Not necessarily calm, but definitely quiet

On New Year’s Eve I got my hair cut again. This time even shorter. I’m much happier with it now. It was rather amusing to see the looks on some of my friend’s faces that night. The night before, Friday, I went out with a group of friends for dinner. Over piping hot bowls of pho we made jokes and talked. We’re trying to make those types of nights happen more often – mostly at that particular restaurant because we all like pho. Next time we go I’m getting the papaya salad my friend Danielle ordered. The following night, NYE, I saw some of those friends again with my new haircut, which at first confused them. I like it when little things like that create such funny reactions. I wasn’t the only one to make a change. My friend Jason had gone from a full lumberjack/ serial killer looking beard on Christmas day, to a half beard/goatee in a weird art-house critic style that following Friday. On NYE he showed up with just a handlebar mustache and small goatee, looking like a thinner version of Al Swearengen from Deadwood. I deemed him “Swegen” for the rest of the night, although Zach said it was more of a Bullock look.

NYE was spent sober and playing zombie dice. We had to wake up early NYD so we left shortly after midnight. The next morning we got ready for our trip to NY to see the Miyazaki film, My Neighbor Totoro, at the IFC Center. After a mediocre brunch at some pub a few blocks from the IFC, we got there just in time to get in line before the doors opened to the tiny theater. It couldn’t have held more than 75 people at most. Watching Totoro on a screen was wonderful and when we found out The Cat Returns was playing next we considered getting tickets for it – until we found out it was sold out – as was every other Miyazaki film for the day. After getting coffee and hot cocoa from Third Rail Coffee we traipsed down Broadway for a bit, had a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant off 8th Street and then headed to the bus stop for our ride home. All in all it was a lovely day.

Monday was full of chores and the rest of the week seems a blur now – it was so busy. Tuesday night was another outing with friends. Two of them got engaged on NYE so we went out for a celebratory/goodbye dinner since they were headed back to their home on the west coast. Delicious burmese food at Rangoon and “dessert” being a basket of fries with beer at a Grace Tavern across town. Zach and I will now be saving some side money for a trip to Portland, Oregon for their wedding. Thursday I had a CAT scan and follow up appointment with the ENT regarding my ridiculous sinus issues. He wants to do surgery. I think he just said “surgery” because I think it’s what he always says – i.e. a quick fix. I’m not very impressed with him and am going to look into getting a second opinion. I don’t want surgery because the surgery isn’t guaranteed to get rid of the problem. Why put myself through recovery pain on par with having my wisdom teeth removed (and week long recovery) if my problems might return and never leave? It’s ridiculous. Some people have surgery several times for these issues and it’s never solved. I simply don’t think it’s necessary.

This weekend will be more chores (always with the chores on the weekends now – I have no other time for them), taking down the xmas decorations and the tree to a recycling station collecting this Sunday, then Zach’s company holiday party – also on Sunday. Everything has been busy, work, busy – but it’s been quiet. At least I feel I’ve been quiet. Perhaps, only quiet online. I’ve not had time, nor desire to pick up my camera. It’s only with some mental butt-kicking that I’m even writing this now.

I told myself this year would be about focus. I have certain things I want to accomplish and I’ve been focusing quite a bit already on them. The main one being running again. I’ve read two books about running already, Born to Run and Running Barefoot Step by Step. I wasn’t overly impressed with either, but did take away some good tips and exercises to practice in the latter. Born to Run was annoying to read through because the writing was so awful, which was a shame because I found the information on the Tarahumara interesting and the data on the last 30 years of running shoes enlightening. But gosh, the writing was nauseating. It’s a good thing the book was on my Kindle or it would’ve been thrown out the window. Barefoot Running was written well, but Ken Bob’s zealous mantras about barefooting got a bit annoying. Understanding the need for technique and practice did help, but I think I need to make my own routine that won’t be so gung-ho as his. Granted, I’ve not done a lot of running. For one, the weather has been very odd. Tuesday night as we met with friends one of them teased the engaged couple for choosing the coldest night of the year to go out and celebrate. By the time Zach and I left the bar the temperature was 17F with a windchill below 0. Instead of freezing my butt off outside I’ve been doing indoor exercises to strengthen my lower legs. After my first run out in my new shoes a couple weeks ago I was hurting quite a bit as I mentioned. It took me a few days to get over that and realize I needed to really work on strengthening my legs first before going out again. It’s amazing what sorts of good tips and exercises one can find on the internet, particularly with videos.  So while I wait for the weather to make up its mind (high of 28F Tuesday, 55F today) I’ll be working little by little indoors for when I can go out again.

Yesterday I decided to start my 2012 classics reading challenge and began with the 19th century novel – Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens. It’s rather disturbing what kind of parallels I’m finding between the novel and my work place.

Running shoes

For the past month or so I’ve been researching barefoot running and finally decided to get a pair of “barefoot” style shoes.

FYI: I am NOT an expert on this. I am merely relating what I’ve researched and experienced, which I feel has been fairly thorough to this point, but I may learn much more later as I get used to the new method of running. I kinda wish I’d book marked where I read stuff to list it as a reference, but I’ve gone through a lot and most of it overlapped, so the information is more a paraphrasing of materials.

I don’t think I’ll get to the point where I’ll go completely barefoot because the thought of doing so creeps me out a bit. Perhaps that’s because I live in a dirty city where glass, pee and everything else one can imagine on sidewalks I’ve seen more times than I care to recollect. I chose to make the change more for the purpose of running more efficiently and strengthening myself. With that in mind, I’ll continue…

After reading lots of reviews for different kinds of “barefoot” running shoes I decided to go with the Merrell Pace Glove. Merrell have been working with Vibram for many years and the soles of the Pace are actually Vibrams. Why didn’t I chose to go with Vibrams then? A year ago a friend of mine had just bought some and since we wear the same shoe size she let me try on hers. They fit perfectly and I was amazed at how much I could feel the ground beneath me. I liked them, however, I wasn’t so sure I’d like them while running. I have rather hobbity toes and especially fat big toes, which seemed to rub up against the tops of the toe part in the Vibrams and I could tell if I were to run in them, I’d have blisters. While for some that may not be a deterrent, I’ve had enough blisters from running shoes in the past to know I don’t want shoes I’ll have to break in – in a very painful way. From reviews I’ve read of the Pace, there’s a bit more support on them, which makes them a slightly better transition shoe since you can run in the typical running shoe method, and practice the more barefoot method comfortably.

So what’s the “typical” running method versus the “barefoot” method? From what I’ve read most regular or typical running shoes these days have a thick sole and padding that lifts the heel slightly. When most (Note: I didn’t say all!) people run in these shoes they run from heel to toe, which puts more strain on the knees and hips and upper body. The force impact of hitting the ground in this method and the reaction force of it returning back up the body is much more violent than running in a barefoot method. The barefoot method means a person lands lightly on the mid to forefoot and then lets the heel down gently. A person uses the same force while running in this way (a person’s body mass doesn’t change so severely as to reduce the force) as in other running shoes, but the impact is felt differently because more work is being put on the insteps, ankles, and especially calves, thus reducing the impact felt more severely on knees, hips and upper body. Also, the stride is different. Thick padded running shoes allow people to take longer strides since their legs extend more to create the heel-toe landing, whereas barefoot shoes force one to take smaller, quicker strides that are more compact. You don’t want to take long strides in barefoot shoes since you run the risk of overextending and hurting yourself. I was very aware of this difference in stride when trying my new shoes last night.