The Trouble with WALL-E

On Saturday, I took the kids to see WALL-E, the new movie from Pixar. We loved it, as expected. I've said this before, and I'll say it again. Pixar just does kids movies better than anyone else. I enjoyed the movie, and I expect to get it on DVD and watch it again, more than once. There's one little problem. I realized that there was a problem while I was watching it, and that problem is articulated clearly by Jessica.

In brief (slight spoiler alert): the plot calls for the inhabitants of earth to leave in a spaceship for a five year cruise, while WALL-E tries to clean up the tons of garbage that litters the world. Unexpectedly, the cruise turns into a 700 year cruise, during which the people basically lie around in floating chairs and have their needs attended by robots. So what do you expect the people look like after 700 years of this lifestyle. They're fat.

Jessica feels deeply offended by this. She writes an open letter to Pixar:

Do you know what it feels like seeing a shipful of fat people who exist to show how dissolute and horrible and wasteful people can be? I’ve had fat jokes directed at me. I’ve had people laugh at my pictures. Since childhood, I’ve even had family members poke fun at my body, where I’m supposed to “take a joke”.

Pixar, this is one joke I don’t want to take. It is horrible when you see the only bodies shaped like you as things to laugh at, as living examples of as a culture, how shoddily we treat the earth. There’s no complexity, no understanding, just an easy punchline.

I want to defend Pixar. Part of me says that's what the people would look like. Of course, there would be more variation than the movie portrays. But if people really took to a completely sedentary lifestyle, they really would be fat, in general. Not that every fat person is sedentary (as I well know), nor that every sedentary person is fat. But that would be the trend. It would look silly to have all these people lying around on their floating chairs be thin and sexy.

I also don't think that the fatness in the movie exists to be made fun of. The people are basically sympathetically portrayed. Yes, the "moral of the story" is that we should get out and exercise and not eat junk and not get dependent on machines, but the movie isn't anti-fat. It's anti-lazy. Since (as we all know) not all fat people are lazy, those of use who aren't can simply say that the movie is not about us.

But I can't quite let myself get away with that. For one thing, the movie really did offend Jessica, and surely other people, and I don't think that they are being "too sensitive." It's all well and good for Jessica and I to reject the stereotype that all fat people are lazy, but the stereotype exists, and, like it or not, this movie reinforces it. Pixar should have known that this was how the movie would be received, at least by some people. The common response, "Well, we didn't mean to offend anybody," used so frequently by people who make rape jokes or who portray Barack Obama as a monkey, just doesn't cut it. You may not have meant to, but you did.

So, what's the solution? What should Pixar have done? Assuming that they want to keep the plot, which calls for a boatload of people who have become dependent on machines to do everything, how should they portray those people?

I don't have answers to those questions. As I say, the problem didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the movie (as it clearly did with Jessica's.) But it did bug me, and I wish I knew what Pixar could have done differently. I wish I didn't have to feel guilty for liking the movie so much.

Day 642 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	Jun
Distance	3739.0	813.0	133.7
Time	24 days, 5 hrs, 23 min	5 days, 15 hrs, 48 mins	22:54
Days	642	128	21
States	15	2	1

Tomorrow being a scheduled cross-training day, it's time to take a look at Jogger's Progress.

It's been a pretty typical month. My average mileage since I started keeping careful track has been 124.6 miles per month, and this month I ran 133.7. The average number of days per month has been 21.4, and this month I ran 21. (This is the third month in a row that I ran 21 days, for what that's worth.)

I feel good about it overall, although frankly, I wish that I had had a better run today. It's a step-back week, so I only ran 8.4 miles for my long run, but it didn't feel very "only". It felt like a lot of work. It felt like I don't know how I'm ever going to run three times that far. I guess I just have to trust that the overall training program is making me stronger.

Day 641 -- More Richardson Grove

I thought perhaps I should visit the Official Richardson Grove State Park web site, and I was pleased to find out such information as the fact that it contains the ninth tallest coast redwood. I was wondering where that was. I was a bit distressed by the notice:

Richardson Grove State Park is located within "Bear Country". State Park regulations require visitors to store food and scented items properly at all times.

However, it seems like it may not be that bad.


I ran 6.6 miles today. I think I ran a pretty good pace, but I screwed up my timer, so I'll never know. In any case, it felt good, and tomorrow I have a shortish long run.

Day 640 -- Richardson Grove State Park

I think I'm a bit short of Richardson Grove State Park, but there are enough photos for me to visit for a couple of days. This one is from the California Department of Transportation, which is planning a major upgrade to the road running through RGSP, in order to make it more truck-friendly. It's not clear whether this is the kind of truck that they want to make it friendly for, or what, but I thought it was a good road picture.

The humidity is still around, but it didn't get me too bad in only a three mile run this morning. Tomorrow is six, and the next day is eight. If I survive those, I'll let you know. I was supposed to run easy today, but I ended up with a pretty good pace. I wasn't even trying to. I guess I was just rested.

(Almost) Instant Karma

Well, I paid for the sin of skipping my workout today.

The first three days of Scout Camp were 9 am to 3:30 pm, which is about right. But today, the fourth and last day, they wanted to put on a program for parents, with awards and skits and what-all. Well, you can't have it at 3:30, because people have jobs. So today's Scout Camp was 1 pm to 7 pm. So by 4:00 or so, we were all a bit tired. The kids were extra wiggly, and extra grumpy, and extra hard to deal with. And I, having missed my morning endorphins, was not at my most patient. I actually had to leave my fellow walkers in charge, and walk away for a half hour, just to get my nerves back under control. But I survived without killing any of the kids, so it's a success.

Every day, they have the walkers fill out an evaluation form. "How did things go? Were the kids interested? Do you have any suggestions?" The last question is, "Would you be a walker next year?" The first three days, I put "Yes". Today, I said, "Now is not the time to ask."

The parents program went well. Our skit, which I anticipated being the worst skit in the history of skits, came together at the last minute, and was not too bad. The littlest Little Jogger won a certificate for BB gun shooting (third in his age group), so he was tickled. And now I'm home, listening the relative quiet of only four ornery kids!

TIaRT -- Lessons from Tai Chi

As part of Cub Scout Camp yesterday, we had a Tai Chi lesson. I know, you don't normally think of Cub Scouts and Tai Chi as being compatible. I told the speaker after that she was a pretty brave woman to even try it. She did a good job. She introduced it to them as "Super Slo Motion Karate", which sounded cool. Anyway, most of them tried it, at least a little.

Why I bring it up here is because of something she said that may become my new running philosophy. She didn't make a big deal of it. It was almost a throwaway line. She said, "Just because you are moving slow doesn't mean you aren't working hard."

Anyway, that's my contribution to this week's Take It and Run Thursday. I'm not sure that it really answers the challenge posed, but it is 13 words or less.

Day 639 -- Piercy

Piercy, California, is home to Confusion Hill. I hope that the writers at RoadsideAmerica.com were being intentionally ironic when they wrote:

"It is truly a unique Roadside Attraction! Very much the same as mystery spots such as The Wonder Spot, The Mystery Spot and The Oregon Vortex!"

Day 639 was yesterday. I came pretty close to not running yesterday. I was so tired, and I was up late because two of the Little Joggers had play rehearsal until 10:00. As it was, I didn't get to bed until after 10:30, so I got not much more than six hours of sleep. I thought about sleeping in, but I realized that a six mile run would do more than an extra hour of sleep to help me cope with the Cub Scouts for another day.

It was a sweaty run. A huge mass of patented Midwestern humidity has parked over my corner of Wisconsin. It isn't terribly hot, yet, but it's still pretty uncomfortable.

I didn't post at all yesterday, because after Scout Camp, two of the Little Joggers had soccer games, one at 5:30 and one at 6:30. So I went to those, didn't eat supper until I got home, and poured myself into bed. I turned off my alarm, which explains why today isn't Day 640. It looks like I'll be switching my scheduled day off tomorrow with my scheduled easy run today. Either that, or take two days off, but I don't know if I can stand that.

Day 638 -- More Leggett

I guess now I'm really in the heart of Redwood Country. This is the "Grandfather Tree," 2000 years old and 24 feet in diameter. In front of it (besides me), you see jazz guitarist Steven Crowell. If you'd like to see him and the Grandfather Tree in person, you could sign up for the Third Annual Jazz Guitar in the Redwoods seminar. No, wait, it was last September. Well, maybe there will be a Fourth Annual Jazz Guitar in the Redwoods.

Today was a scheduled easy day, and easy I did. Just three miles, at somewhat less than blinding speed. One of those days when my old running mentor used to say we might get passed by an arthritic turtle.

It was also the second day of the Cub Scout Day Camp. It went fine, but those boys are wearing me out. Walkers who are there all four days (which I plan to be) get a t-shirt. This may not be enough. I think I'm going to need cash money to do it next year.

Jogger and the Cubs

The Littlest Little Jogger has Cub Scout Day Camp this week, and I have volunteered to be a "walker". That is, I go with the boys from station to station, trying not to lose any of them in between. It's OK, except that when the adults running the stations lose control (which does happen), I'm supposed to keep the kids in line. Which can be a bit hard, because the only one I really know is the Little Jogger.

The other irritating thing is the song they made up. Each group has color and an Olympic sport, since this year's theme is the Olympics. So our group is the Green Lifters. To develop a group dynamic, they had us make up a song (well, a chant) and chant it going from station to station. Here is our official chant, which, believe me, is burned into my brain:

We are green and we lift weights.
Like the Hulk we're strong and green.
We're the best Cub Scouts you've ever seen.
We're the mighty Green Lifters.

You can't tell that it was writen by a committee of seven-year-olds, can you? Anyway, chant it to yourself a couple of dozen times, and you'll see that it can get on your nerves.

Anyway, we had a fun day. They boys had fun doing archery and shooting BB guns. Tomorrow, we're going swimming, and we ought to have a nice warm day for it.

Day 637 -- Leggett

From Beans-Around-the-World, the Chandelier Tree in Leggett. I have visited Beans-Around-the-World before, but it's been a while. The name pretty much says it all. These people are taking this can of beans (or several similar ones; it's not quite clear to me) to different places and taking photos. Some people have way too much time on their hands. Check out all the places these beans have been.

Well, today wasn't as warm or humid as yesterday, which was a good thing, since I ran my long run, over 11 miles. I don't think it was quite as nice as last week, but that may just be because I ran my long run. I started out pretty stiff, too. I did something to my left hip, and it started bugging me yesterday afternoon. It was still sore this morning, and it took a good four or five miles for it to get warmed up. But it's OK now. I'll take it easy the next couple of days, and it will be fine.

Day 636 -- Cummings

This is a postcard of the restroom at Grundy's, near Cummings. In case you can't tell, it's made of the cross-section of a downed redwood tree. I've run all the way through the Redwood Valley, and this is the first picture I have of a redwood tree, and it's a dead one.

I'm not quite to Cummings, yet, but I'm planning my long run tomorrow, so I'll run right through it.

I'm afraid that our perfect weather is over. We had a bit of rain overnight, that was in fact just ending as I headed out this morning. No one in the midwest is ready for any more rain right now, but at least it was only a sprinkle. Worse than that, from my perspective, the heat and humidity are creeping up. I was definitely more sweaty when I finished this morning.

Tomorrow: Long run!

TIaRT -- 5K and 10K races

I've recently joined the on-line running community Runners' Lounge. One of the many cool things that they do is Take It and Run Thursday, where the moderators throw out a topic, and different members of the community post about it on their own blogs. I can't wait to join in.

One problem is that this week's topic, "Tips for 5K and 10K Races," isn't exactly my area of expertise*. I have run, in my life, four organized 5K races, one 8K, and one 10K. For some of these guys, that's a good month. But, if I were the type not to post something just because I don't have anything interesting to say, this blog would certainly be a lot shorter.

So, here's my advice for all runners of 5K and 10K races, especially those new to racing: Don't forget to enjoy.

My best races -- the ones that are most memorable -- are not always the ones where I ran the best times. My best races are the ones where I remembered that I run for fun. They are the races where I took to time to schmooze with my fellow runners. They are the races where I remembered to look at the scenery. They are the races where I forgot about the clock and just ran for the heck of it. Sometimes that coincided with a PR, sometimes not.

*My area of expertise, in case anyone is interested, is Virtually Running Across the Country, Even Though You are Old, Slow, and Fat. Amy, if you want to do a TIaRT on that topic, I'll be all over it.

Day 635 -- Round Valley

Margaret Yellowhammer Card is a Native American Poet from Round Valley, an Indian Reservation just east of my current virtual position. Margaret is a direct descendant of the original Yuki tribe located in Round Valley. Margaret also comes from a large family which is an asset to her and provides great compassion which shows in her poetry. Go on over to her site and check out some of her poems.

Having bragged yesterday about how yoga is keeping me loose, naturally I was extra stiff this morning. Even with continued beautiful weather, it was tough to drag myself out of bed and go for an easy run. But I did, and now I've earned a day off.

Yoga

I can't do this. I am not a yoga master. In fact, I have never taken a formal yoga class. I mostly learned from the videos Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies and Beyond Basic Yoga for Dummies, both starring Sara Ivanhoe. I've done a little reading, and occasionally I'll borrow a different yoga workout video from the library. But the point is that I'm not an expert.

Oh, and I hate stretching. Always have. The guy who got me started running insisted on stretching before a run, so I did, reluctantly. Then I read that you aren't supposed to stretch cold muscles, so I gleefully dropped my pre-run stretch. Sure, the article also said to stretch after a run, and I did. A little. Sometimes. For a while.

I actually went through a period where I ran and ran and never stretched at all, and, looking back on it, I can't believe that I was that dumb. I was definitely getting tight, and it was cutting into my running.

So, relatively recently, I have gone back to yoga, and it really does help my running. I'm definitely looser, and much less sore. So I won't go into tomorrow's workout tight from today's, which means tomorrow's run will be better.

How much time does it take? Twice a week, on my non-running days, I do the full workout, the "Daily Dozen," which takes about 40 minutes. On running days, I do about six poses after my run, plus a few non-yoga stretches, which takes maybe 10 minutes. A full yoga practice increases strength, flexibility, and balance, but I concentrate on flexibility for the post-run workouts.

So, if you hate stretching, but want to keep loose and make your running better, try yoga. It really can help, and you don't have to twist yourself into a pretzel. I promise.

Internet Aware Traditions

If you don't get this, the place to start is with this post by John Cole. Then go on to this other post by John Cole. Long story short, a commenter on this post by d said a kind of a goofy thing, and now people are mocking them mercilessly. Who am I to pass up a little mocking? So, the latest album by the band NeoNeoCon, which is titled "Internet Traditions".

Day 634 -- Laytonville

From Pacifica Riptide, the Chief Drive-In in Laytonville. (Incidentally, when I first saw the name of the web site, in all small letters with no spaces, I had a hard time parsing it. "Pacific Arip Tide?" "Pacificar Ip Tide?")

I ran 5 miles today, right on the ten minute pace that I'm trying to practice. I was very pleased. It was again a beautiful morning. I hope this weather lasts forever, but I doubt it will.

Day 633 -- Cahto Rancheria

Just south of Laytonville is the Rancheria of the Cahto Tribe. The Cahtos, like a lot of small tribes, are dwindling fast. There are only about 250 people on the rancheria now, only 55 of whom are official Cahtos.

I didn't know the word "rancheria", but apparently it is

n. Southwestern U.S.
1.
a. A Mexican herdsman's hut.
b. A village of these huts.
2. A rural Native American settlement.

(from the American Heritage Dictionary, via dictionary.com)

Today was another beautiful day to run in SW Wisconsin. I set out to do an easy 3, but actually ran about 3.6 before I stopped. I would happily have run more, but I'm trying to stick to my training schedule. I just wish I could bottle this weather, and release it an hour or two at a time throughout the summer. Of course, I'd have to save a bunch for the day of the marathon.

[Update: I guess this didn't publish yesterday because of a formatting error. Ooops. Apologies to those who were on tenterhooks waiting for the latest installment.]

Day 632 -- Longvale

I grabbed this particular picture of Longvale because (a) the photographer, Krissa, was there not that long ago, on April 15, and (b), I love the name of her blog, Ecclectic Arcania. According to Krissa,

The city of Longvale, California, was once a small, thriving little town along Highway 101, about 15 miles north of Willits.
Situated along the railroad tracks, it had its own train station, a small lumber yard, and thriving businesses and homes.
Eventually the lumber industry died out, the trains stopped running, the highway was re-routed, and the town just shriveled up and died, leaving nothing behind but a few scraps of rusty iron and the weeds growing from the foundations. The post office was de-commissioned in the 1950's, and there is almost nothing left of the main town site now.

The funny thing is that Longvale shows up clearly on MapQuest, but Willits, the other town that she mentions, doesn't. I had to actually search for it, and sure enough, I ran right through it without noticing. It's maybe halfway from Calpella to Longvale. (If you get the right zoom on MapQuest, the town name does show up, but I never did while I was running by.) So, as an added bonus, here's a picture of me in Willits, courtesy of the on-line Laughlin, Nevada, Guide.

Today, I got in the long run that I didn't get yesterday. It was great. The weather was absolutely perfect, at about 60 degrees and low humidity. My legs were a bit tired by the end, but I was far from spent. I could have run several more miles, if I had had the time and the inclination.

The weatherologists have promised at least three dry days in a row, starting today, and I intend to hold them to it. We need it. The people in Cedar Rapids and up in the Dells could use it even more. It will take a lot more than three days for them to dry out.

Day 631 -- More Mendocino

I was going to run 10 miles today, which would have taken me pretty close to Longvale, but as you can see, I got cut short.

When I first woke up, it was raining and rumbling thunder, so I figured that I wasn't going to run at all. I decided to go ahead and do some yoga and then take a shower. But by the time I was done with my yoga, it seemed like it had blown over. Hot dog! I laced up my shoes and headed out. But no, it was a false alarm. Within the first mile and a half, it had started rumbling again, and by the time I got done with the first three mile loop, it was pouring. So, I packed it in.

These things do happen. At this point, I'm thinking about running my 10 tomorrow, skipping this week's cross training, and getting back on schedule on Tuesday. More updates as events warrant.

Flooding

You have probably heard about the flooding in the Midwest. We had a pretty wet spring (following a very wet winter) and this past week or so, we got enough rain to really push us over the edge. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is largely underwater, and a levee failure up in the Wisconsin Dells drained Lake Delavan (an artificial lake) and washed away at least five houses. Sitting as we do about midway between Cedar Rapids and the Wisconsin Dells, I'm happy to report that we have a couple of minor puddles in our basement. Our area certainly has had its share of rain (and then some!) but we've dodged the devastating flooding that has hit some areas. So, don't worry about us, but do pray for those who have been hit hard.

Day 630 -- Mendocino National Forest

Mendocino National Forest is a huge piece of land -- approximately 65 miles long and 35 mile wide -- so I'm running west of it for a couple of weeks. With no place else to blog today, I decided to pop over and take a visit. From QuoVadimus.org, I got this picture of a dirt road along "Long Ridge," but I have no idea if that's anywhere near my current virtual spot.

Today was a beautiful day to run. The temperature was in the low 60s, and the humidity has dropped way down. I was seriously thinking about taking a little detour at the end of my run, just to put in some more miles. But by golly, I'm in training, and I'm sticking to my schedule. Now watch, tomorrow it will be either rainy or hot for my weekend long run.

Day 629 -- Detour to the Coast

I'm running up Highway 101, which is pretty far inland, and, as I said yesterday, there isn't much to visit in this stretch of road. So I decided to go a little further afield to visit the coast. Thanks to the Watershed Stewards Project, I have a very nice beach picture near Fort Bragg, which is just about due west of my current position.

I did an "easy" three miles today, although frankly, it wasn't that easy. There's no reason why that should be. I haven't been working that hard this week. I just felt stiff and it was really hard to get loose. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day. Actually, tomorrow is a day off, so Saturday is another day.

Now they tell me!

You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy)

You're a great thinker and a true philosopher. You'd make a talented professor or writer.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Hat tip to Addy N.

Day 628 -- Potter Valley

North of Redwood Valley, there's about 20 miles of empty. I don't think of any part of California as being sparsely populated, but there it is. I imagine that they don't think of any part of Wisconsin as being densely populated. (According to Wikipedia, Milwaukee is about 50% more densely populated than San Diego.)

Anyway, I have to reach out a bit to get pictures. There's a town of Potter Valley several miles east of Redwood Valley, and I managed to match that up to this photo, although it's not clear to me whether there's a valley called Potter Valley, which might be separate from the town called Potter Valley. In any case, here I am.

I note that this image is clearly copyrighted, by Barbara Ertter, and that once again, I have used it without permission. Sorry. I also note that the copyright is 1988. Really? It sure as hell wasn't posted on the World Wide Web in 1988. In fact, I'd guess that Ms. Ertter did not have a computer capable of adding that copyright notice in 1988. But, I guess that's when she took the photo.

And what about my running? I ran 5.5 miles today. On Wednesday and Saturday, I'm trying to work on my pacing, running steady 9:45 to 10:00 miles. Today, I failed. I went out too fast, and even though I slowed down in the second half, I still finished under 9:45. I'll just have to work on it.

Return of the Fake Album Cover

In January and February, there was an Internet meme going around where you took some random links and made a fake album cover. I really got into it, before it sort of faded away. Today, inspired by Dead Dad and Rudbeckia Hirta, I have devised "Blowing Cellulose", the new album by the band The Mouth of Mainstream Culture.

That is all.

Day 627 -- Redwood Valley

Just beyond Calpella is the town of Redwood Valley, California. And this? This is Erin Vanderweker, standing in front of a driveway treated with PEP Spray-On Liquid Asphalt. Erin appears on their web page as one of several satisfied customers in the Redwood Valley area.

Well, today was a slow and easy day. I did just 3 miles, at a 10:20 pace, on the track. The reason that I went to the track is so the the first Little Jogger could come with me. She ran intervals -- running 200 yards, walking 200 yards -- while I ran miles. She wants to be a sprinter for the track team next year. She's got a way to go, but she's willing to get out of bed during the summer to practice, so that's a good sign.

Des Moines Kickoff

Nineteen weeks to the IMT Des Moines Marathon, and I started my official training with...a bike ride. Well, my marathon training program has cross-training on Monday, so that's how I started. Tomorrow's run will be pretty easy, too -- just three miles. In fact, this week is going to be a jog in the park compared to last week. That was sort of the plan. I wanted to work hard to get a solid base going into the official training. Don't worry, I will be back up to hard stuff all too soon.

Day 626 -- Calpella

I ran 15 miles today, tearing through Talmage, all the way to Calpella. That's right, Calpella. Apparently, this is the west coast version of Grandma Jogger's home town (which, I guess, should really be called Iapella.) If it weren't for JogAmericaBlog, I might have gone through my whole life without knowing that there was a town of Calpella, California.

I'm really proud of my run today. It didn't start out to be a good run. I was tired, and it was wicked humid. It's not a good sign when you are still in the first three miles, and you are already cataloging the things that hurt and ache and itch and chafe. But, by golly, I pounded out the whole 15 miles. There is no feeling quite like the feeling of running right to the point of exhaustion. It was great!

Day 625 -- Talmage

I'm not quite to Talmage, but I couldn't wait to get to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. After all, according to their web site, they "welcome people who devote themselves to the search for happiness and peace for the human race, and to the investigation of the universal truth of life." Friends, I am all over that. (The picture, by the way, was taken by Qin Zhi Lau. I found it at Answers.com.)

The original plan for this week was for me to run on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, then take Friday off before the weekend. But by late Wednesday, it was pretty clear that I was too sore to run Thursday. So I took yesterday off, and ran an easy 5.3 miles this morning. That was actually indoors, at the gym, because it was thundering when I woke up. It had pretty well blown over by the time I actually got out the door, but I didn't know that.

Now they are predicting more storms tomorrow night into Sunday, so I'm seriously thinking about doing my weekend long run tomorrow, in case Sunday is rotten. The gym isn't even open on Sunday, so that won't be an option.

Day 624 -- Hopland

I liked the idea of visiting the Hopland Brewery. I wonder if they use special "Hopland Hops". Picture from The Redwood Empire.

I ran 7.5 miles today. It was not only farther than I ran yesterday, but I ran it faster. And I had a hillier route. So I earned the right to be tired today, which right I am exercising right now.

Day 623 -- Yorkville

One problem with Flickr, as opposed to some other common sources for photos, is that people tend not to leave any sort of captions. I have no idea who this woman is, or why she is standing outside the Yorkville Mini Market and Deli. However, I liked the parallel between her stance and mine, so here it is.

Yorkville is actually a bit off track. I'm on highway 101, and Yorkville is a bit west, on Highway 128. But I'm officially out of the Bay Area, and towns are a little further between here.

I ran five miles this morning. I didn't go too fast, but I was still feeling the effects of the last few days of exercise by the end. Oh, well, it's all helping me to get stronger, so it's good.

Exercise

USJogger turned into USBiker this morning. My marathon training program this summer has me cross-training on Mondays. I just bought a new bike, so I have decided to bike for my cross-training. Marathon training doesn't actually start until next week, but I figured I would go ahead and get in the habit.

I have a friend who actually bikes for exercise, so I asked him if he would take me with him this morning. It was fun to have someone to talk to, and I don't think that I held him back too much. We didn't go really far, although it sure seemed like it.

In fact, I got a double dose of exercise today. My friend didn't want to leave until 6:30, and I was up at about 5:00, like usual, so I dragged out my yoga tape and did 45 minutes of yoga before the bike ride. I'm trying to get back into yoga, because I need to stretch more. Of course, yoga isn't aerobic exercise. In fact, I think it must have helped with the biking, because I'm not as sore as I should be.

Day 622 -- Cloverdale

Look at the cool twisted chimneys on this building in Cloverdale. They may be a bit hard to see, so here's a better look:


These photos come from BushBlog, named after the blogger, Mike Bush, and not after our only president. He seems to be a pretty sporadic blogger, but he does have lots of good photos.

I set out today to run about 12 miles, and by the time I was done, I had run my second half marathon in two weeks. This one was considerably slower than the official half I ran in Green Bay. It was less humid than yesterday, so it wasn't too bad a run, other than being, well, 13 miles long. I finished the last four or so on stubbornness and guts.