How NOT to get over a "little" cold quickly

Last Saturday when I ran in the Great Urban Race with Kip, I felt several times during the course of the race that I was slacking a bit, something was not quite right. I wrote this off to perhaps not training enough recently or maybe it was the vest I was wearing because it was a bit chilly but ended up causing me to overheat and sweat like pig. (Sorry again Kip. In the three-legged race he suffered as well because of my ill planning.) And indeed it could of been either of these things. But when I woke on Sunday with more than a tickle in my throat I knew it was also that I had caught a bug that had glanced off Skye. She had a slight cough and crazy sneezing for a day or so but nothing else. So I was good and took it somewhat easy on Sunday.

Monday morning had me feeling not too much better, but not too much worse. Now this could have probably been the end of it had I taken it easy, but ....

I trained in jui jitsu, which is always an intense experience. And that day seemed to be more intense than usual. Now it could have been that I was fighting a cold or it could have been that I was training with two advanced belts who were in great shape and knew what they were doing or a combination of the two. I was like putty for the rest of the day.

A good night's sleep was in order but I had told Kip that I would make it out and see his band, Beautiful Criminal play at the Viper Room that evening. I knew better but I had told Kip I was going(I know he would have understood had I bowed out) and I had never been to the Viper Room and sometimes my judgment is not spot on. I went out, had a bad martini, a good Guinness and quite enjoyable time.

I felt worse on Tuesday. But that didn't keep me from running. I am after all behind on my training for the LA Marathon. Bad idea.

I still felt bad on Wednesday. But I needed to steel myself for the evening, because we were hosting another "Social Experiment" and I knew that I would be up late.

Another lovely Experiment experience(more on that next week post final Experiment on Wednesday), but I did end up cleaning the kitchen well past mid-night.

I would have loved to sleep in but the Super Duper park day was upon us and I had not prepared any sort of food for the potluck, which I ended up foraging at Whole Foods. So I rustled Skye from bed and loaded this that and the other gear for a full day at the park. Again another lovely time, the kids projects were wonderful and had many interesting and varied discussions while Skye and friends played and got in their dose of "socialization" home school style.

Friday morn, the cold had moved to my chest and I was looking forward to spending many hours that day in a massive refrigerator, also know as the Staples center to take Skye and company to see the World's Figure Skating Championships. We were very fortunate to be in one of the VIP boxes because of a friend's great generosity. Not only were the seats incredible, (that is by the way, the best way to see events at Staples) but several of the other people in the suite were avid figure skater followers, generous friend perhaps most of all. It was great to have experts to field questions and help see the subtle differences between one performance and another. But while it was very wonderful experience, I was in an ice rink all day. My fight with the cold was not helped by this.

Saturday had me sleeping in til 7 am which is good for me. I took it easy and am almost back to normal, but I knew we were meeting friends to see a play that evening at the Actor's Gang theatre in Culver City. Now the smart me would have backed off and excused myself. But they were good friends that I like hanging out with and we rarely get to the theater and I know how much Cindy loves it so off we went to see The Trial of Catonsville Nine. Very interesting and sparked more interesting conversations which simply had to be continued over a bite of sushi and a bit of beer, dark Asahi to be precise. Not exactly an early night, but certainly a nice night out.

I feel better today with little more than a sniffle and a tightness in my chest. As tempted as I am to go for a run, I am going to hold myself back and hope that I am 100% by tomorrow and then attack the marathon training fully.

I feel very fortunate to have all the friends and experiences that kept me from getting over this cold in a day or so. And knowing me I would do the same thing all over again.

A Tapas style Update

A little smattering as to where I' m at these days

Sports

• Lakers-- Pretty much biding my time til the playoffs. They're playing great, second in the league by a game with 12 games left of the regular season. I have reduced my game watching time significantly, which will change come April.
• Lance Armstrong broke his collarbone in a race in Spain on Monday, but says it shouldn't affect him racing in the Tour de France.
• My marathon training has been hampered by a slight cold in the last couple days. Also I am realizing again how the training for a marathon and jui jitsu are very different. Oh well

Home Schooling

Getting back into the park day schedule. Skye's getting her Super Duper project ready for Thursday. I am as I often am in deep study mode on teaching philosophies. Reading The Educated Child by William Bennett and The Underacheiving School by John Holt and then The Parents Guid to Alternatives in Education. Each one quite different from the other. Much to digest and consider while trying to give Skye an upbringing that won't leave her on the streets, a shrink's couch, or running away with the circus.

Gardening

I have on order several unique and rare Habanero chile plants from a wonderfully interesting grower in San Diego. Check out his story at Refining Fire Chiles. Also on order are several Heirloom tomato plants from another local grower, Laurel's heirloom tomatos. I'm trying to buy as much as I can from local and small organic growers. Also composting everything in site as well tending to the worm farms which are churning out a good amount of castings. Should be a bountiful harvest.

Set Decorator Society of America

Although I just recently changed my status with Local 44 to property so that I could have more flexibility schedule wise, I am remaing active in the SDSA. We have many new members to the board. I continue to chair the events committee and plan to increase the number and variety of events we host.

The Social Experiment.

Can't comment until the experiment concludes next Wednesday.

Stay tuned

The Great Urban Race

Yesterday Kip and I raced in the Great Urban Race. The last time we raced in one of these was back in 2007 and we came in 2cnd out of 50 teams. This year there were almost 500 teams.

These are pics from the race, before during and after. Pretty much in reverse order.









The finalists for Best Costume. The Underage Chinese Gold Medal Gymnasts won.





Before the race, this shows about half of the people competing. It was actually less convoluted along the race course than last year when there were around 100 teams.




Semi-finalists for best costume.



Kip really wanted to dress up. Here he is admiring the gymnasts' costumes.



The Race started and ended downtown



Took us to Olvera Street






MacArthur Park



Hollywood



















The Sunset Strip



When all was said and done we had a great time, came in just over 3 hours and .....
placed a very respectable 4th place. Which qualifies us to compete in the Championships in New Orleans.

Any sponsors???

PS We were a P & J sandwich from coming in the top 3.

A Long Hot Run

I dropped Skye off at the dentist with Cindy, which found me in Burbank around 11 am with time to do my long run.

I parked nearby on a street that had access to the horse trails that lead up into Griffith Park. I've run this area before, but usually in the cool morning when the dew is still holding down the dust on the trails. Today was very different. In spite of it still officially being winter, the temperature was in the eighties. The sun was directly overhead leaving very little shade. And the dust kicked up easily and soon felt like it was coating my mouth, nose throat and lungs.

The trails were composed of loose sand and gravel which is great for horses I suppose but made for a slow pace. And the trails that headed into the mountains were ridiculously steep. I was not walking or hiking but the speed was pretty much that equivalent. I had my running-computer-geek watch informing me that I had slowed at times to a 22 minute mile pace. Unlike a riding a bicycle where you labor up a hill and know you will be rewarded with an effortless fun ride down, running downhill is quicker to be sure but at the considerable price of jarring one's muscles and joints.

When all was said and done I put in 1 hr and 33 minutes and ran 8.28 miles. That's a pace of 11:17 minute miles burning around 1473 calories, or in St. Patrick's Day terms 7 pints of Guinness.

ATYPICALDAY

Ran trails at Kenneth Hahn park for 1hr 15min. I love how close we live to that park.

Home school lessons with Skye for a couple of hours.

Jui jistu training for l hr 30 min.

Errands

More home school with Skye

Got house in order and prepped for "Jon's Social Experiment"

Hosted "Jon's Social Experiment"

Day sprinkled with phone calls, e-mails, web surfing, thoughts, scheduling, Jon-Cindy talks, etc. etc.

L.A. Marathon

I signed up for the LA Marathon today. 26.2 miles of pure bliss(not really). I haven't been running or doing any kind of consistent training in like a year or something ridiculous.

76 days until the race. I've run the LA Marathon 4 times, '91, '02 (4 hrs 46 min), '05 (4 hrs 45 min), and last year '08(4 hrs 49 min). Not fast granted, but pretty consistent. I didn't really train much for any of those, but this year will be different.

Denizens of the pond

After cleaning out the pond and realizing that whatever destroyed the koi didn't get the high-fin shark and the little mosquito fish, I decided they could use some company as well as some help cleaning up the algae and stuff on the bottom of the pond.




Better pic of our "shark".




One of the two Golden Dojo I got to help clean up the pond muck as well as to keep the shark company.





Its a bit hard to make out but there's the dojo and a tadpole and one or two of the mosquito fish.

Random list, account, photos from Last Week of February

February came and went. Spring is officially weeks away but it feels pretty springy here at the Milagro house.



Gardening

If you look really hard you can see my potato's sprouting. There are a bunch of other little sprouts. I have no idea what they are so I'll let them grow for a while and see what they are.





My salad barrel needs some thinning, but is doing quite well.






Pond scum cleaning

Several weeks ago our Koi pond was raided and all of the koi were taken, eaten by some pesky raccoon I imagine. But after that I kind of let the pond go. So yesterday I finally got around to cleaning it up.




The Sole Survivor

After cleaning out the algae and gunk, I discovered that one fish had survived the carnage. Our little High Fin Shark, survived.




More Gardening

This mint plant got more than a little root bound in his pot. I've got a spot for him in the garden where he can spread out those roots a bit more.








Sewing lessons

Skye and I are learning how to sew on this industrial monster. I little intimidating because it goes really fast. But we're getting the hang of it.

Coaching Skye's Y basketball team

Home schooling

Hanging out with the other "mom's" at park days.

Skye did a scale model of the solar system for her science Super Duper. The sun was represented by an 8 inch ball, making the earth the size of a peppercorn and Jupiter around the size of a small jaw beaker. The park we were at wasn't quite big enough to set up, in fact it spilled over into an alley way and Lincoln Blvd prevented us from reaching Neptune and Pluto. (I know its a moon) All in all the model has you walking 1000 yard (10 football fields) to go from the sun to Pluto. And remember in that model earth is the size of a pepper corn.

I gave up my Union Local 44 Decorator Card and am now on the roster as a property person.

Hourly vs. salaried
Back-aches vs. headaches
Stress and status vs. Chillin' and being one of the gang
More money(sometimes) vs More flexibility(also sometimes)

Brazilian Juijitsu

Hosting a Social Experiment