Weekend Contemplations: On Being Human

Helloooooooo!  How is it Monday again?  This weekend was fairly uneventful and quick.   And cold.  It's still been in the 40's and it's almost April.  What is going onnnnnnnnnnnn.  Winter is really dragging it's a$$ around here this year.  Anyway, just a few of my random thoughts today.

Friday afternoon after work I went to the gym near work.  It's much bigger than the location by my house and has a massive cardio arena.  They must have at least 100 or more treadmills, bikes, ellipticals and stairclimbers in this space.  After I finished running, I went over to the stretching area to foam roll and do some planking.  I looked over at the giant cardio space where I just came from, watching all these people furiously motoring away on their respective machines, and it just looked so funny and weird to me?! I don't know why.  I was imagining what it might look like to aliens or people in the great beyond who lived centuries before us.  How odd it must appear to them that humans jam themselves inside hot sweaty buildings and run or bike in place?!  Hahaha  What did people do before gyms were invented?  So weird.  I guess this is why I prefer exercising outdoors.  It's just more natural.

Moving on.  After the gym I stopped to get takeout from a sushi place that was introduced to me by a friend.  It's called Edo Sushi, and they've got a few locations outside of the city.  Everything I've ever ordered there is superb.  This rainbow roll and shrimp tempura were just what I needed after my intense mental workout contemplating the weirdness of humans working out in gyms!

 

 

Going to take a more serious turn here for a moment because it's something I've been thinking about  all weekend.  On Friday night, I watched the movie, "12 Years a Slave" for the first time and it was one of the most disturbing, heartbreaking things I've ever seen.  Honestly, I found it incredibly hard to watch. So much so that at several points, I almost turned it off completely.  But I kept watching.  At one point, I actually almost vomited (during the scene when Lupita Nyong'o's character is whipped).  I was in tears throughout this movie and it was just one of the most disturbing things ever.  By the end of the movie, I felt ashamed of the color of my skin.  I know that may seem like a strange thing to say, but that's just how I felt.  I don't know what else to say other than it made me really sad to be a human.  If you haven't seen it, just be warned.  I think it's an important film to watch but my God, it's just horrific what we can do to each other.  Again, this makes me wonder what other species looking down on us must think of our behavior??

 



I've been seeing a lot of articles like this one floating around the internet lately.  Have you?

 

 

They are articles about how running will 'sabotage' your weight loss.  I believe the target audience for these articles are novice runners, or people who are just beginning workout programs, but even so I think they are sending the wrong message.  Lifelong runners aren't running to 'lose weight'.  You wouldn't keep something up for the duration of your life if you didn't enjoy it.  We actually LIKE to run.  We obviously know running alone isn't the only kind of exercise you need.  Doing the same thing all the time will not only lead to plateaus (performance and weight) as your body becomes accustomed to the daily demands, but can also lead to injury, burnout, muscle imbalances and more.  If you want to lose weight there are a NUMBER of factors you need to consider and doing a variety of exercises is just one of them.  Changing your eating/drinking habits are also a big factor.  But if someone enjoys running why tell them it's going to make them fat?!  Listen, if you like knitting, bird watching, wearing acid washed jeans, you just keep doing you.  Pay no mind to fear-mongering articles telling you acid washed jeans are out.  You might just bring them back.

 

What else did I want to tell you today?  Oh yes, a bit of nutritional advice.  Before heading out for a long run, or perhaps before doing any strenuous physical activity, you may not want to consume massive amounts of these:

 



 

Big mistake Bean.  Huge.  Miles 2-5 of my 10 miler yesterday were a bit rough because of that Laffy Taffy. I felt quite nauseous and was pretty sure I was going to vomit up a rainbow.  I finally started feeling better by mile 6.  So that was uncomfortable and annoying, and completely my fault.  I just couldn't resist after I found that giant bag at Walgreens. 

 

I took this picture after my run and when I looked at it, it didn't look like me!  I say that because I always thought I had brown eyes, but apparently they've changed to green.  Can this happen?!

 

 

I mean "Brown Eyed Girl" always used to be my song.  What am I supposed to do now?

 

I continue to love my shoes.  I was debating whether to put myself in a new pair of Vomero's for my race in April, but I think I'm going to go with the amazing, orthopedic-looking Hokas.

 

 



I am 36 now.  It's only fitting I wear giant Golden Girls-esque clodhoppers on my feet. 

And finallyyyyyyyyy.  This quote from Dean Karnazes popped up in my IG feed last night and I just loved it:

via/Ultramarathon on IG

Well, that was certainly a giant cornucopia of unrelated thoughts.  I think I better stop this train right here.  I hope your week is off to a great start!



Have you ever seen '12 Years a Slave'?

Why do you run?

Favorite running shoes right now?