Kuliouou X: My penultimate summer hike. By running longer and more frequent stretches, throwing in those 10- to 20-second sprints whenever I could manage them, and really pushing the end, I shaved 39 seconds off the last hike's time. Now I have to decide whether I want to push or coast on Wednesday. Pros for pushing: It'll be my last summer table hike and I could come up with a better personal best. Pros for coasting: It'll be my last summer table hike and it would be awesome to really take in the sights, sounds and smells without constantly checking the time. Oh, and without being in pain. That would be new, and great, too.

I think I could actually do better if I had a more streamlined load (I shouldn't make fun of the camelbak, I know!), and if I left the dog at home. He doesn't necessarily hold me back - if anything, he runs circles around me as I huff and puff my way up the mountain - but it is one more bottle of water in my pack, and he does need to be looked after and prodded at times when a tree or another hiker or a mysterious pile of something on the trail is just too interesting for him to pass up. Plus, the re-arranging of selves after we've tripped over each others' ankles for the fifteenth time each hike could be eliminated if I went on my own. However, he has been such good company on all 10 of these hikes that I can't imagine not having him with me. It's no secret that I am not the president of my dog's fan club, but we really do bond on the trail. We look after each other, and much as he loves to run ahead, he always stops and waits for me to catch up.


Anyway, we're home now, taking a breather while I decide if an afternoon swim is a good idea. I just stuffed K's platypus, Bubba, into the washing machine because K peed on him when we weren't looking last night - S. thinks we waited too long to take him out, but I think he was just trying on his dominant hat, showing the plat who's boss around here. Yes, we'll get him fixed sometime soon - I don't think our dream beagle girlfriend is ever going to materialize. So much for Juggles.

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No afternoon swim. Instead, I went to Wal*Mart (once again, I hate everything about Wal*Mart except the prices. That includes its location, the parking lot, fellow shoppers, the store itself, the cosmically weird fact that they usually have one crinkled, smudgy package of whatever it is I need left in stock, the mile-long and molasses-slow checkout, and, today, the woman in the SUV who came barreling the wrong way down a one-way aisle, then made over-the-top beneficent gestures for me to drive around her big, gas-guzzling ass.) Uh, yeah, I went to W*M. Got some pics done, picked up more frames, bought BRADS (I knew there was a name for nails that aren't really nails). Then had a most wonderful, unhurried lunch at Kaka'ako Kitchen, where I almost finished Autobiography of a Face (and would have, if a group of tourists had not inexplicably started dragging tables and chairs in circles, eventually creating a seating space to accomodate 20 people when there were only five of them.) Otherwise, it was a blissful hour and a half.

And now, I think, a nap ...

wuhu!

Today's excitement: 600 pain-free meters; a quick trip to the library (I caved); first chapters of The Age of Innocence + my favorite cuppa (hot vanilla chocolate) @ CBTL. I forgot how enjoyable the library can be. I wanted to pick out some titles for the kidlit spree I'd planned to go on, but got there 20 minutes before closing and grabbed Edith Wharton and Wuhu Diary by Emily Prager instead. Will hopefully update threesidedsophie soon. Mom's tofu salad for dinner, strawberry soda cake for dessert ... Also, we made it out for a second Friday in a row: Ryan's Grill for crabtichoke w/foccacia and some really yucky beer. Lastly, reason #473 that I love living with S.: I get to watch him write checks in his glasses. I am marrying the cutest guy ever.

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Hastily helping to throw together a tofu salad for mom's SFA luncheon but wanted to point out Blogger's latest notable. Divertimento!

kuliouou ix

Applied an adaptation of the Wussy Runner strategy to today's hike: Begin with a 5-minute brisk walk warmup (perfect, as the first five minutes of the trail are a gentle but steady uphill march). Settle into a reasonable pace (still pretty brisk; I did not want to come up with a worse time than K VIII). Throw in 10- or 20-second sprints every 2 minutes. Toward the end, I ran longer stretches, especially when it became evident that I could make it up in less than last hike's 38 minutes if I just pushed it a little bit harder. Thank goodness the trail to the tables is almost entirely shaded.

... and the rest of my day stretches out before me.

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Went for 8 laps, then picked up ingredients for dinner. I have no idea the difference between Thai and Japanese eggplant. I hope it doesn't matter. Sounds like the beginnings of another great dinner, huh? ;)

good (new york) times

I was such a nut.

I miss sitting at the Metcalf Street breakfast nook with two silly girls, two stupid cats, and one good friend.

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OK, I need a plan. I need several plans. I AM going to do my Wralkathon, but S. posed this question last night - should it be this year? Even if I plan to walk the majority of the 26 miles, smart prep is essential. I haven't done so much as a 5K this year (though there is one coming up on July 27, as well as the Niketown 5K in September that I will for once join my school in running.)

What I have done so far: gotten out of my comfort zone and made exercise habitual. I originally planned to take two weeks to "establish a base fitness level" per the advice of some running websites I studied up when the Wralkathon first crossed my mind. This is actually the middle of my fourth week, and I finally feel ready to start running. (Had a pretty good debut last Thursday, but didn't hit the road again till today, and that did not go so well.)

Thus, the need for a plan. I found one online that made me laugh (but knowing me, maybe I should just go with it): Schedule a 30-minute walk every day. Insert 5 - 10 seconds of running every 1 - 2 minutes of walking. Gradually add 5-second increments of running. Weeks and weeks and WEEKS later, you are magically running yourself a 5K. Hokay. And then there's S.'s advice: on a run, no walking, even if you have to run at a senior citizen shuffle. And then there's the advice I like the most, courtesy of active.com: Run till you're tired, then walk till you're bored. Then go home. Sounds like a plan!

I want to keep hiking till my work schedule kicks in. I want to hike in the morning and add a mild run (maybe like the above) in the evening. Or hike, then swim. Or swim, then run. My longest workout is probably the hike, 38+ strenuous minutes up, and about the same amount of time down. Maybe I don't need to add anything on those days. But with swimming, although it's enough activity to put me soundly to sleep afterwards, it's 30 minutes at the most. S. says I may not need to add anything, arguing that although it's just 30 minutes, it's 30 minutes in which I'm using pretty much every muscle group I have. But I do wonder if I should be kicking up the cardio to closer to 60 minutes every workout. I pointed out that four weeks into regular exercise, I have not lost or even shrunk my joey. S. advises patience ("Belly fat is the last to go," he assures me) but I feel like I should be doing more.

Anyway, tomorrow is Kuliouou IX. Not gonna push it too hard (especially if the heat is like today's) but I do want to get out, as my last hike was four days ago and I've had two days completely off (except for a six-minute jog this morning).

atsui

Well, yesterday was a nice(-ish) day of shopping, book-lusting, and relative nonexertion of the physical sort, all spent in air-conditioned comfort (or at least in the breezy confines of my apartment, with the exception of 3 hours in Hades, aka Fisher Hawaii.) Time to get back out there and pound the pavement? Damned_Cat thinks again. Lessons learned by a non-runner before 10 a.m.:

1) Midmorning midsummer sun is not your friend. No matter how much SPF you slather on.

2) It is not advisable to bring one's small brown dog everywhere.

3) Return the watch. Get an iPod.

Run Attempt #2 - total bust. I think we clocked 0.5 mi before I realized the heat was more than mildly uncomfortable - I'd be carted away in an ambulance (and then what would become of one's little brown dog?) if I didn't turn back. Who thought it was possible to sweat so much in a span of 6 minutes? So, maybe when the sun goes down I'll give it another go, but for now I am home, and 'tis a good thing because I've been summoned to work at the family biz (geez, I hope someone brings a FAN), and the hallway still needs vacuuming.

The dog is giving me what can only be described as a withering stare from his spot on the kitchen floor. I don't think he wants to be included in any more of today's plans.

hot like haggis*

Swimmage: Did 500 meters yesterday, pushed it a little harder up front, and tried to correct my form all at once. I had to breaststroke laps 7 and 8 because of fatigue, but pushed through 9 and 10 with a moderate crawl. I think I will coast at 500 m for the rest of the break, and just try to build up comfort and speed with that distance. Since 500m only takes about 20 minutes, I need to start adding some running to my swimming days.

However, today I'm taking a break. Last week's schedule went like this:

M - Swim (200m)
T - Swim (300m)
W - Hike (40 min to tables)
R - Run (7 nonstop up-front, 24 min total)
F - Swim (500m)
S - Hike (38 min to tables)
Sun - Break

Except for adding distance to my swims and shaving minutes from my table hikes, there's no method to this madness. So far my rule of thumb for how hard to push it is, go when you feel like it, pick whichever mode of exercise you feel like doing that day, and when various things on your body start to hurt, stop. It's been less than a month since I've been getting out "regularly" - June 20 was the first hike of the Summer Series, and I've been slowly increasing activity since. The most strenuous thing is probably the hiking, because I push myself for speed and get a serious lower-body workout every time. I don't even bother with the clock yet on my swims. And running, well, that's happened once so far. We'll see about running.

S. and I watched the 9th stage of the Tour de France the other night - pure CRAZINESS. How'd you like to be one of those guys squished up in the middle of the bunch? You can't even scratch your nose, or your elbow's gonna bring the whole peloton down! It was way more exciting than I thought it would be - I thought bike races consisted of sweaty guys in tight shorts pedaling their bikes from Point A to Point B. With an occasional crash. But S. patiently explained the thing from beginning to end - how a few guys pull ahead in the beginning to establish a lead, how the teams work together, and the excitement of the end, when everyone starts attacking for the finish line. I'd swap hiking for biking (and therefore maybe be able to work up to a triathlon) but I am not a great driver of things with gears, and split-second decisions are not my forte.

Anyway, the point: I need a break because I feel weird. No muscle aches, nothing's broken, and it's certainly nothing like the 6/26 swimming debacle - I have a weird, general left-side pain that comes and goes, and on top of that, I feel a little bit blah. Like, what do I want to do today? Well, nothing. I feel like I should do something, because as the countdown goes, there are 9 days remaining to this break, including today, but I really think I'm just going to let today go. Pick up a project. Shop for that wedding shower gift. Do my purchase orders for school. Maybe jump in the pool or go for a hike tomorrow.

Mmm, shopping. I've twisted my own arm.

*Post title courtesy of Dan. What the hell is wrong with you, man?