BURBANK, CA -- Well, can you believe it? One week until the grand adventure is underway! A week from now I will be flying at 37,000 feet heading SOUTH. Just over three months ago I set my then-record for the furthest south I had ever been, to Sydney, Australia. Phenomenal picture with the world-famous opera house above. We are going to smash that southernmost record to pieces next week though!
In non-Antarctica related news, however, we have had some crazy weather in Southern California the past 36 hours or so. Early this morning we had hurricane-force winds in Burbank and Pasadena, including 85+mph wind gusts in the valley here. Up in the mountains? Try a whopping 140mph wind gust! Incredible! That's virtually a tornado at such a high velocity. Luckily nobody appears to have been hurt, just a ton of trees and power lines down all over. I have been spared both of those things, although driving around town earlier this afternoon was more challenging than usual with all the utility crews and the fire department out, sawing the downed trees into movable chunks. Who says we don't get some crazy weather in California? That said, even with the win, it was a lovely 65F and sunny today, as per usual. :)
All is also well on the running front. With my ridiculous injuries this fall, I managed all of four runs in September and just one in October. After a four week forced hiatus, however, I have stormed back, and did a full 12 training and racing runs in November. Well, happy December everybody! I just did my first run of the month on this first day of the month, a happy 3.0 miles in 27:27. Not my fastest time but given the crazy winds and the fact that it was night, I am perfectly happy with it! This weekend I have a nice seven-miler to do, which is kind of my last "guaranteed" run for awhile. Apparently there is a treadmill on board the ship I will be living on, but it is hard for me to mentally get over the idea of running on a treadmill and then encountering a huge squall or wave or something. Not a good idea. That said, hopefully I can at least do some running in Argentina on solid ground. We shall see!
My head operates on global time zones. If it is 1030pm in California, that means it is 1230am in Chicago, 130am in New York, 330am in Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, and thus Antarctica (operates on Argentina time since 99% of visitors arrive via Argentina), 630am in London, 730am in Prague, 830am in Israel, 1030am in Dubai, 1130am in Pakistan, and 330pm in Sydney. Do note that the South Pole, interestingly enough, operates on New Zealand time, which is of course totally different as well. To think that I have friends in all of these places, and in a plethora of places in between, is crazy, inspiring, amazing, heart-wrenching, and heart-warming all at the same time. "To travel is to live."
In the same category as running, I have also decided it is time to get back to my comfortable weight range. I'm way better than I got at my worst, at present, but back when I was in London, I was right around 180 lbs. As such, I have decided to start tracking EVERYTHING I consume via "My Fitness Pal," a great website that I highly encourage you to check out. I started following this on Tuesday, and through three days it is already interesting to analyze eating patterns. I have mainly been confirming things that I already knew, but never really paid enough attention to figure out scientifically. For example, pop is AWFUL for you. I stopped drinking coca cola and other caffeinated drinks back in 2007 for a whole host of reasons, but occasionally I will have a ginger ale or sierra mist these days. I had one for lunch today, and it totally threw my chart out of whack. Pure sugar, with absolutely nothing to gain. On the other hand, I have also decided that Subway is just plain fabulous. Fresh vegetables, meats, grains... of course I have always enjoyed it, but if you actually look at the nutritional value, for most of them it is pretty impressive. For example, my six-inch turkey & cheese on honey oat, topped with the veggies? 400 calories, 10g of fat, but a whopping 21g of protein and an okay 55 carbs. Not. Too. Shabby. Over the course of my year in London, I lost approximately 25-30 pounds. I realized a few of the things I did in order to achieve that:
1) Cut out almost all beverages besides water, with the occasional night out the exception to that rule.
2) Eat like a poor person. This comes directly from Born to Run, my new favorite book. Running aside, the author's point is to eat simple. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, oats. Avoid processed garbage, high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, and 97% of American fast food. In hindsight, that is almost exactly what I did in London. First of all - in Europe (and most of the rest of the world), there is no such thing as high fructose corn syrup and trans fats, which makes the job that much easier. But beyond that, it's rather simple advice. Eat an apple, a banana, or a granola bar when you get hungry - not chips.
3) Exercise! I was not running at all while in London. On the contrary, I didn't start running for exercise until I was back in the US, specifically to counter the difficulty I knew I would have in achieving points 1 and 2 in America. That said, I was walking five miles every single day, and it turns out that is some really good exercise to be getting on a daily basis!
In sum, if you do all three of those things consistently for a year, odds are you will lose some excess weight. It isn't rocket science. For me, I'm currently at 195. I think I will make myself forcibly accountable by posting a weekly or maybe monthly update on this blog. Goal? 185 by February 5 for the Surf City Half Marathon. 10 pounds in 10 weeks... like I said, it's not rocket science!
Three final points to wrap this update up. First, the Badgers are one victory away from a shot at revenge in the Rose Bowl. Here is hoping they get it this Saturday in the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game. Wish I could be in Indianapolis! Second, this week the COP17 is underway in Durban, South Africa. While the conference is receiving none of the attention the COP15 got (in no small part due to the thousands of students such as myself who descended on Copenhagen), it is equally important. Pay attention to what is going on there. The science only becomes more concrete and the situation more dire on an annual basis. Check out a fellow COP15 G-1 Billion writer's enviro blog here. Finally, do a little reading out of the Middle East. Business-oriented with a great take on the clash of Eastern and Western cultures, it is worth your time.
Have a great weekend!
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