This and that

 

Before

After

14 pounds of tomatoes and a zucchini the size of a baseball bat. I added canned tomato paste, five teaspoons of citric acid and dried "Italian herb" mix. It was pretty watery as I put it into the jars so I added a tablespoon of Augason brand dried vegetables to each pint.

Gardening fail

On Friday, I picked a half dozen eggplant fruit for a family we see at the gym. They didn't show up. I left it on the counter and now it is wilted and now it is not pretty enough to give away. Who knew eggplant fruit dehydrated so quickly?

Rain

We are looking at an all-day rain. So much for running outside.

One of the finest bit of wisdom I encountered came from a Beginners' Book on Running. The author stated "Our bodies lie to us all the time. They tell us how horrible it will feel to run. Run anyway. Start slow. Give it ten minutes. If your body is still screaming after ten minutes then stop running. If you feel better after ten minutes than it did during the first 45 seconds, then you can probably keep running." 

That wisdom applies to more than just running. Our minds hate uncertainty. Doing something new or different than what you are doing right now is a source of uncertainty.

Give yourself permission to push the mower for only ten minutes. Or tell yourself, "I will go out an pull weeds for ten minutes and then I will stop if it hurts. You don't have to work at top speed. Show up. Do what you can as your mind and your body adapt to the new environment.

After ten minutes, your brain and body might decide that switching tasks is undesirable and tell you "Maybe you should go into the house and grab a hat and bottle of water so we can do this a little bit longer."

Following my own advice, I put on a 40 pound ALICE pack and walked the stairs for 15 minutes. I stopped because it is time to shower before heading to church.

Maybe I will knock out another 45 minutes after we return. 

Thoughts on sprinting

Sprinting is a very specific gait. The heels never touch the ground. The center of mass for your trunk does not bob up-and-down but should move through space arrow-straight and not yaw.

Since your legs are attached to your trunk and since you are violently accelerating them 180 degrees out-of-phase, you must compensate by violently throwing your arms to counterbalance your legs to achieve that arrow-straight trajectory.

Good sprinters have massive shoulders

There may be times when I have to accelerate and move like a rocket. That means I will be sprinting. It is something that I can train for.