possibly equal to a faster friend who weighs less. I'm pretty sure this is how they do it for racehorses. Also, if you happen to be one of my 120-pound running friends, I promise not to ask you to carry an extra 80 pounds on our run if you promise not to make me run 8-minute miles.


**All times and weights have been changed to protect the innocent.