simplerich

I have two sisters, both younger than I am. I am the oldest, most attractive, most intelligent, and most superlative son of the three of us. There are no other sons so there is very little competition in that regard which works out well for me if I do say so myself.

This isn’t about me really, but it’s going to start out that way just bear with me OK? I was book smart. I skipped second grade (Not a good idea by the way in my opinion. These days they don’t fail people because socially it’d be a bad idea… Yeah, I sort of wish they had thought that when I was skipped. I was socially way out of my league and it took me a while to not feel out of sorts, but that’s not the point.) The point is school stuff came really easy to me. I thought it came easy to everybody. I remember a conversation in High School with my Mom where I was saying that everybody should be required to take Algebra. I’d probably just heard Jubal Harshaw say it. I was easily impressed. (Moment of silence for The Grand Master please…) I know now that I was an idiot. But it was something that I thought was a gift, only instead of being grateful for it or humble for having received it, or recognizing it may have a downside. I was an elitist ass. I eventually grew out of that, but in the meantime my sister Leigh got to bear the brunt of the annoying part about my being book smart.

The thing with being a kid is that the metrics used for a REALLY long time are metrics like… school work or grades. An area in which I did pretty OK with very little effort (with the exception of math which my grade skipping didn’t help me on at all). Later, we’re skipping a lot of years here, I went to college and hit a wall. There were a LOT of people around me as casually intelligent as I was, and the spoon feeding of the high-school classes wasn’t cutting it. Suddenly school was hard. My sister meanwhile, graduated high school early, by working hard, studying hard, and applying herself. She didn’t skate through it. She worked at it. And finished early.

I was in college and needed to study for the first time ever. I didn’t have a clue how. I’d never needed to before. I failed a class. No kidding. Failed it bigger than life. The one thing I’d always done OK in without really trying was something I was screwing up and had failed at. So. I took the class again and had the highest average in the class (I have jokingly said that I beat an Asian girl in math as my highest achievement but I feel bad because when she saw she was second in class she cried. I pointed out I had the advantage of having taken the class before but it didn’t seem to help.) I worked hard on it that year. I learned to study and I studied and it wasn’t easy. I did, for one semester, in one class what my sister had done for longer and I hated it. I liked the class. I didn’t like that I had to work at it.

So I quit. I dropped out of college and entered the Navy as a Nuke. Supposedly you have to be smart to be a Nuke. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I met people in there in the school who hated me, got so mad at me that they couldn’t stand it or even talk to me because again… I was getting it and they weren’t. Only now I knew how to study so I wasn’t just getting it and getting by. I was doing really well. I wish I’d learned to study sooner. I’d have done better when I was in high school.

My sister DID study. She worked and got done with High School ahead of schedule and joined the Marines… holy crap! I’d talked to the Marine recruiter, but as soon as he said how long his boot camp was I was done. No chance in hell of me surviving a 12 week boot camp. She did it though. I had joined the Navy and started running before I went in to get into better shape. I’d run and do push-ups and sit-ups and whatever else I thought I’d need to get through the 8 weeks of Navy boot camp. She’d done it harder though… again.

I never told her in all that time how proud I was of her for what she’d done. I got skipped in 2nd grade. I didn’t do anything to deserve that except know how to read. She’d taken time off the back end of her education… the hard years, and she’d earned it. She’d set a goal and done it, the hard way. Then she’d joined the Marines and did that too. I bragged about her to everybody who would listen. She wasn’t “in the service.” She was a MARINE. That’s not like other branches. I don’t care what branch you’re in… Marines are tougher. (OK. Navy Seals are excluded here, they eat Marines for breakfast with milk and sugar sprinkled over them. lol)

Skip forward again… she’s married with a son with a great house, she knits, she paints, she bakes and cooks and is, as far as I can see… working her butt off to be a great Mom to her son. When her husband (a Marine she met while she was a Marine) was going to be called-up and deployed and she was going to be on her own she took care of business, and didn’t fall apart or anything like that. She put on her butt kicking boots and took care of things.

When I heard she was going to do a running program called Couch to 5k I thought I’d give it a look. And I did. In management I’ve often told people I’m a sprinter, not a marathon runner. I can do anything for two weeks. No job is too hard that I can’t do it for two weeks. Need me to run 8 stores while I open a new one and train an entire crew and put in 20 hour days? No problem… two weeks, maybe three but then I’m going to need to crash.

In job negotiations with the new owner of the company I work for I didn’t talk about salary or compensation or his expectations. He talked about all that. I talked about time off and needing it. I know my limits. I learned early on that I’m BAD at working on something long term. It’s a limitation I have and I know it. This Couch to 5k thing… that’s a 9 week course… self started… got to get myself up off the couch of DOOM and do it myself. I have never done anything myself for that length of time. I said that if she could do all those things she’d done then surely I’d be able to do them. Once in my life I should, before it was too late, live up to the standards my sister had set for herself and surpassed over and over again in my estimation.

Last week I finished the 9 week running program in 12 weeks. I finished it because my sister who I’ve never told how proud I was of her was my inspiration. Not her finishing it. I don’t know if she has or not yet. She has no twitter feed *hint*hint*. But because of the way she’s lived her life. She’s, to my eyes, worked hard to make sure that she lives it fully. There’s an expression in racing that you run so you leave everything on the track. When you finish a race there’s nothing left in you as you cross the finish line. You couldn’t run any further because you’ve run it and run it your best and hardest without burning out too soon or crossing the finish line with any reserves meaning you didn’t run hard enough. To me she’s running the race of life that way. She doesn’t appear to be coasting through life just waiting for things to happen and I respect that and appreciate it and love her for it.

Thank you Leigh, for introducing me to the C25k and thank you for being someone I wish I were more like. You make me proud to say you’re my sister.

(This is a double blog post… if you see it on simplerich.com and my SimpleRunner blog in your newsreader it’s not stuttering. I am. She’s worth a double post to me.)

(PS: To those of you who say I’m romanticizing things and no brother sister is this lovey dovey… lol you’re right. We weren’t. I was an ass and she was too… but we were kids. We’re allowed. We both grew out of it and turned into decent people.)

I’m going to do my first cross-blog post involving both simplerich.com and my simplerunner blog over on blogspot. I’ve started running recently (First recorded run was on Sept 12th or so.) so it’s been slightly less than a month that I’ve been running.

I’ve been doing the Couch to 5k training program to ease me into being able to run a 5k race from being a couch rider who didn’t do much more than walk and hike. I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. The thing with running books, running podcasts, and stories about runners, is that they’ve always hit me on an emotional level. This isn’t true of all sports. I read and really liked The Blind Side by Michael Lewis but it didn’t resonate with me on an emotional level. I just really liked it.

Running for me though is something that is singular in the sports world to me… I know it’s not. Golf is all you too. But with Running there’s no technological advantage to be had by the wealthy. I don’t think you can buy your way into being a good runner. I do believe you can build a good football team with money. I also believe you can pour money into cars to have an edge in racing. Running though is a guy and the road and at some point it quits being about muscle and starts being about personal drive and desire.

There’s a point in running when the runner is running not on strength but on will power and those stories are the ones that hit me in the stomach. The story of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope makes me cry every time I hear it. He ran 3339 miles in 143 days and he only had one leg. The other’d been lost to cancer. Phedippidations, a running podcast that I enjoy a great deal and have listened to for hours for the past couple weeks, has a great podcast about Terry Fox.

When I was in college I ran. There was a track between the University of Montevallo where I first went to college and the off campus house I was living in. I would go at night, in secret and run around the track. I never ran very far, and I never ran very long. I remember listening to the soundtrack to Joan Lui while I ran though. Still when I listen to my favorite song from that album I remember those night time runs.

I never told anybody, and didn’t stick with it because I was afraid I wasn’t very good at it. I’d never run track in high school and if you ever look at runners while they’re running… they’re not beautiful creatures. Nor are they graceful or awe-inspiring. They’ve got a sort of zombie-like shuffle that they do, and their faces are either pale or flushed, and always glisten with an unhealthy wetness. I was far too self-conscious then to admit to anybody that I was a runner.

I’m still self-conscious but there’s something about it now that’s different. Something that hit me when I was playing golf with my Dad. There is only one thing I can think of that looks more ridiculous and laughable than a golfer’s posture and swing… and that’s doing it badly and looking like an idiot and still having to chase the ball. It dawned on me that day on the fairway that golfers don’t look stupid to other golfers unless they golf badly.

Running’s the same way. I’ll look tired. I’ll look like I’m shuffling along and look nothing like the tall lithe Kenyans who break land speed records. But I’ll be doing something that I’ve wanted to do for over 20 years but was too embarrassed to do because of what other people would think. What a stupid waste of my time.

So. I run. I love to run. I like finding limits and pushing them. I like that I’m doing something that most people don’t/won’t do. I’m not doing it for my health or to lose weight. I expect it will improve my health and my weight’s not bad enough to really bother me that much. I’m doing it because I like it. I like it outside, and I like how I feel after I’ve run.

I’m going to run a 5k race in the spring. I don’t know where or when yet but I’m going to. I haven’t got a goal time yet either. But I want to run at least one 5k in spring and maybe a 10k in the fall. I doubt I’ll ever be good enough to run a marathon, but by next year I wouldn’t rule out a half-marathon if the running gods smile on me.

If you decide to run, or if you’re a runner, I’d love it if you’d drop me a line, say “Hi” or even point me towards some more good running podcasts or websites I might find helpful. Like I said. I’m a complete newbie to this running thing and while I enjoy it, it doesn’t mean I’m doing it right at all and I can use all the help I can get.

Thank you all for reading this. I know it was longer than my usual blog posts. Take care of yourselves and the ones you love.

Eat Less Move More

I’ve been on a diet for about a month now and lost 10 lbs. I think my general fitness level has increased as well. My priorities have certainly changed. I’ve unsubscribed from my online games. I hardly game at all now, and my reading has been cut way back.

I used to believe I’d exercise more if there were enough time to do that and everything else. The first week or so the exercising was of the make myself do it sort of thing. I didn’t enjoy it so much as endure it. Somewhere in there though it changed to the point that I walk and jog in place while watching Survivor now to make sure I get some cardio in. I won’t lie. I’m not doing crap for strength training and I need to. That’s my weakness right now. I haven’t any room to do it and I don’t want to buy equipment. I did the 30 day shred for a week and then stopped and never picked it up again. I should start again, but the walking & cardio is going strong for me right now so I’m going to stick with it for now.

I’ve found a good walking tracking site. I’m a fan of the pedometer, using a good pedometer, the Omron HJ-112 instead of a cheapo model cut my steps way down… partly because the cheap ones were measuring a thousand steps on the drive to work when I didn’t walk at all. So, using WalkerTracker I’m keeping up with my steps. Using SparkPeople I’m keeping up with my vegetables, water, and other goals, including minutes of cardio per day/week/month. I’ve been using Weight Watchers Online for Men to track my points, that is mostly a low fat, high fiber diet and portion control. I’m better disciplined with that than I was/am with SparkPeople.

Shopping List:

1. Nintendo Wii
2. Wii Fit
3. Pokemon Platinum

There you go. That’s what I spent my money on. Now, I had the Nintendo Wii. I got it back around Thanksgiving when they were rare and kept it back in case I needed a great Christmas present at the last minute. The Wii Fit though I just got today and have set it up, input my height and let it weigh me and figure my BMI (too high but I think it’s doing it wrong) and then set a weight loss goal.

I also got Pokemon Platinum which has nothing to do with fitness, but everything to do with a really fun game. Now, if you’ve played Diamond or Pearl Platinum’s going to look really familiar and maybe I wouldn’t buy it new unless you were addicted, but if you played neither Diamond or Pearl then Platinum‘s a great way to get back into Pokemon.

The Wii and Wii Fit can both be hard to get out in the world. We went to two Best Buy’s and three Game Stops before finally finding it in a little Mom & Pop game store in Ames today so if you want either the Wii or the Wii Fit make your life easier and order it from Amazon. Show me some love and buy it through those links and help get me some affiliate lovin’ too if you want.

This isn’t a paid ad, both are GREAT fun. (Boom Blox is my favorite Wii game so far, but a close second is Rayman Raving Rabbids).

The hard part is I work on the road a lot so some weeks I won’t have access to the wii for exercise etc. While gone I’ll do the exercises that are in Sparkpeople (free remember?) and walk but I’ll miss the wii!

PS: Weekends will tend toward more personal posts than others. I won’t say there will be no management type posts on the weekend and I won’t say there won’t be any personal types in the week, but I’m going to try and focus them that way. Work in work week, and personal on weekends. If I bore you as a person, feel free to Mark all as Read on Mondays. My feelings won’t be hurt in the least.

PPS: Very excited about the Wii Fit. About to exercise on it now. I’ll be gone for much of this next week and the following one, but I’ll get back to you all on how I keep up with it. I know you’re glued to your collective seats!

I’ve talked about SparkPeople.com before, but for some reason I stopped using it. I’ve got a focus problem sometimes. I wander off and then never come back to things. It’s why I’m addicted to the Moleskine Cahiers to keep my brain on task at work. See, I just did it again! Sparkpeople.com is not a diet site. OK. It is a diet site, but it’s a diet site in the same way google is a company that does search. Sparkpeople.com is much more than diet.

One of the things that helps me with focus was recently mentioned by Walletpop.com here where they talk about sparkpeople.com believe it or not. It’s the Seinfeld calendar. The idea is you get a big honking calendar and every day you work to your goal you put a big X through the day. Soon you’ll have a small chain and you won’t to break the chain. It’s a constant visual cue to get going on the goal, and anything can be done if you do a little every day. At least that’s what the folks said who built the pyramids, dug the Panama Canal, and got men on the moon.

But back to fitness! When you’re done with this article go check out walletpop’s five mostly free fitness tips to jumpstart your fitness mission.

I’m forty at the time that I write this and being fit isn’t as easy as it used to be. It takes some effort on my part. Not a supreme amount of work honestly, but it isn’t something that just happens. I’m not the most disciplined person you’re likely to meet and I need reminders. I need something that keeps my focus on task. It’s like the Moleskine cahiers I was talking about earlier that I use for work. They’re low-tech, but they’re fast, easy, and cheap. All things I need in a system for me to stick with it. Sparkpeople is a good system for tracking fitness and things that impact fitness.

I’m not that hung up on weight. I’m technically overweight for my height (10 lbs), but I see me in a mirror and I’m far from a house. I could stand to lose a few pounds. There’s no way I’m in need of a diet site. I’m in need of a reminder that vegetables are edible, exercise won’t kill me, water is free and I don’t drink enough, and all sorts of things I’m willing to do ARE exercise. I don’t have to own elaborate weight machines, and walking, which I love, counts. Not as much as jogging or running, but it counts!

If you’re of a mind to try and get some fitness focus give Sparkpeople.com a look. It’s got a heck of a lot of information on there which is both nice, and supremely distracting at times. Use it for a week or two and see if you don’t like it too. If you don’t, and have a better site you use that’s free please, let me know in the comments! I’d love to try it.