Run DMZ

If you want to lose more weight by running, do it by miles and not minutes. For instance, say you'll run 5 miles and not 40 minutes because we overestimate how much distance we actually do when we run by time, according to Self magazine. If you want a racy dream, fall asleep on your stomach. The mattress apparently stimulates your breast and pelvic regions. Guys say they prefer women who don't wear makeup then they actually complain if they don't wear any. So, ladies, wear makeup for your man, just not enough to where he can tell. An old NYC acquaintence has always been courageous, talented, truthful and beautiful, but it's still startling to keep seeing her in Juvederm ads -- using her real name too -- that say, "With Juvederm, no one will know." Really? Kale is the trendy veggie now. Or it was last month, anyway. The reason legs and hands get so dry in winter is because neither area produces many natural oils. And Glamour magazine recommends a $125...

Sunrise over Scripps Ranch If you typically run at sunrise or sunset, then you've been privy to some pretty impressive scenery lately. One of the perks of autumn and winter are more spectacular dawns and dusks than at other times of the year. I wanted to embed a video, but Blogger isn't letting me. Here's a primer on why the skies are colorful: http://bcove.me/drzz0bdw Here's also a nice explanation of why sunsets are so spectaular now .

Along with taking on a post-dawn mall with my prodigy in search of sales, we have another post-Christmas tradition here at Run DMZ. It's time to indulge in a little hubris and list some of the races, books, movies, plays and songs that I especially enjoyed this year. First, here's my list from 2010 . And now, on to this year. Favorite Race: Buffalo Alley 10k Once again, I didn't do a lot of races this year. But it never felt so good to hurt so bad as the 60 minutes I spent moving with a couple of thousand others through the hills of Camp Pendleton on a race-perfect October morning. I really enjoyed my video version too. Favorite Book: 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks It's impossible to read this Swiftian satire and not start worrying about where we're heading as a country. It is a fictional account of the United States 20 years from now, when we've found a cure for cancer and Alzheimer's Disease and we've continued to let ...

The Wall Street Journal claims people statistically have a midlife crisis at the age of 47 . For once, I’m with them. I have indeed undergone a great deal of turbulence and a major career transition that has transformed me in the past 365 days. I now arrive on my 48th birthday a lot less wealthy, a wee bit wiser and far more happy. And I didn’t even need a tummy tuck, sports car or boy toy to arrive here. I titled this post as such because it may serve as a handy reference when you too pass through life’s prism and turn from a sorry-ass to sage. Heretofore are some kernels of wisdom I have learned through mostly experience. Many more than appear here moved through my mind, but these are the only ones I could remember after recent runs. If you want adventures and great stories to tell, you must run into trouble, not away from it. A key to happiness is self-discipline. That means when you lose it or lack it, you will feel a little down. And that, I’m convinced, is why we really have post...

When I used to interview hackers for a living, I would go home and do the equivalent of showering after talking to a mass murderer or rapist: I'd immediately change all my passwords. An article in the New York Times about poor password protection should alarm anyone who values their privacy or money -- especially if you use Facebook and MySpace since a company apparently unknowingly gave up the goods on 32 million users. The data were analyzed by good guys to find out what passwords people used. Sadly, they are the same ones used 15 years ago. Simple Passwords Remain Popular, Despite Risk of Hacking In the article, one of the industry's best-known hackers explains why we keep using poor passwords: information overload. He recommends that you maintain at least two passwords in your head. One can be semi-easy for stuff you don't necessary care to protect; the other should be difficult and used for anything involving online banking or e-commerce. The standard is to create an a...

If you were up and outdoors under clear skies before dawn this morning, then you witnessed a beautiful full moon. And if you're still up tonight celebrating the end of the decade, you'll see yet another full moon, much like the one on Dec. 2, which makes tonight's occurrence what we informally call a blue moon (though it isn't blue). It's a phenomenon that hasn't happened in about 20 years, and I think it bodes well for all of us, don't you? Cheers! 'Blue Moon' to Shine on New Year's Eve (National Geographic)

Tomorrow provides a unique situation that I must tell you about today since it'll be Wordless Wednesday. That afternoon, for one second, the day will officially read: 12:34:56 7/8/9 That's all.

Another Saturday afternoon, another long list of neglected routine housework. Had a terrific, lazy hazy trail run this morning, so in that spirit I think I might dawdle just a little bit more and catch up on some miscellaneous, running and non-running items here at Run DMZ. Last Year for a Rockin' Finish at the MCRD The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego must find a new place to finish after this year. The Marine Corps Recruit Depot is expanding its barracks and can't host the race finish anymore. No doubt the change will also alter the course as well. It's tough to find a place for 20,000 people, their friends and family and all those cars to carry them home. Rock 'n' Roll Marathon to End MCRD Run Computer or Camera? I’m not sure either about this week’s Wordless Wednesday photos. My computer somehow stored these angles I created by maneuvering my mouse in Google Maps. The camera shots then showed up in a temp file like you see. I saw them and thought the...

Time for some Friday fun. How does your term for a certain carbonated beverage stack up against this map? (Click on the picture for a bigger image.) [Map courtesty of Pop vs. Soda Web site]

I am sitting in an otherwise pitch-black room with very angry intestines and a wary mind that’s been in an all-night power struggle with sleep. I’m sick, but it’s the worst kind of sick: It’s completely self-induced. Truthfully, I didn’t drink that much wine. And if mixing reds and whites causes both upset stomach and scratchy throat, this is news to me. Yesterday morning I had to abort my run due to too many bathroom visits. That should have been my warning to watch what I ate. Technically I did as I wolfed down wild salmon and baby greens for lunch and then post-meal popcorn and muffins and cookies that someone ordered for an offsite meeting. That was followed closely by calamari and more booze as we ate and drank our way to a $500 minimum food and drink tab. Within 30 minutes of everyone leaving the bar, I was pulling into a private parking area in downtown Del Mar for a summer solstice party featuring more wine that the host served with assorted grapes and cheeses. I was highly enc...

Here are the rules. If you’re tagged, you will find your name at the end of this post. You should then copy the rules (or your version of them), and the set of questions onto your blog post, provide your own answers, and then tag 5 new people. Just to be sure that everyone tagged knows they have been invited to play, go to their blogs and leave them a special comment letting them know, and refer them to your blog for details. One more thing, according to my tagger Juls, once the chosen have answered the questions on their own blog, they should come back to yours to tell you. Here are my responses. 1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago? In decline, though it would take years for me to realize it. In the summer of 1998 I still believed my best running was ahead of me and futilely chased PRs. I ran among the coyote and tourists and dead people. Yes, that’s the summer I incorporated the National Cemetery into my long runs on Cape Cod. It was perfect. Not only was the place la...

Both of our daughters were home for spring break. Within a day the place resembled a sorority house, with hair products, clothes, makeup and junk food everywhere. They brought over various friends, who didn't seem to mind the unclean state of the house as much as I did. They went to a different beach everyday. I took them and a visiting friend to Coronado on Easter; it was heavenly, with the seas glistening and the air the perfect temperature as you can see from the previous post. On the way home I gave everyone a tour of the “island” and luckily found a parking spot on the main strip just a block from the very popular Moo Time Creamery. Alex grew faint and almost passed out while we were there. I stayed in line (hey, we were finally up next after waiting for 30 minutes) to order her Tangy Moo smoothie, while a woman behind me got her water. “Way to go, Mom,” my other daughter, Elise, said to me. My CT scan showed no tumors. But it did reveal something else that I'm hopeful isn...

Here's something for everyone to chew on. Earlier this month Duke University researchers released a scientific model they've created to help women decide when its optimal for them to give birth, depending on their career and life aspirations. One tidbit that's getting plenty of feedback is this snippet from the official news release : The model suggests that, especially in cases where both family life and career are important to the woman, having a child much earlier may be a better long-term solution than waiting until she is more established in her career. "It may seem surprising to suggest having a child at a younger age, even if the woman places no importance on having a child until a certain age," Vernik said. "But the model takes into account the fact that taking a maternity leave has less impact on the future career of a woman who is a student or in the beginning of her professional life. This woman’s child will also be older and slightly more independ...

You do know it's uncool to drink bottled water now, don't you? I meant to mention this about a month ago, when I first read in the New York Times about those Manhattan moms who wouldn't be caught dead with a Dasani in public. Their reasons, if I remember correctly, were to be more green and reduce the (recyclable) packaging and transportation costs. There are also political groups working to dissuade the public from buying into bottled water, ever since it came to light that the most popular brands come from treated tap water anyway. Meanwhile, class action lawsuits have been waged and settled with major labels using so-called spring sources for their water, the biggest being Poland Spring (it's called Arrowhead on the West Coast). I haven't seen shrinking space for bottled water on grocery aisles yet, but if this thing gains momentum, I may wish I'd bought stock in Brita filters. Here are some online resources: Think Outside the Bottle For Empty Bottles, There...

Thanks, Steph , for tagging me. Job's I've Held: Restaurant hostess/server Amusement park cashier and ride operator Business manager Newspaper, magazine and web journalist College instructor Adult Education and ESL teacher Editorial director Movies I Can Watch Over & Over: Jaws Small Change (and any other classic French film) The Birds Heartburn Saint Ralph Guilty Pleasures: Long, hot, energy-wasting showers after a very sweaty run Mochi ice cream Rhianna’s “Umbrella” Buying only one item and still getting the full 2-for-$1-off discount The Young & The Restless Places I Have Lived: New York South Carolina Connecticut (2x) Virginia (3x) Ohio Maryland North Carolina (2x) Alaska Massachusetts California Shows I Enjoy: Law & Order House Survivor Project Runway Top Chef Lost Barefoot Contessa Vacation Spots: Yosemite and New Hampshire’s White Mountains are my favorites. Then again, nothing beats Cape Hatteras/Ocracoke Island…except maybe Edisto Beach, S.C. Favorite Foods...

Killing time, I came across the web site of Professor Richard Wiseman , author of Quirkology , and this little nugget of news about the influence our last names have on success, by chance or choice. Excerpt from the Daily Telegraph article: Everyone participating in the Telegraph experiment was asked to indicate their sex, age, surname and rate how successful they had been in various aspects of their life, such as their health, finances, career, and "life in general." Scores in all these categories were added up to obtain an overall "measure of success." The results revealed that readers whose surnames began with letters at the beginning of the alphabet did indeed rate themselves as significantly more successful overall than those with surnames starting with lowly, end-of-the-alphabet initials. The surname effect was especially pronounced when it came to career, suggesting that alphabetical discrimination was alive and well in the workplace. Interestingly, the effec...

*6 of them weird I was tagged by Laura to cite 10 interesting things about me (or, in two instances, people closely related to me) and Jessica for six weird things. I’d done the weird list before , but it’s fun to come up with more items and I love to play along with these memes. It just took longer than expected to respond this time. Without further ado, here you go. 1. I was born with purple eyes, not blue like other newborns. I now have the darkest black-brown eye color of any Caucasian I know. 2. My last name means “stingy person” in Finnish, “flower about to bloom” in Japanese, something altogether unrelated in Italian and something funny in Greek. I am none of those ethnicities. 3. My earliest memory is of evil people trying to kidnap me when I was 4. At least one of them went to prison. I clearly remember her screaming in the courtroom. 4. I like the taste of Tums. 5. I still dislike chocolate. 6. My nerdy dad made it to the Connecticut State Bowling Championship in the ...

Brought the Rio Cali with me on my early morning run so I could catch up on the morning news. Heard this insightful report on Mother's Day and its humble origins. Apparently its creator was so appalled at its commercialization that she actually tried to legally shut it down. Mother's Day Turns 100 (NPR.org)

Last summer when I realized I wouldn't be mobile for months, I started to more closely track my calories. I was, of course, shocked at how quickly they added up. Soon, calculating the cost of that extra serving of, say, those dehydrated pears became a brief obsession. I pretty much thought of little besides food and its cost. Then I again became more active and fell back into old eating habits. Now I read there's a movement that advocates eating far less than usual in order to live a lot longer. It's called Calorie Restriction, and if a recent Slate article is any indication , it's a lot like anorexia, only most practitioners are middle-aged and male. One passage in the article, written by a recovered anorexic, stood out to me: My starvation triggered the release of endorphins. In evolutionary terms, this is designed to give humans heightened coping powers in an emergency. In my case, it gave me a sense of well-being and made me feel sharp and energetic. This feeling ...