Jiggle Jiggle!

When your body starts to jiggle.... you know it's time to either accept the "jiggles" or make them sorry they decided to show up. I chose the latter..

My family and I just got back from a road trip to Disneyland followed by a three day saunter back up Highway 1 to our home in Oakland. Two days of walking (and standing in line) with either a 28 pound weight (my daughter) or a 46 pound weight (my son) on my shoulders made me realize the importance of staying in top form. I seriously don’t know how people who are out of shape handle a full day of Disney fun (at least, with the energy level of a 6 year-old). I’m sure most compensate for a low VO2 max with a constant stream of sugar and caffeine (all of which are in abundant supply at Disneyland)..

My only – or at least, one of my only – naughty treats came at a terrible expense.. and when I say “expense”, I mean $$$$$. Wanting to treat my kids to one of those colorful lollypops that you see at any theme park across America, we visited a candy shop in the Downtown Disney district (if you’ve never been to Disneyland, think of “Downtown Disney” as Disney’s attempt to squeeze a few extra bucks out of you AFTER you exit the park). It’s basically an outdoor mall with shops and restaurants (including a Jamba Juice, which could only be considered a “restaurant” by nuts like us). Anyway, once in the candy shop, I walked up to the WALL OF JELLY BELLY (basically a wall of Jelly Bellies).. Having decided that a custom mix of jelly beans was exactly what I needed, I took the rather small looking bag and started to fill it up with everything that sounded good.. Sour Apple, Green Apple, Very Cherry, Sour Mix (I like sour things if you haven’t guessed by now). Anyway, to make a long story short, when it came time to weigh the bag and apply the Disney premium, the 4” x 6” bag came out to a little over $20.. For a cheapskate like me, $20 for a bag of jelly beans is a BIG DEAL… After deducting 10% because I’m a AAA member, we walked back to the hotel with our bag-O-sugar and went to bed.. By the time we arrived back in the Bay Area three days later, all $20 worth of Jelly Bellies were gone.

SO – what does all this have to do with running?? Well – not a whole heck of a lot – which is about as much running I’ve done up to this point.

That is, until I got home to find my new Newton Motion running shoes! Nothing fires up the old running boilers like a NEW pair of shoes to try out. I’ve been a hard core Asics boy for over 10 years, so the prospect of putting something else on my feet besides my beloved 2110’s (and the DS Trainer V, VI, VII and VIII before them) was a little scary.

So how did they work you ask? For a "Heal Striker" like myself, wearing them for the first time was a bit like putting on a pair of cycling shoes and trying to go for a run in them. They are really built up in the front (no doubt to encourage you to run on that part of your foot) with very little cushioning in the heal.. Simon, help me out... What's going on here!?

Despite the urge to tip over backwards when standing still in them, I headed out for a run around Lake Merritt last night to give them a go. Not having put together a single week of half-way decent running over the past few weeks, I couldn't tell how much of what I was feeling was because of the shoe and how much was me just being ridiculously out of shape. By about mile 2, I felt at ease in them (though my legs felt awful heavy) and was able to open it up somewhat.

Since they were free, I'm definitely going to give them a try, because even if I don't make it past a run or two before going back to my Asics, at least I'll have gotten my "money's" worth..

Steve sent me an article the other day about how unhealthy long distance running (or any sport that goes on for over 5 or so hours) is. You should hear my rantings on that in a couple of days.

In the meantime, does anyone have any races coming up?

Talk to you later,
Bobby