Phase II

As you know, lately I have become more and more dissatisfied with my treadmill. One of the problems is that it's not very good for running. It has this quirk where every once in a while the belt will come to a complete stop for a brief moment and then resume it's normal pace. I have gotten used to this, but I have found that I really need to be holding onto the rails when this happens or I will fall. Consequently, I have been afraid to do much running on it. I don't like to hold the rails while I'm running - I like to swing my arms - and I fear that I will fall off some day when it starts acting up. I feel like I am at the point in my workouts, though, that I need to step it up a little bit. Furthermore, the treadmill makes this awful squeaking sound now that drives my wife crazy. Since it is supposedly summer now, I decided it is time to take my workouts outdoors.

Unfortunately, as I have stated in this space many times, I HATE running. It's not that I'm lazy (no comments please) - it's just that I find it so incredibly boring. If I am playing a game like soccer or football, I can run all day (and by all day, I mean I can run for 5 minutes, take a 15 minute break, run another 5 minutes, take a break, etc...), but I can think of nothing more miserable than running just for the sake of running. Up until now, I have had my treadmill placed in front of the TV, which I have been able to use to keep my mind from dwelling on the misery of running. Obviously I cannot take the TV with me, so I had to find a new distraction. So I went out yesterday to Best Buy and bought myself an IPOD shuffle.



Now, I like new gadgets as much as the next guy, but I have thus far resisted the ipod craze because I could not actually think of a situation where I would use one. If I listen to music, I am never that far from a CD player or a radio, and frankly people with IPODs drive me nuts. They walk around in their own little worlds - totally insulated from whatever else is going on around them, OR, (even worse, IMHO), they use them as fashion accessories. They always have them clipped to their belt or whatever, with the ear buds draped casually over the shoulder. It's like they want to tell the whole world: "Hey, I had $200 bucks to waste, so I spent it on this thing". However, I must admit, for exercising it seems like the perfect accessory. No need to fiddle with radio stations or worry about CD's skipping, and you could hold many many many more songs than a CD or tape player anyway.

So I finally caved and joined the IPOD generation. I went with the shuffle for a couple of reasons. First of all, it was inexpensive. I got the 512 Mb version for $69.99, and Best Buy gave me a $10 gift card as a reward. The 512 Mb holds about 120 songs. I guess that is not a lot, but it's way more than I would ever listen to in one sitting, so it seems fine for my purposes. The other reason is the size and weight. It is .8 oz, and about the size of a pack of gum. It fits quite easily in the palm of my hand, so I figured it would be the least trouble while running. I tested this out this morning and it was ok. I may try to figure out a way to attach it to my waist at some point, but it was not a big deal to carry it. It comes with a lanyard for hanging around your neck which would probably be fine for walking or mowing the lawn or somehting, but I figured that it be annoying for running. One time I dropped it, but it is so lightweight that it did not even come unplugged from the headphones so it never hit the gound. I just grabbed the headphone cable and kept on going without breaking stride.

Other features I like:
- power. It has an internal re-chargable battery so there are no batteries to change ever. The really cool thing is that it charges while it is plugged into the USB port of your computer (which is also the way you download songs to it). So there are no extra pieces or charging cradles required.
- itunes software. easy-to-use inteface makes programming it as simple as clicking on the song titles you want and dragging them onto your ipod. Only takes a minute to download songs from your library. Also makes it easy to rip music CD's into MP3's or whatever format you want and put them in your library.
- the sound. I figured when I bought the low-power, low-feature ipod I would be sacrificing some sound quality, and maybe I am but I certainly haven't noticed it. the sound was CD quality, and I was able to crank it loud enough to be uncomfortable without noticing any distortion. There was plenty of bass in the songs that require it as well. I was really quite surprised at how good it sounded.

Things I don't like:
- the earbuds that it came with. They sounded ok, but they are not comfortable at all, and they will only stay in if I am sitting perfectly still. No way could they ever be used for any kind of workout. I had to substitute my Sony headphones immediately.
- USB connector. Thanks to the fancy plastic that dell uses on the front of their computers, the USB connector is not quite long enough to fully mate with the USB ports. I had to use the kids computer which has more accessible USB ports on the back. I understand this is really Dell's fault, but if the USB connector on the IPOD was just a centimeter longer, this could be avoided. I understand they sell USB extension cables for just this purpose, so I guess I will have to go get one.

Oh yeah, and to go along with my new toy, I figured I should put something new on it. I probably haven't purchased a new CD in 10 years, so I figured I was due. I went with The Best of Neil Diamond - 20th Century Masters, the Millenium Collection.



Ok, I guess that doesn't really qualify as "new" music, but I have been wanting to get some Neil Diamond for a while. Every time I go to a Red Sox game and they play "Sweet Caroline" during the middle of the 8th inning, I always say to myself - "I need to get me some Neil Diamond" - and then I never do. It also always makes me want to go rent Saving Silverman, which is probably the funniest movie ever made about obsessed Neil Diamond Fans (actually, it may be the only one - I'm not sure).



It's a little crude, so don't let the little kids, or my dad watch it, but pretty funny overall.





Alright, enough about that - on to the diet update:

Workout: I set out this morning with my new IPOD shuffle all charged up and loaded with Neil Diamond and ready to go. Unfortunately, there are not really that many roads in Milton, NH, so I selected as my route to cross the bridge into Lebanon, go up the east side of the lake, cross back over at the other bridge and come down 125. Another problem for me is that I don't have any watches suitable for jogging or other methods of keeping time (thanks to my low-featured ipod), so I was a little surprised when I got to the end of the Neil Diamond songs and had not yet reached what I consider to be the halfway point (the other bridge). I kept on going and ended up doubling my normal workout time to 1 1/2 hours. oops. Later, I went and clocked it with my car and discovered that the chosen route was 6.1 miles. I wish I could say I ran the whole way, but I didn't. I wish I could say I ran HALF the way, but that probably isn't true. I did a lot of walking as well, but it was still a pretty good workout. Along the way, I discovered that when I run, these particular shorts would keep falling down. So I would run for a ways, stop to pull up my shorts, walk for a while, then start the cycle all over again. So for the future, I will need to wear my drawstring shorts. I suppose it's a good sign that my shorts are starting to get too big for me, but it was a little annoying. No time for situps with the extra long workout.

Weigh-in: -26.5 woohoo! My extra effort has been rewarded. This is definitely a new low for me - even if at least half of it is likely the result of being partially dehydrated. Still, the 25 lb mark is a pretty good milestone that I am going to try really hard this week to stay on the other side of.

Breakfast skipped breakfast. Well, not so much skipped as left it sitting on the counter when I walked out the door. I DID drink 2 cans of diet pepsi, though. 0 calories

Lunch Another vendor meeting. Again, they brought in bertuccis/ pizza. Usually, there is a chicken option, but today there was none, so I had no choice but to go with another slice of the sporkie. I also tried a slice of the Pucillo - which is the same kind of sausage with peppers, onions, and mushrooms - but no Ricotta cheese. It was still pretty good, but it was certainly no sporkie. This vendor also brought in salad, so I had a plateful of that with a little bit of Italian dressing.

Total Calories for the day: I really have no idea. sporkie + Pucillo + 0?