Run DMZ

Thanks for your comments and for sometimes holding your tongue. Thanks for your encouragement and for sometimes setting me straight. Thanks for the public kudos and for all the private emails when you could read between the lines. Thanks for the special mentions on your own blog, for listing me as one of your Favorites and for the retweets on Twitter. Thanks for meeting in person when I was in town and for meeting in person when you were visiting. Whether it be through family, friendship or fate, you played a small role in shaping the posts that have appeared here for the past five years. Thanks for being a small part of my blog and a big part of my life.

I went back to school this year to learn new software skills to stay competitive in today’s anemic economy. About 80 percent of the students are professionals who lost their jobs; the other 20 percent fear the same fate. The classes take place at a satellite campus in Serra Mesa on Saturdays and Sundays. We have to arrive between 7 and 7:30 a.m. to get in line for a good seat in the Mac Lab. Some weeks, I am in class all day Saturday; others, it’s Sunday. Beginning after spring break next week, it’ll be both Saturdays and Sundays through May. I don’t know about the other 20-percenters who have day jobs, but I’m beginning to tire of weekends devoted to a life of the mind. I love it while I’m learning, but come Sunday evening I realize how little time I spent outside a cold classroom. This semester’s schedule also has created an exercise inversion. I basically now bulk all of my running, rowing, and gym time into Monday thru Friday. The key for me is to prepare well the night before. I ...

One of my side jobs is helping professional speakers craft compelling presentation descriptions and biographies so some very busy people book them for appearances. As I sit here this morning wading through another huge pile, I am struck by how much the more seasoned executives give back with their time and talents. We're not just talking about joining the Rotary Club; these people invest in non-profits by leading their boards and contributing through considerable direct donations and/or in-kind services. In the past decade, I've dispense a lot of advice, often unsolicited, to new runners so that they can fully enjoy their experiences with minimum pain and suffering of the injury variety. I do sometimes wonder if I really know what I'm talking about, though, given my current state of physical decline. And I wonder if people privately snicker as I limp along in my larger-sized shirts and shorts. No matter. The San Diego Track Club last month appointed me to its board of direc...

The other evening I went to my track club’s Tuesday night workout. Only I sat in the bleachers, passing time instead of passing people during a tempo run. More than two years ago I felt a stabbing pain during Tuesday night hill repeats and limped back to my car, never to return thanks to chronic achilles tendonitis. That annoying injury eventually became a full-blown tear last fall and is what had me, four-plus months after being given “the boot,” staring at all my fit friends circling the Mesa College oval as the sun set. I felt lumpy and misshapen and unworthy, sitting there overdressed in long sleeves and sweat pants. But I also felt inspired. I now have a new running goal, unglamorous as it is. I’m going to get back into shape so I can return to those track workouts, and in a singlet and shorts that show off a firmer form. The weather’s improving. My injury is improving. It’s time my ambitions improved too.

During my recent four-month forced hiatus from running, I kept track of calories using a couple of popular calorie counters: Fitday and, later, MyPlate . According to my daily average intake, I should have lost 1.8 pounds a week. Instead, I gained five pounds. Part of the problem was something I wrote about last month : I vastly underestimated my recorded portions and serving sizes. But I also fell for miscalculations on how much I burned exercising. Basically, you cannot trust the accuracy of calorie estimates generated by machines, which tend to provide far more generous numbers than you’ve actually earned. Exercise machine manufacturers want you to believe you’re burning more than you might be so you’ll stick with their product. Calorie counters take your word on weight, age and especially effort. Your number is aggregated with others, from fat to fit, to come up with an average. But we all move mass differently and everything from proper form to a spicy burrito breakfast can impact...