Walking is not exercise.

It’s just necessary.  By dedicating an hour to walk, you’re just dedicating time to do more than necessary.   Walking is like breathing or eating in that it’s a basic life function, and if you’re having to practice walking, you’re in bad shape.  I can totally agree with people that find walking relaxing or therapeutic, but exercise is not supposed to be either of those.  At the very least you have to be climbing a hill or something.  If you want exercise, a better use of your time than walking an hour, is to drive home, do 30 minutes of yoga, and then go to bed.  As a guy who walks at least 3 miles commuting to and from work, I can tell you that walking is not worth the effort.  you’re fooling yourself if you think you’re doing something significant for your health.  STEP IT UP AND GO DO SOMETHING ACTIVE.

Today didn’t go quite how I wanted it to go.  I lost structure and got distracted and demotivated a lot.  We’ll see if I can get better for tomorrow.

7:30 am – Wake up for an 8:00am workday start from home

Noon – quick jaunt to the local post office to send off some last minute gifts, a netflix movie, and a textbook I sold online.  Also stop at the Family Dollar for some milk.

5:00 pm – Return a bathing suit for Kallie to target, then I took a trip over to best buy to pick up new computer speakers.  I was given a $50 gift card to best buy for my birthday, so I was going to pick up something there since my current speakers have a terrible and an unresolvable buzz coming from them.  When I started to browse, I noticed how ridiculously high the prices were.  I pulled up the amazon app on my phone and pretty much every speaker option was $20-$30 higher at best buy.  I was also interested in picking up a nice wireless N router, but those are way too expensive, and still about $20-$30 more than amazon’s prices.  I left without getting anything.

While in transit, I texted 2 separate friends to see if they were interested in grabbing a pint of beer at rock bottom, which used to be a weekly wednesday tradition with some friends.  Both could not go.  I tried not to let it get me too down, but my sails lost some wind.

7:00pm – Come home, move computer desk down stairs to the new lair in the basement.  I grabbed something to eat too, and started to watch “Who’s still standing?”, which is really stupid.  Once I had my fill of stupid, I came back downstairs to keep working at arranging my new set up.

9:00pm – My idea was to organize stuff downstairs for bit after eating, and then go for a run at 9.  Kallie called me pretty much at 9, which was just enough reason for me to lose focus on running.  I have to be up around 4:45am in the morning to make breakfast for the labor halls with the Living Ministry, so I should just call it a night, and hope to rest enough to be motivated to catch up tomorrow.  bed by 10.

Thank you so much for your gifts and your words of encouragement, Everyone!  We’re about a month away from the race, and I’m getting stoked.  It’s not here yet though, and that’s good because I haven’t met my goal yet!

I’ve had a few people tell me that my goal was too low, and to get people involved, they needed more of a challenge.  I did say more than $1000…but since we’re half way to the race, it seems fitting that the goal is to reach $1500 total, so we’re already more than half-way there!

I forgot to share a video from last year that my friend made of my friend Tim and I doing the race:

Men’s Health: 2009 Chicago Urbanathlon from Adam Mudrick on Vimeo.

if the embedded video doesn’t work, you can watch it here: http://www.vimeo.com/7305447

I also wanted to let you know that the ministry is holding car washes this Saturday, Sept 11th at the Busy Beaver in Century III and in Crafton.  Feel free to stop by, get your car washed, and see all the people that come out to support the ministry.

You can make an online payment with paypal by clicking on the “donate now” button on http://livingministry.org/blog/
or
You can mail your checks to:

Living Ministry
2536 Maple Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15214

Again, thank you to those who have already donated and thank you so much to those who replied back to me with encouraging words and support in the race.

Peace, Love, and Ambition,

Josh

So I got a pairs of the Vibram Five Finger KSOs out of curiosity.  I tried grabbing a pair in stores, but no one had any stock left, at least in my size.  I was able to try on a size close to mine, so I could go online and order direct.  Even online was out of stock of the styles I wanted.

About the shoes specifically, the soles were thinner than I expected.  Because they were so thin, I would think that the material would be harder/firmer, but it’s not really.  It’s still very flexible, which I can’t knock since it will only add to the purpose of being able to use your toes individually.

So my first run was a little awkward.  Not physically, but mentally.  You have to get used to the sensation of running at a fast pace bare foot.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve done that.  I wasn’t expecting to be able to feel the cracks and separations in the sidewalk or the sewer grates.  Even the manhole covers are a new sensation.  I’m no longer putting flat surface to flat surface, which, I realize, is the point.

As a result, the shoes do get you to run on the balls of your feet.  I’ve been doing that all along, so that wasn’t a new pain to learn, but having the ability to react quicker as a result was.  Where I used to hit the corner of the curb and just naturally “see-saw” to the flat surface, I’m actually responding to the ledge and balancing and grabbing on with my toes.  After my first 4.5 mile run, the bottom of my calves were sore for 2 days.  After the 2nd run, which I ran much faster, my calves were sore immediately.  Pain means they’re working, right?

I do all of my running in the city.  There’s a track up at schenley that i can use, but I rarely do.  I like the different terrain.  I think that the vibrams would benefit from a softer surface like a clay track, but I also think their dynamic intent would be wasted there.

Over all, I think they’re working, and for the moment, they’re a little bit of a motivator to run since I’m ostentatious and enjoy people giving me weird looks and asking me what they are.  Once the novelty wears off though, I see myself going back, or at least sharing time, with traditional running shoes.  Even the guy at Elite Runners suggested that they’re not an end all.  I’ll ride out this season on them, with the Urbanathlon in October, and we’ll see if switching back becomes less agreeable.