Mornin' everyone!
Despite the many problems associated with them, I think it is great that so many companies are focused on 'wellness' for their employees, rather than just providing (or not) health insurance coverage and letting everyone go on smoking, gaining weight, not exercising, etc. The sad aspect is that companies feel they have to provide those incentives because too many people are not motivated on their own to stay as healthy as they can be.
"Jay - I was up at 3:40. I so wanted to go back to bed, but I needed to be out the door no later than 4:30 so I sucked it up . . . .and laid down on the couch for a few minutes after feeding the Zoo Croo." Made me laugh, Leslie - BTDT!
DW made yogurt again last night, and here's the drill:
• She puts just shy of a quart of whole milk into our crock pot, sets it on 'high,' and lets it go for about 90 minutes, which is how long our crock pot takes to get the milk temp to about 145. DW has concluded that is the optimum temp to kill the bacteria, without killing the 'good stuff' in the milk. Raising the temperature slowly like that also helps ensure that the good bacteria are not wiped out with the bad.
• Transfer the milk to another container (she uses a large Pyrex measuring cup), and let it sit till the temp drops back to about 90. If you want to speed this process up, you can set the vessel in some cold water.
• Add the 'starter' (she saves a bit of the last container from the last batch - about a month ago, she also added in a bit of home-made yogurt from the farmer's market, after confirming the number of bacteria in their yogurt (at least 3-4, I think).
• Mix the milk and starter, and pour into the individual cups from the yogurt maker.
• Plug in the yogurt maker, let it sit overnight for 8 hours, and leave a note for Jay telling him what time to pull the plug on the yogurt maker and transfer the cups to the fridge.
I went just a scootch over 6 RW miles this morning in 21F temps, with a bit of a feisty breeze from the west. I was glad to have the extra shirt under my windbreaker, and gloves inside my mittens. A little way down the road I decided it would be a good day for fartleks, so I did alternate easy/hard miles. In addition to improving my speed, I'm trying to get my turnover rate up. I got up to the upper 170s this morning, which was good, but I want to be able to hold it at 180+ for a 5K. It may be a dream, but it is a good goal to strive for.
It looks like it is a "guy" racing weekend. Good luck/have fun to you all!
01/24 A Trackrat - Screaming Snow Man 10 mi
01/25 Dave59 - The Snowman Half Marathon - Mt. Pleasant, MI
01/25 tetsujin - Mt. Oyama Marathon (Japan) - geta
Have a greta Friday!
Jay
Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.
coastwalker very cool about how you all make yogurt! Once upon a time I had a yogurt maker. Clearly, with a lot less success than you and your DW have had!
StarrRuns among all of the incentives for a health insurance discount the one about going to a commercial gym is one I would flunk. I realize that it is a way to verify you are doing what you say you are doing to stay healthy. I also think it is bad to oppose policies on the basis of the "best should be the enemy of the good" and getting people to workout is good. Still, it is too bad we cannot get people to adopt healthy habits by measuring outputs (did your blood pressure come down?) instead of inputs (did you spend 30 minutes in the gym on Monday?).
tetsujin209 if the murder rate coming down freaks you out you will probably find this really disturbing, although in a good way I hope!
Despite the headlines, we are living in a period of time where a random person is less likely to die by violence than ever before. Not everywhere, so not everyone. It is still horrible what we see happening in various places. But, in terms of getting people to not kill each other we are making progress.
I am still ill. I feel a lot better today than yesterday. Of course, 10 hours of sleep last night probably helped with that! If I feel a lot better.
I have a quick question for everybody. As you may have noticed there is a new team forming for this year's Reach the Beach Relay in New Hampshire this September. (Join up!) I am looking for a way to encourage people to sign up (i.e. pay their registration fee) early so that we can get the team's membership resolved as soon as we can. Any ideas on how to do this? I am drawing a blank. My only pathetic idea was that dibs on the beds the night before the relay starts would be in the order people join up. But that is pretty thin gruel.
Live like you are dying not like you are afraid to die.
Drunken Irish Soda Bread and Irish Brown Bread this way --> http://allrecipes.com/cook/4379041/
Living on the edge in Michigan. I got up this morning and thought, "What the hell, it's Friday, lets mix things up!", and I put on my right slipper before the left!!! What an adrenaline rush.
After a couple hours of work I swapped the slippers for running shoes and I went out for an easy 4 miles on snow packed roads.
Sayhey! MM#130
Hiya and happy Friday!
I got yer memo Dave, and did a jogalicious 4+ bagel run this am on wet (it rained last night) streets.
tet, yes, that's why I tried to make it clear that one of the reasons I tried toe running is b/c of the reduction in injuries associated with that method. Just be careful if you start to feel some discomfort in the space on the outside of and just under your ankle bone! When I get all healed up, I am going to see if I can't still use the minimal shoes now and again and mix up running styles. It may be beyond me, but I'll try.
twocat, my idea: combo of everyone in more developed countries being totally involved with their phones and the boomers getting older.
Insurance talk makes me crazy, e.g., an running buddy and her husband went to Vail in December. He broke his leg. So they (otherwise healthy, just check ups, in their early 40s) met their deductable. Twice. The 2014 and the the 2015. That just seems unfair.
Sayhey, Pedro's going into the Hall of Fame in his Red Sox cap. This got reported yesterday as news. I could have told them that last week.
If the KT tape holds, I may have a (slow) race in my immediate future. Just so it's not an all guy race weekend.
Greta weekends, everyone! Get better soon, everyone who's ailing.
grins,
A
https://agratefullifedotnet.wordpress.com/ (for a piece or two of my mind)
Trails are hard!
Living on the edge in Michigan. I got up this morning and thought, "What the hell, it's Friday, lets mix things up!", and I put on my right slipper before the left!!! What an adrenaline rush. After a couple hours of work I swapped the slippers for running shoes and I went out for an easy 4 miles on snow packed roads.
You're a wild man, Dave. How are you going to match that for the weekend?
I had a site visit on the way to work this morning that's only 20 minutes away from home (instead of the normal hour to the office) so I took advantage and went a little longer than I planned. 6.25 miles (2 lake laps) at a leisurely pace. 22f and no breeze made for a pleasant journey.
TC--glad you're feeling better.
Tomorrow night is our company Christmas/holiday party. As seems to be traditional, there is a decent snow storm predicted. Looks like we'll be taking DW's Subaru.
ETA: found this for Steve
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Morning folks, don't you love Fridays?
Erica, that stinks about your treadmill stopping, one more reason not to run on those for me! I admire those of you that can stay focused on those things. Maybe someday it will get easier for me.
Dave, that's a nice way to change up the routine . Good luck on the race this weekend,,, you too Trackrat and Amy (what distance this time and does the bird get to go along?)
Jay, how do you count the turnover rate? Pretty impressive, I'd like to see that sometime. Yeah, I am pretty sure I will never make yogurt but that seems like quite a process so it must be worth it. I buy the cheap Yoplait light , don't even like the Greek yogurt.
So Tet's running a marathon, with all your practicing this year are you setting a goal for this race?
Twocat, I know that checking in with the gym isn't the answer to most people's health problems, but it is a start. MrStarr is there 3 x a week for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. He would never exercise on his own that much without the gym. I do get a kick out of the people there in blue jeans but at least they are moving and doing something. I have my bag packed to go after work today and discovered that I had left my goggles and swim cap there on Wednesday. Hopefully I will find them there tonight.
Reach the Beach looks like so much fun but we always have a houseful of people here for King Turkey Day. Do they have financial incentives for early registration?
I'd better get back to work. I need to train someone today to do part of my job that is actually easier to just do myself, I am gone in June when the meters need to be read, plus if I am ever sick then that's a problem too.
“Courage is not defined by those who fought and did not fall, but by those who fought, fell, and rose again.” — Adrienne Rich
. . . and leave a note for Jay telling him what time to pull the plug on the yogurt maker and transfer the cups to the fridge.
I'm thinking this is the make or break part of the recipe.
Dave -
I keep wondering about seeing if we can afford a treadmill. Not for weather reasons, but I think it would be a great speed training tool for keeping a consistent, faster pace. BUT - we would need to sell the Bowflex that is gathering cobwebs in my workout shed and not sure we'd get enough $$ out of that to pay for a treadmill. . . . I keep thinking about it though.
We have to get insurance for The Hub, and I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to pay for it. As far as I know, my insurance doesn't have any "wellness" incentives. Maybe that's a good thing . . .
30 min of core and upper body this a.m. Tomorrow, 15 on the docket with emphasis on . . . - you guessed it - . . . keeping a steady consistent pace, so no hill running this week. . . . and I'm all kinds of broke up about that - not.
Have a great weekend, and good luck to our racers ~
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
Marathon Maniac #957
Stumpy/Kevin - Christmas party?
My spoiled DD begged me to run to Panera and bring two bagels/cream cheese to school for her lunch, so I took a break from drafting deeds and did so. She's had a tough week, though, three basketball games in a row in which her team lost. She is slightly demoralized and also just tired - 4 games and two practices last week and the same this week.
7 easy paced miles for me this morning in 31 degrees.
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
Stumpy/Kevin - Christmas party? .
.
Yeah, the month of December is always our busiest month. Everyone seems to want to make sure that the projects are complete and they will be able to provide gas in the cold weather--go figure So since we bring in all our field guys into the office for safety and other training this week, our party gets held at a little more relaxed time when more people can attend. And we can spread out the holidays a little bit.
MM #5615
I don't tell a lot of people this, but I have to put on my left shoe first. I can remember, even before I could tie my own shoes, I would have my mom tie my left shoe first.
Our Christmas Party is tonight.
Take it from someone who pays a LOT of money for very LITTLE Leslie. DH is on Medicare and I don't work enough hours to qualify for our insurance at the Y (which is not so hot I hear). Before "The Affordable Health Care Act," I was paying $385/month for insurance with a $20 co-pay and a $5,000 deductible. At the end of last year, I got a letter saying they couldn't give me the same policy for that price, and the new one would now be $800+ a month. With a $30 co-pay and $5,000 deductible. We did manage to find something, but it basically covers squat and we're paying $560/month for it. But at age 62, you sure don't want to be without health insurance. It's horrible.
Interesting statistics on the homicide rates Twocat. Hope you feel better.
I try to mix up what sock/shoe I put on first every day. Hopefully, it will keep the dementia away longer
Up since 3:30, no gas, but managed a 45 minute personal training session using kettle bells and lots and lots of push-ups and sit-ups. DH wants to go see American Sniper tonight. I told him if he put me in a dark movie theatre I'd be asleep before the coming attractions were over.
Have a great rest of the day everyone.
JLynne - The whole insurance issues makes me ill and irritated. I'm not going "politics" here, but your experience of your insurance skyrocketing with the "Affordable Health Care Act" is the same I've heard from many people. I'm thinking "Affordable" needs to be taken out of the title. And you are very right - Shorty going without insurance any longer is not an option, especially with his line of work. All we need is for him to fall off a ladder or cut something with a hedge trimmer and we're sunk.
On top of that, he just came by and told me his work truck needs about $2,500 in repairs. *sigh* Guess it's a good thing we like and already eat a lot of beans! They're cheap!
With all of this, I choose to remain positive because:
A beautiful sunny day here before the first big nor'easter arrives tomorrow . We decided to "cross train" and went for a hike in the woods nearby and a climb up a hill trail for scenic vista- found out it uses different leg muscles tha our runs do. Marj had discovered these trails a couple of days ago with a friend. A nice change of pace.
When the "Affordable Care Act" was being "Debated" a friend of mine said to me; "Pay attention to who is being quiet on this."
This person is the CEO of a Doctors Association. He was referring to the Inusurance Companies.
It's not Affordable Care and it's not Affordable Insurance. It does nothing to address the high cost of health care.
So...I haven't run yet today.
Back to the grind!
King of PhotoShop
Tired today. Got in at midnight last night, delayed flight. Leaving Sunday night for Atlanta, so a quick weekend, and a day of conference calls.
But I did run and walk a bit with Lucy von Sheltie this morning in the park while the Saint whizzed by me doing 4. We signed up for water duty for this weekend's club run so no sleep for me for awhile. Spareribs