(Slow)Running to assume more active Role in Future Races and Events

 On this morning for which is forecast a 90% probability of rain, I am certain that we will be witnessing some stormy weather.  For the Depot Parkrun5k, I didn't feel remotely adequate to the task ofcompleting the entire course, but Melissa walked the first and only lap with me.  I was a bit irritable and grumpy, but toward the end of the looped trail...when it leveled off...Iwas able to lightly run down the pathway...it was an unexpectedly pleasant and empowering experience!I think that, on a gut-feeling level, Martinus Evans has it right with his "slow AF" run club. In the future i'd like for Melissa to drive me down to a nearby running track for me to train there and see how far I can jog on it...I feel quite optimistic being able to cover a good distance.  Now let's see how this day goes weather-wise, and how much training will help to improve my overall c-v fitness and endurance.  Also, I'm planning to use that running training to boldly 'step up' my running contiributions to future Parkrun events and races...

This Morning's Overly Unpleasant Depot Parkrun 5K Walking Challenge

 Each week I think ahead to the next Saturday morning when they plan to hold another Depot parkrun 5K, an event i've completed since 2019, approaching 100 times.  Now, recovering from a steep dip in fitness and endurance after some strong treatment for recently diagnosed glioblastoma brain cancer and subsequent brain surgery[10/14/25], radiation and chemotherapy, I am still pushing to complete one full race at a time.  After finally reaching my comeback milestone of a completed course...scanned and posted online, I was skeptical this morning about being able to walk all four laps..I felt too roughand curbed the effort..  and today turned out to be another struggle as I struggled to complete most of just one lap before I went to the car. Maybe later this afternoon I'll make another venture around the block for purely exercise purposes, tTheMLB.tv channel looks like a good choice when I do decide to give training an overnight break. Melissa is now at UPS returning an unwanted item, and then we'll have some lunch...followed by sitting out on the back porch while Peewee Daisy runs around the backyard, mouth wide open like a sweet fool.The weather this afternoon will be hot and humid...let's be congnizant of that.  To you and yours, I wish you all a very happy Amy's birthday...

Walked Gainesville's Depot Park 5K This Morning

 Again demonstrating that my progress in recovery for both walking and running endurance isn't exactly linear, about 3 hours ago I, for the 4th time this year, successfully completed their 5kcourse, which goes for 3.1 miles.  To accomplish this I needed to cover 4 park laps, which I managed today without too much trouble and suffering.  It took me about 64 minutes to get through it all...click HERE to read the posted results.  Throughout the race I felt weary and unable to keep up with other parkrunners.  I was also frustrated with my Android, which didn't play the music I wanted it to.  The pictures I took didn't transfer over to Google photos, either...i'll need to depend on a different photo source to be able to decorate this blog with a pretty picture.  Looking back on the experience, i am very grateful for Melissa's support and enouragement, and to God for giving me the fitness and physical...and mental...energy needed to complete this course, which I want to be in the habit of doing on a regular basis.  Later today  we're predicted to be experiencing rainstorms for our Gainesville area.  i'll be spending most of that period at home...baseball has loaded up our tv schedule.  If dryness prevails, then maybe i'll try doing some more laps of slow AF running in the back yard. If all I end up doing in the future is slow running for long distances, then that's O.K. with me.  By the way, do you know what "AF" means?...

Sleepy, but Got Up and About Early Anyway

 This morning I was only partially sleeping, hoping that when I finally awoke it would be later...a little past three.  Still, I felt in little shape to get up, although I did and promptly brewed some coffee.  I ran in place for ten minutes, dutifully writing the time down in my spiral notebook.  The temperature in the house is leaning to the cold side, and before long my plan is to reset it for 'cool' and return to bed and my barking, excited Daisy. It now being Tuesday morning the 10th of March, I foresee no new Rob Dial podcast for today...maybe Huberman or Rohn will produce another episode.  My hope with fitness is to cover the backyard with walking more efficiently.  I'd like to be able to write that I read more pages in the vicious, frustrating Khan fantasy book...not looking forward to enjoying it, though, with the anger of its main characters resembling that of the TV series Grey's Anatomy.  Just thank you for this day you provided me, Lord, and may I live it out more responsibly and graciously.  Let's celebrate a small victory...I got up and stayed up! Maybe later on I'll get Melissa to help me start up (and move) the white Camry.  May I avoid getting myself caught up in digging for dopamine, and allow boredom to grow my good habits and character.  It's not quite four yet, and I still remember the times 55 years ago when I had decided to arise before dawn in order to begin my school day in a wise, positive manner.  In a way, this is one of those kinds of days...

Memories of Historic Past Iran Conflict "Color" My View of the Present

 There's nothing like getting up a couple of hours before sunrise and getting started on the day.  Brewing a nice pot of flavored coffee works well with a ten-minute session of running-in-place on the living room rug floor.  My reading and studies seem to be morphing into more passive, visual and mental undertakings, and my little habit changes are becoming more directed toward the more manageable, less supremely ambitious sort.  Today is Monday, March 9.  Were I going to the 9th grade at Nova, I'd get my homework worked and gathered at the dining room table, setting the final morning alarm to give me a reasonable amount of time to clean and dress for school. As it actually is at this moment in time, I can sip my cup d K-cup flavored and brewed coffee and move over to watch a little YouTube TV.  And after a brief bathroom visit I can return to Jim Rohn's stoic personal development podcasts. Then it's back to bed for a while.  I'm getting sick and tired of the war news going on, with Trump trying to constantly insert himself in the press meetings.  

This Iran thing brings to memory when I was first going to college in the mid-to-late 1970s when the two campuses I attended became loaded with Persian overseas students.  To me they seemed to enjoy a promising, privileged existence (although none wanted to talk with me) and the idea that their home country was an autocratic police state that imprisoned and/or tortured dissidents seemed far-fetched...why, the Shah was our buddy, wasn't he? It wouldn't be until the violent rioting in 1978 eventually  kicked Shapour Bakhtiar out and brought in Khomeini for his long brutal, murderous reign.  And then came the hostage crisis.  After Khomeini began to crack down on the nation's socialists, I got a knock on my apartment door from a couple of Iranians who wanted me to sign on with their cause.  What's that, you go to town loudly running down me and my country to the world, and now we're all suddenly friendsy-pindsy because we think we might have a common enemy? In politics, trust is a difficult thing to build and only too easy to destroy...never again, Iran and Russia.  I honestly don't understand how most of our so-called allies can trust us to any degree after our current president's behavior toward them, espcially Ukraine and Denmark with its prized Greenland that Trump wants to add to his personal map of territorial conquests..  Now let's see...I look ahead right now for the next several hours, noting the potential for a a nice wide-open time span devoted to modest personal projects...A little attempt at walking endurance looks like a good option...