I briefly stumbled into a kind of shame for finally starting a blog. I realized I was too embarrassed to tell anyone I was blogging, which makes publicizing the thing kind of hard. And if I'm not publicizing, then I'm just live-journaling. And there's a road I don't want to go down.
Running update: after two great Feldenkrais appointments at the Balanced Runner, I've moved on to try neurological chiropractic therapy with the amazing Dr. Pam Charles. She sent me for a lumbar spine xray (which makes me a bit concerned for the state of my now-irradiated reproductive organs), and determined that my spine had some slight scoliosis and that one hip point was much higher than the other. Dr. Charles works both by adjusting, like a traditional chiropractor, but also leads patients in brain-based exercises. So far, my IT band pain has been greatly reduced, but that may be the effect of low weekly mileage.
Through December I was running about four times a week, but just about five miles each time. I was supplementing my running with more cardio at the gym, all the while promising myself that I would hit the weight room (or a Total Body class, or yoga, or something) soon. It's easy to make yourself those promises, and since I was exercising some anyway, I just kept procrastinating about the strength portion. During the week between Christmas and New Year, Andrew and I escaped to Crested Butte for some snowboarding (just missing the storm that held the whole northeast snowbound for days), so I got to be active without too much gym time.
During this time, too, I started reading The China Study, which led me to think about my eating habits, not for the first time. In the book, Dr. Campbell shares tons of scientific data from peer-reviewed studies and trials that make pretty clear that a Western diet (and, indeed, diets that have high levels of animal protein) will kill you. A recent health concern (unrelated to my stupid IT band) has maybe made me more willing to try something that may seem extreme... so I'm going for it. I'm not super strict. There are still some veggie burgers that I eat that list "milk powder" low on the ingredient list, and, while I try to be vigilant, I sometimes forget to ask at restaurants if the meal is cooked in butter or oil. (Note: Baluchi's in New York will make veggie entrees vegan, but the default is butterful.) AND I still have the occasional piece of fish. But I'm over dairy.
This dietary switch has taken a toll on my baking, for sure. Growing up, one of the best parts of the holiday season was the arrival of Archway Cookie's gingerbread men. Soft, frosted, and topped with sprinkles... mmmm. My mom, sister, and I were known to eat a package in a sitting. So, about two years ago, Archway folded, and the cookies were gone. My mother was devastated. Christmas was going to be ruined. I took up the challenge of trying to recreate the cookies with the help of my 1964 version of The Joy of Cooking. Success!!! (It's just the traditional gingerbread men recipe. The ones in more updated copies of the cookbook seem to leave a little to be desired: the cookies are a little tougher and not nearly spicy enough.) This year, my mom discovered she'd developed a gluten intolerance. That development plus my new dietary restrictions meant we would need THREE versions of gingerbread cookie: vegan, gluten-free, and regular. It reminded me of a (completely copy-written and hence not present here) New Yorker illustration captioned "The Last Thanksgiving" featuring a table full of people labeled with their various food restrictions. In any case. While the vegan baking is coming along, the gingerbread cookies could have all stood for some improvement.
But while all this snowboarding and vegan baking were going on, the weeks flew by, and now I'm staring down this month's Manhattan Half Marathon (part of the Continental Airlines Grand Prix), and I'm woefully under-trained. I'll need to ramp up the milage and intensity a little this week (and maybe even early next) just enough to get across the finish line without re-injuring myself in the process. It's two brutal laps of Central Park, which I've run before in the same race as well as for the course of the More Half Marathon.
So, while I'm still a little wary of sharing my blog with anyone I actually know in real life, I think I am going to try to keep it going for now, if only to keep reflecting on running. And vegan cookies, maybe.
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