Hotter 'an H-E- doubles hockey sticks!

If only it were a cold as a hockey rink... but I'd complain about that, too. It is my third day with no AC. Working at home while sitting in my own sweat is just... well, I keep thinking that it is good for my skin. A cold shower at the end of the day is the liquid form of heaven. Amen!

Hiro is working everyday, but it was slow on Saturday and Sunday, so we went off in search of an AC on Saturday, right about the time that I have to do something less I succumb to the jet lag. They say it is easier traveling home and I think they say it because it is true. I've had no real problem, minus the first day when I headed into class looking like a zombie. 10 minutes in and it was like it never happened. So much for that.

I've managed to do all the laundry and tonight made a Japanese-Italian fusion dinner that included zucchini multigrain rice with garlic and parmesan, hijiki pepperochini, and sliced tomatoes with garden picked basil, fresh mozzarella, sprinkled with S&P and drizzled with olive oil. Scrumptious!

Speaking of food, I miss the humus of home. And I also miss making homemade granola. So nice when it is warm out of the oven and great with Chobani greek yogurt in the morning or as an afternoon snack. Sigh. Will be home again in 4 months and what do I have to moan about really when fall in Japan offers some seriously delish produce (Hello, pumpkin!) (Nice to see you again persimmons!). Yup, my NHK "kyo no gohan" (Tonight's Dinner) is all marked with the recipes I want to try.

Otherwise, I am back to running but still doing aerobics. PA was the perfect temp for running and the scenery was so nice I wanted to be outside in it. So, I started walking, which turned into walk-running. PA is shaped like a western woman, rolling hills in all the right places, so I got used to running on inclines of different degrees and it has made running on flat land here simple. So, we'll see if I keep it up or throw my hands up and say, "Kathy Smith, take me away!"

I like to jump

I got a call last night and one friend is already out of the race. I loved his thinking, too. It was so honest and well, true to himself. He said that for him running is such a personal thing and he worries that a race will change that for him. I said that I didn't see it as a true race, to which he retorted, "Have you seen me play Pictionary?" I have...

...and now you have! So, I really understand what he meant.

Funnily, I have a similar face when playing games and I guess I thought the race would motivate me to get my ass in running gear. So while it did for like 2 weeks at a time, it always staled when the reality hit me that I like to jump, not run. I like leotarded women to say thing to me like, "1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Once more! You got it! Push it now!" I am and forever will be a cheerleader and aerobics is the closest I get to that nowadays. And that is fine. I don't need bows and pleated skirts, but I do need the jumping and clapping. Go Team Me!

The Race?

Workout: 30 minutes of aerobics

Feeling: Spaced

Dessert: a clean house and laundry done

Well, the running has halted. And I don't care anymore. I am not going to freak out about it. I mean, this is how it is. Hiro's allergies flared up and I just said NEVERMIND! So, I am doing aerobics, 3-4 times a week and that's that. It's what I do, what I like the most, and so I do it instead of run.

Does this mean I will never run again? No. I still have the 18th to contend with, but no one seems to know what is happening with it. So, we'll see if it is actually on. One friend said we should do our own thing. Interesting idea, but I like that it is for a cause. Anyway, I am still exercising. So, maybe I will be OK? Just glad to know I am still on the wagon, even if I am not running on the wagon.

We did a little extra

Workout: Wk2D2+5 minute more, 10 minutes stretching

Feeling: Great!

Dessert: Hubby is cooking dinner!

I thought on D1 we did 5 minutes less than we should have, so I taked on 5 more minutes by mistake. What's great is that we felt great at the end, put our hands together in thanks, and held hands during the cool down walk. I was quite sore after the other day, maybe more the yoga after than anything, but we took 3 days off in between, mostly because of Hiro's late returns each night. No complaints because tonight was brilliant, and well, we plan to go again tomorrow. He gets home earlier and we want to stay on track with the training. I skipped yoga today so I wouldn't feel so sore. We'll see how it goes.

I see runners now and I don't think, man, they are crazy. I think, man, they are cool and they make it look so easy. So maybe one day it will be easier? Maybe more days will be like tonight, when I forget to look at the clock to see if I can walk yet, or pick up the pace on the last leg, like an olympic jumper who springs like a gazelle before leaping into the sand pit. Well, maybe not so sprightly, but that's how I look in my head: healthy, full of tenacity, determined to get further than the last time.

How time flies...

I spent five weeks thinking about writing this post, so here it goes!  Five weeks ago I did the splits, first time since high school. I   graduated in 1996. OUCH! I should also mention for your laughing   pleasure that this painful event didn't happen in the privacy of my   home or because I was trying to make my husband randy. No. It happened   on an icy main road, while in the middle ( as in dead center) of a   cross walk, while wearing a skirt. Yes, Kyoto traffic has been   personally introduced to my stockinged bits. You're welcome! 

My body  hurt so bad that walking sent pangs into my knees and ankles, muting   my hurting ego, slightly. So, take some time off, fine, had   carpenters and contractors at our place every night anyway asking us   what flooring, wall paper, etc we wanted. No running.  And then Saturday came and I thought, "Gee, my throat sure does feel   scratchy and boy, I don't feel at all up to the long awaited girls'   night tonight." I love a good party, so that was all I needed to   realize that I was sick! And by sick, I mean it took 2 weeks to get better.   No voice, achy, and just generally felt miserable! No fever, which I   just never seem to get and I am convinced therefore that everything   takes longer to go away.

Then, we moved! All 3 tons of our stuff was carried down one flight into a truck, driven a mile, and then loaded into an elevator until finally being carried down one flight and into our shiny new place. How those young bucs managed to carry al 3 tons, well, I dunno'. Wait, yes, I do! They were mega young. But very good at their job .The leader was so cute telling his younger counterpart how to move this and that so no scratches would be left. Good kids, I'd say. THough, if they had been my students, I am pretty sure they would have been the ones who were staring out the windows...

So, here I am, 5 weeks later and we have just done, wait for it...

Wk2D1. Terrbly behind, but at least we are on the running wagon! Doubt we can do 6 K in the race, but I will be thrilled to run 3 and walk the other 3. That's life, you know, do what you can. Hope is not gone and I got my health!

Remember this feeling

Workout: W2D3, 15 minutes yoga and stretching

Feeling: Great, but getting nervous as the runs will get longer next time

Dessert: Husband is cooking tonight's meal

Off we went in a different direction. We went in search of a route from our new home! We'll be moving in a month to our 4 bedroom mansion (that's a condo in the U.S.). It's only a 3 minute walk from the subway station, 1 stop from JR, and down the road from the highway entrance. It's soon to be renovated and with keys in hand as of yesterday I am psyched to go take the "before" shots! The outside is freshly painted and I felt very lucky when I saw it from the backside as we approached down Gojo Dori.

Now I feel even luckier, because we discovered that it is very close to our river side path. We can easily take back roads with little traffic (aka fuming exhaust pipes) and arrive at the river in about 3 minutes, or 2 once we are running the whole thing. We went and returned maintaining a very nice pace. Our best pace to date. I take my slightly queezy feeling and most gazelle like gait as evidence that we are improving our stride. Makes me think we may be OK next week when we begin the next phase.

I do feel it was a little harder this week, but only ever so slightly. Like if I were to measure it, I would say it was 1/8 of an inch harder. I suppose next week will be more challenging, but if I can remember how I feel right now... I am stronger doing downward dog into a yogi push-up and upward bend then back up to downward dog, I have more energy for life, I am sleeping like a downward dog, and while the scale shows only slight improvement, my clothes, I think, look better on and off.

The biggest challenge will be remembering these great things as the weeks get harder. We already know we can do this. People twice our age do it. So why we do it is more important to recall... remember this feeling!

Come rain or come shine...

Workout: W2D2, 20 minutes yoga and stretching

Feeling: Damn good

Dessert: This post (I waited until I finished writing to add this)

I was totally anticipating running tonight, like a kid waiting for the 3 o'clock bell to ring so she can go home and play. Except, when I exited the train station it was raining. Hiro came to get me and I said, "Well, we can go anyway!" "He laughed while munching on potato sticks. I got all cross and started to proclaim how committed I am to this program, and getting back into shape. He kept munching and laughing. Oh the annoyance!

I told him that I was disappointed in his laughing and that we were both teetering on being beyond unhealthy and into fatty fatville. Truth is, he doesn't look it with clothes on, and even with clothes off he can pass for having a semi-flat spare tire. I probably look "healthy" in the US, but here, I am a cottage cheese mess, a blob of cream cheese in a plastic tube, synched at both ends by a thick chain link fence type metal. A sausage, if you will. I spouted and as I did the sky stopped.

We got out of the car, came in, changed and off we went. It was unusually warm today and tonight was no exception. I threw on a baseball cap, as opposed to my fleece lined wooly, and left the long johns in the drawer. The smell of wet pavement, the rushing river, and a quicker pace with Hiro really kept me going. We went faster than when I went alone, measured by the slightly longer distance we covered in the same time. I guess D2 isn't proving the hardest. Then again, W1 and W2 aren't really hard.

I have one more day left and I am already thinking about when I'll go... Friday a.m. perhaps, or maybe evening before we go to help Hiro's family. They have a 70 bento (lunch box) order for Saturday and we are both off. I could use the day to work on consulting stuff, but they have helped us innumerable times. They help just because. They've contributed funds to us along the way "just because", picked me up at the station and drove me home endless times when we lived down the road from them, paid for things for MY MOTHER, and have been extremely understanding about my pursuit of an MA and career. Plus, his 93 year old grandma, who still works and cooks dinner everyday, is an inspiration to me so much so that by just being around her I feel like I am standing next to history.

Anywho, I look forward to the next post, simply because I will have completed W2 then and will be slightly nervous as I anticipate W3D1.