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The Run Went Well Until It Didn’t
Best Start So Far… This was in the 5k the day before the Rock and Roll Marathon and Half Marathon. About 30,000 plus were running. Massive to say the least. Even with bad traffic, we got there in time and I stayed with Kris for the start. Then I went out ahead of her as I normally do. And for the first time I was feeling great. Didn’t need to walk at all. Until, that is, just beyond the 1.5 mile mark when I tripped on something and instantly hit the concrete very hard. Managed to fall correctly, so only jarred myself, knocked the wind out of me, and I…
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Another Fun Run
Last One Before the Big Weekend… Every week Kris and I have been going out and doing these early-morning fun-runs for different causes. This morning was something to do with the Marines. A platoon of clearly recruits (very young, meaning college age) or something were running at cadence and I fell in behind them and stayed with them for over a mile. Not bad for an 67-year-old guy. I ran the last part with a 71-year-old Navy guy who served on submarines during the Vietnam War. That was interesting and he left me in the dust near the finish. I have dropped about 22 pounds since the first one of…
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Challenges Update… Novel, Short, and Exercise
Novel And Short Story Challenge There are two challenges starting September 1st. A short story challenge and a novel challenge. I sent letters to those signed up in the challenges tonight since they start in a week. (Room open in both challenge if interested.) What I got as responses from three people so far were that they were surprised that I wanted them to check in every Sunday during the challenges. Of course I do. Over the space of two or three months, all of us have down times and get stuck or have something going slower than desired. I will be there for everyone in the challenges to report…
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Already Feeling Better
Very Annoying… But since I started eating very healthy, lower calories, more protein, and got my exercise going again, I feel better. I knew that would happen but every time I am shocked. I am over 5 miles walking per day (10,000 steps for my stride), a new streak starting, and have run at least a half mile two of the last three days. And the weight has started down. Shock. This is sort of like I feel with writing, and what I hear others expressing as well. Starting is hard, but once you start writing regularly, you feel so much better, so much more joy at the world. And…
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Off and Running
Also Getting Back Into Shape… The goal is 13 weeks from this weekend to run/walk in the Las Vegas Marathon and complete it around four hours. So not only with the writing goals, I have an exercise and health goal. I considered today Day One, and got off to a good start. Did well over 10,000 steps (5 miles plus) of which a half mile of that was running. I want to do about 40 miles per week of walking. Then over the next 13 weeks really ramp up the totals on the running. Can you tell I am getting settled in here in Vegas? (grin) Reminder!!! August Regular Workshops…
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Started Running Finally
Not Much in Distance, But a Start… Like every book or story, you have to start with a first line, a first word. Today, finally, I figured out how to motivate myself enough on the running to get the goals I want done. And interestingly enough, it is a twisted gambling structure that helped me get started. Now, for the folks who love to toss money away in casinos, yet feel they are winning, there are gambling systems. A Martingale is one. (Really silly.) Another is a simple Positive Progressive Betting System. All that one does is give some structure to betting and make a gambler feel lucky at times…
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Too Much Other Stuff
Yup, We All Have Them… Meetings and then I spent a couple of hours up at WMG working on collectable stuff. We (meaning me and Josh, the North store manager among other jobs) are madly working to dig out a massive collection I bought about four years ago and haven’t done anything with. But at the WMG stores and offices and warehouses, to dig out one thing, it takes moving around a ton of other stuff. But almost there. The collection? Well, for libraries, they used to bind newspapers to make them easier to store and handle. The Oregonian, the main Portland paper, was bound in large black books, each paper…
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Starting Up… Here We Go…
TRACKING EVERYTHING PLUS A CHALLENGE… All starting up again as many of you have asked me to do for a time. So I will be tracking writing, exercise, and also a new short story challenge for at least this month and maybe longer. Also sort of going over what I did each day so you can see how crazy my life is and how I still manage to write a bunch. And I will continue with The Magic Bakery book as well. ———- The Day… A good day overall. Got up to WMG in the middle of the afternoon after doing some e-mail. Then after a little work there and…
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Adjust A Goal
Adjust a Goal On July 1st, without saying much to anyone but Kris, I started a push to run a marathon in November. But as I detailed out the first of September, I had to hit one major benchmark before I would even start that marathon. Some background: I will be 66 before the race starts. I have bad knees from my years in sports. And I was far overweight on July 1st. Benchmark: To protect my knees, I needed to be under 180 pounds to start the race. I would be better served to be around 170, but I was willing to go at 180. On July 1st I weighed…
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Refocus on Running Day 4
Refocus on Running Day 4 Hit the five miles for a fourth day. I have spent the last three days down in the Salt Lake area with the state chapter of the Romance Writers of America. A fantastic group, a great conference, and I was honored to be part of it, teach a couple of classes, and give a very short speech. Mostly I got to learn from all the wonderful and dedicated and driven writers there. Great time. I really love to hang around with writers who want to learn. So tomorrow I’ll go back to a more normal blog here about writing and other things since I will be home.…