Let's begin right here, where I am sick. Right now. Flu-like symptoms. But I'm not sure it's actually the flu, because of the story I'm about to relate.
Skip back to yesterday's gym workout. It was a good one: 30 minutes on the bike @ 130 bpm heartrate, foam rolling, stretches, weights, dynamic core exercises - the works. I knew, of course, that I'd be a little sore in the morning from the core exercises, but that's OK - that's the point. No pain, no gain. And I am literally trying to gain, trying to put on weight and maybe these core exercises and the other weights I'm doing will help. It remains to be seen.
I'm having to extend the dynamic phase of the core exercises for a week before going back to the static core exercises for a week - because I basically slacked off for the last two full weeks. This means, yes, the core exercises have me hurting.
But the real hurt didn't begin until halfway home. On leaving the gym, I'd stopped in the health-food shop there and got an apricot Cliff bar, which I've had before, a cream soda (entirely too sweet), and these:
I had the Japanese style. Ingredients include: Sunflower seeds, miso, sesame seeds, ginger juice, nori, wasabi, spirulina, and sea salt. It looked interesting and didn't sound too bad.
The experience, however, was something different. These long, skinny rolls were filled with a dry paste of unappealing look, flavor, and texture. Healthy they might be, but I thought, as I was eating them, "this must be what eating shit is like, if shit tastes a little like Japanese food."
I should have quit at the first bite. But, no, I was hungry and I ate the whole package. And partway home, the trouble started. These things might as well be sticks of strychnine for all the misery they caused me. My stomach started to cramp and my whole system went out of whack. For a couple of hours I was in a lot of pain, abdominal pain like I haven't had in years, but which I had a lot as a kid, and then the nausea came.
Fortunately, the nausea was reminiscent of the last time I was that out-of-sorts, after an afternoon of eating and drinking at Carlos 'n' Charlie's, in Cozumel, a place of infinite alcohol and frat t-shirts. It was that day that my brother taught me it is sometimes better to just go throw up.
So for the first time since May of 2001, I found myself praying to the porcelain god. And though I felt much better right away, getting back to feeling 100% seems to be taking awhile. I am still tired, achy, and having sinus problems. I figure the heaving also strained my abdominals and made them hurt even more today.
So today's run was a challenge. It started out pretty strong, actually, but I had problems keeping going. I just felt like hell and I didn't feel any better after the run. I iced my knees, took a hot bath, then a quick shower and I'm feeling better now, some hours later, but I hope I feel a LOT better tomorrow morning.
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In other news, I have been challenged to go without TV for a week. There was a time when I didn't even own a TV - I still don't, actually, just a converter for the computer. And I took that challenge. No TV since Sunday night, so far. I am missing some of my favorite shows, but there's nothing I can't live without, obviously. It helps that the writers' strike paralyzed the industry, so I'm not missing any new shows. It also helps that even if I do, the shows I care about will get run over and over and there's plenty of chance to see them.
I am fudging on the challenge, a little, if you count iTunes movies and YouTube. I'm not firing those up much, but they are good inbetween reading things. I am not reading any fiction right now, so the non-fiction is getting a little stale.
I've also realized that this disconnection is not painful because I'm disconnecting from a lot of popular entertainment.
Here's a movie I won't be seeing:
And I won't be seeing this either, TV restrictions or not:
So the subway ads aren't working on me. What else doesn't work? Well, for starters, this:
That ad is why Americans are fat. Or maybe it's because of confections like this:
Ah...truth be told, I DID buy that candy bar and am looking forward to downing it halfway through my warmup for next Saturday's Al Gordon Snowflake 4-miler. (Warmup will be five so as to get my full 9 in for the day).
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