Bus traffic

Oftentimes, it seems that things don’t work out right. We hear about people who have missed a bus or a phone call possibly by just seconds. I heard once about someone who stood in line for 8 hours in an effort to have 60 seconds in front of a performance artist in the basement of the New York public library—the guard put his arm down in front of her signifying that the person in front of her would be the last person to gain such an audience. She took this disappointment and wrote about it. I’ll write, too.

Friends and an unknown ability

Date	Place of exercise	Classic sprint	Dam Sprint	Pullups	Start time
15 Oct	Park	47.76	1:28.75	5,11, 9,7,5	06:45

The mind is powerful. It can slow us down; it can put barriers in our way. If we think we can’t do something, you can bet that we can’t. Today, I saw the mind work in the opposite direction—those barriers were lifted. Competition is the thing. Oh, yes, we all can SAY we don’t care about winning. We can maintain that we don’t have a competitive bone in our body. But it’s there.

I fell flat and lived

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Classic sprint	Dam Sprint	Pullups	Start time
13 Sept 14 Sept 16 Sept 20 Sept 23 Sept	Tirana	≈ 45	51.87 51.50 56.25 55.77 55.97	1:07.95 (lake sprint) 1:37.25 1:42.46 1:43.31 1:42.34	5,9,7,5 5,11,9,5 5,9,7,5 5,9,7,5	06:42 07:38 07:07 08:00 08:25

                There was nothing to deflect my concentration from picking up my toes, picking up the knees and whisking across the broken pavement.  I had given my phone and my keys and my head phones to Jerry before I began the sprint. I felt free. I imagined Jerry seeing me charging away like a bull toward the red door of the cow house. The half a pound that was the phone must have given me subliminal boost of speed—I was running like mad.

flapping pockets

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Classic sprint	Dam Sprint	Pullups	Start time
12 Sept	Tirana	45	50.55	1:36.77	5,9,7,5	07:02

                I wrote the other day how the mind works in both ways. What I meant was that the mind can make you think that you are running slowly when you are running fast, and vice versa. Today, I felt like I was zipping along. We’ll see how that worked out.

gust of wind on the way to a tornado party

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Classic sprint	Dam Sprint	Pullups	Start time
10 Sept	Tirana	45	49.92	1:36.96	5,7,7,5	07:02

                After yesterday’s bounce over the handlebars, I made the final sprint in under 50 seconds. Yes, this will be my standard to determine if things are going well—under 50 seconds good, over 50 seconds needs work.

.03

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Classic sprint	Dam Sprint	Pull-ups	Start time
8 Sept	Tirana	47	50.67	1:38.56	5,7,9	07:05

                I thought I was running well today, and I was. I ran the dam sprint in only 3 one-hundredths of a second slower than my record. Then, when I finished the classic sprint, and saw that I was close to 50 seconds, and I was thrilled.

Fastest result of all time, and a symbol of failure

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Dewey sprint U	Dewey sprint D	Start time
25 July	Johnston	45	1:00.55 up	56.52	07:15

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Dewey sprint U	Start time
24 July	Johnston	37	57.45	08:17

                I have the feeling that the Dewey Sprint in one direction is ever so slightly in an upgrade fashion. I’m not sure about this. I have begun to experiment with running the sprint during the first part of my run. 

Guess the house

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Dewey sprint	Start time
21 July	Johnston	50	59.08	08:01

                I was told the street where my niece had moved into a house. I made a game out of it. “Which house is it?” At first, one might think they have no idea. But let’s think about this. It was easy to narrow it down. First off, she would not have a truck, or a jeep, or a van.

arms like propellers

20 July 2016

            Today, I went swimming in Ankeny. during the 10 minutes when those people under 18 were not allowed to swim, I did laps in a roped off area. I timed myself doing half a lap, thinking I was swimming at a generally good pace.

Two Dewey Sprints in one morning

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Dewey sprint	Dewey sprint	Start time
19 July	Johnston	40	58.31	59.12	07:12

Luckily I ran today before the rain came down. I performed quite well, trying the  Dewey Sprint twice and breaking the 60-second barrier both times.

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Dewey sprint	Start time
18 July	Johnston	45	59.74	08:05

Concentration

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Dewey sprint	Start time
17 July	Johnston	33	59.07	07:05

                After a couple weeks camping and visiting wilderness and picking up the boys in the eastern part of the country, I found myself back in Johnston, at my sister’s house. I began the run as usual, loping gently down the road. I soon realized, however,

registration

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	14 flights	Start time
27 June	Moscow	74	1:16.93	07:02

This time is several seconds quicker because I stopped halfway up to deposit a bag and some flowers in my room. I ran this morning to my friend’s place so we could go to the post office together where I would re-register my visa. I had registered it on the Black Sea at Orlyonok, but that registration expired on the 20th.

Moscow 3:30 am

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	14 flights	Start time
24 June	Moscow	45	1:24.03	03:45

          This morning I woke a 3:30, and the sun already had everything completely visible. It was a tad grey. The most interesting thing was the five people, in three different groups, who were riding rented bikes.

Children are the victims of adults' vices

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	14 flights	Start time
23 June	Moscow	95	1:24.59	07:45

          I ran around the area near my apartment today and happened to find an interesting group of statues. They are in Bolotnay Square—a place where significant protests against V. Putin’s proposed, and now realized, third term as president, occurred in 2012. The statues are quite remarkable.

The Orlyonok running experience

Here are all my blog posts about my runs in Orlyonok:

June 17; The mind is the master

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters(s)	Start time
17 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	2		1:13.19	18:35

          I did it. I smashed my record by nearly 2 seconds. You might think that’s nothing big, but the other teachers around my table in the cafeteria all know it’s monumental.

June 16; Ugh!

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters quarter mile(s)	Start time
16 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	52	30.57	1:15.70	07:19

           Someone said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and getting the same result over and over, all the time expecting to get a different result (or something like that…maybe it was Einstein). 

June 15; Barriers

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters quarter mile(s)	Start time
15 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	55	26.07	1:15.57	07:19

           Ridiculous. How can someone come within two seconds of the goal seven times in nine days, but NOT cross the barrier? What excuses can I find today? It began raining at the start of my run. There were several people on the track. I didn’t think about picking up my knees, and I thought about running on my toes only at the beginning. 

June 14; A running partner .13 seconds!!!! Ugh!!!

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters quarter mile(s)	Start time
14 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	61	27.93	1:15.13	07:19

          Ugh! .13 seconds. As I crossed the halfway mark, I glanced at my watch to see that I was at 38 seconds—on pace for 1:16. I reasoned that was exactly where I needed to be. I didn’t slow down at this point; I maintained my pace, and soon expended greater effort.

June 13; New method of running

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters quarter mile(s)	Start time
13 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	55	29.19	1:16.22	07:20

          I tried to new method of running the 400 meters today. Rather than run at the limit of my exertion from the very beginning, I decided I would try to pace myself. I had been under the impression that the quarter mile was a short distance, and that I should be able to give an all-out effort during the entire sprint. No.

June 12; Video of 400 meters

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters(s)	Start time
12 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	65	27.87	1:16.49	07:19

          Possibly a new pain, possibly it was simply unrecognized earlier, but my hamstrings were sore after the fingers were tingling and at nearly the same time as the inside of the elbows. My neck presented no pain today—possibly because I did not strain sufficiently. 

Young dude kicks my butt

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters(s)	Start time
11* June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	52	27.41	1:17.13	07:16

          First my fingers were tingling—not a terribly unpleasant feeling, but unusual. Then, the inside of my elbows began to ache, followed by aching in my neck. All of this accompanied by acute inability to breath, gasping for oxygen with great gulps of air that perpetually left me unsatisfied in my effort to reach equilibrium. This great strain began after the conclusion of the sprint.

June 8 and 9; The bittersweet agony of near success

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters(s)	Start time
9 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	49	27.93	1:15.09	07:19

          Oh, the bittersweet agony of near success. Earlier this week I had run the quarter mile* in almost 75 seconds, 76.03 and 76.83, two times this week. Therefore, I thought it shouldn’t be too difficult for me to run just a bit faster and achieve my long-standing goal from four years ago.