Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Dash
The day before yesterday I went for a run with my lovely wife, and we dropped by the local middle school track to time my performance in the "100 yard" dash. I put quotes around that because, well, we're not sure exactly whether it is 100 yards. It's the straight portion of a quarter-mile track. We thought a sprint would be the best baseline metric against which to compare future performance, since the problem in my case manifests itself most dramatically in slowness of movement. There is also some weakness but it is not as marked. I did the dash in 16.19 seconds. Cateye? Thrill? How about youse guys? Now, way back in, I think, 1996 or thereabouts, I did a 100-yard dash in 13 seconds and some change. The sensation of this 16.19-second sprint was, I don't know quite how to describe it, like, well, like the signal was not getting to the muscles. I know that my muscles, heart, and lungs are quite capable of running faster than I did. But when I sent the "go!" signal, the left leg just kept chugging along at half speed.

My weight room performance is progressing well and I feel that I am getting stronger. The amounts that I lift, and the number of repetitions in increasing. I really should make a note of it next time, so that I can enter it in the blog, and have another metric. I also do the rowing machine. But I think I overdid it last time, as I now have a tickle in my throat.

I am worried about what might happen if I get an ordinary cold, flu, or simple limb injury. That would have the effect of putting me out of action for a few days or weeks, while the Mystery Condition continues to atrophy me. Basically, I want to stay strong so that my normal healthy body processes can respond to the new exercise routine and build me up. Because of what an ankle injury would do to me, I have decided not to play serious basketball. Like, no full-court pick-up games with a bunch of teenagers.

Today, I have a very important presentation. I am going to give a little talk at my son's preschool about the Mars Exploration Rover (Spirit), and show them pictures. Everyone will get a little wallet-sized color picture of Mars. Not that any of them have wallets!
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