Goal Met!

On January 9th, I told you of my goal to run an elliptical half-marathon to celebrate turning 50 years old this year. Well, I am happy to report that goal has been met as of last night. Here is a log of my progress.



I didn't start out last night with the idea of necessarily doing the whole 13.1 miles. I mean, that thought was in the back of my mind, but not really my plan. As you can see, my previous longest distance was 9.1 miles and I had sort of set 11.1 miles as my next target. I figured if I reached 11.1 and felt really good, I could go for it all. But that, most likely, I would save that for another day.

The first 6 miles or so went very smoothly. Around the 8 mile mark my right knee started hurting and for a little while there, I entertained the thought of stopping at 10.1 miles. After all, that would be a respectable improvement over my previous longest distance and I didn't want to risk further knee injury.

But by the time I got to 10 miles, my knee wasn't really hurting any worse than it had been for the previous couple of miles, so I decided to press on. At mile 11 my quads were burning so badly that I hardly noticed the knee pain anymore. Around that time, the thought of the pain that would be required to get me back to that same point on another day seemed greater than the pain that would be required to just go ahead and wrench it out for 2 more miles right then and there. So that's what I did.

So how hard could 2 more measly miles be? Let me tell you, those last 2 miles seemed to last forever! Every tenth of a mile was like a little milestone. Gruelling is what it was! But around 12.9, I started smiling.

After reaching 13.1 and getting off the machine, all I could say was "Holy cow!" Over and over. "Holy cow!" Because I was hurting! To say my quads were on fire is an understatement. They were in serious pain. I took three ibuprofen and within an hour, the pain had subsided. But the smile remains.

Goal met!

Sazon Tangy Baked Fish

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. That may be true, but not wanting to go to the grocery store is a pretty good motivator as well! Maybe a second cousin of invention or something.

Anyway, I invented this tangy baked fish recipe today just because I had thawed out some striped bass and I didn't want to go to the grocery store.



It turned out pretty darn good! I would make it again. I mixed in a bowl 1/4 cup Miracle Whip, 1/4 cup Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing (from a bottle) and 1/2 cup Wish Bone Italian Dressing. I tasted that and decided it needed a bit more kick. A friend recently turned me on to this stuff...



I whipped one packet of Sazon Goya con Azafran into the mixture and it gave it a nice flavor and turned it a pretty orange color to boot. Then I lined a cake pan with foil, layed my fish in the bottom of it and spooned my mixture on top. Then sprinkled liberally with California Style Lemon Pepper.



I baked it at 325 for 30 minutes. It has a sort of tangy southwest flavor. I ate a lot of it. Sorry about the anemic looking asparagus! It was frozen and I zapped it in the microwave a little too long. Oh well.

I guess I'll call it Sazon Tangy Baked fish. That is, unless you can suggest a better name. What say you?

Fire in the Sky

Fire in the Sky, originally uploaded by Snakelover61.

Friday's sunset made me gasp! I ran for my camera and took this photo. This was taken from my backyard looking west toward Lake Ray Hubbard. Wasn't it beautiful? Honestly, my photo doesn't do it justice.

The best part...

I know the artist personally.

Running in the House

I know I haven't blogged in a long time. Between deer season and the holidays, I guess something had to give. And it seems that blogging is the thing I’ve most neglected.



If you remember who I am at all, you may also recall that last summer I set a goal to run a half-marathon to celebrate my 50th birthday. During training, I promptly injured my knee. Namely, a proximal medial tibial stress fracture. Ouch! This, combined with cartilage damage in both knees that I have dealt with for a long time, brought my running to a screeching halt.

After I was finally able to walk pain free, the doctor released me to exercise and recommended I use my elliptical trainer to strengthen my knees. I’ve been doing that, but have never really gotten back to the point I was before the injury. I am very concerned about these jacked up knees of mine!

One of my friends recently had double knee replacement surgery. I talked to him in depth about how his knees were originally injured, how they slowly degenerated, the lifestyle changes that were necessary as the result of his bad knees and his experiences with the knee replacement surgery and rehabilitation. While I’m very happy for him that he is able to walk normally again, I definitely do not want to follow that long and grueling path.

All this to say that I’ve come to the decision that high impact running is just not worth the risk of further injuring my already not-quite-right knees. I plan to take my original knees with me to the grave.

So I am officially refining my goal:

I will still run a half-marathon.
But I will do it on an ELLIPTICAL.

Don't tell mom, but I'm running in the house! I will certainly not be the first to do this. Lots of people run 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons and even marathons on ellipticals. And it makes great sense! It has ALL the cardiovascular benefits of running but with MUCH less risk of injury. And I'm sure my knees will love me for it!

The first step was finding out what resistance setting on the elliptical is the cardiovascular equivalent of real running. This was relatively easy to do because I had been wearing a heart monitor when I ran and had collected the data for time, distance, calories burned, etc. So all I had to do is wear my heart monitor on the elliptical and find out (by trial and error) which resistance level would cause me to burn the same number of calories while running the same distance in the same amount of time as I did when I was actually running. It takes a resistance setting of 12 (out of 15) on my particular machine to equal the same amount of calorie burn as running.

I have already begun training for my elliptical half-marathon. So far, I have worked up to 4.0 miles. That's a long way from the 13.1 miles of a half-marathon. But it's a start!

"Someone"

First of all, the picture has nothing to do with this post; I just hate posting a blog without including a picture. I got to talking to someone online tonight about paranormal experiences. I told them the following true story. Having already typed it all up, I decided to share it with you as well.

I will warn you that what I'm about to tell you might seem strange to some. Heck, it's strange to me too! You may draw different conclusions than I do and that's ok. You may just say to yourself, "Then David got weird for a while." I promise to return to normal.

About 23 years ago, I experienced something that I can't fully understand, but was very real to me. It was at a time when my first marriage was on the rocks. I was very distraught. One night I lied awake for a long time thinking about all this before I finally started to fall asleep.

As I entered that semi-sleep state, I became aware that "someone" had sat down on the edge of the bed right next to me. I wanted to open my eyes, but I couldn't. Nor could I move. But I could feel the mattress slowly sink in on that side and I was very much aware that someone had begun sitting there. So close that I could feel them against me. I'm not sure, but I think they placed a hand on my arm. But they did not touch my skin directly, as there was a sheet and blanket over me.

I was simultaneously aware that my wife was still lying on the other side of me and I knew that we had been alone in the house with the doors locked. I was very aware of time and place and that I was in a semi-sleep state. The strange thing is I was not at all frightened. In fact, I instinctively knew that this "someone" was there to comfort me. No words were spoken. I did not see them; my eyes were closed the whole time.

Try as I might, I could not fully awaken myself. But I remained in this semi-sleep state and aware of the presence for what seemed like a long time. A peace gradually came over me and I eventually fell into full sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I could remember it distinctly as happening several hours prior. Which is very unlike dreams for me. I usually have a very hard time piecing together dreams once I awaken, even when I was having them immediately before awakening. This was very different than any dream I've ever had.

I can't explain why, but I knew it was someone of the male gender. I feel that this was either a relative that had died, an angel or Jesus himself. In any event, I'm grateful to this "someone." They helped me through a very difficult time.

OK, that's the story. I'll get right back to normal now.

Photo Published

I had one of my photos published in the October/November 2010 issue of K-9 COP Magazine. It's included in the article "Rattlesnake Vaccination," by Jo-Anne Brenner, Tim Crowe and Steven Mensack. Click here to see the photo that they used. They sent me five copies of the magazine in appreciation. And, of course, it includes a photo credit... "Western Diamondback Rattlesnake Photo courtesy of David Harkins." Imagine that!

This is not the first time I've had my "work" published. (It seems silly to call it "work," thus the quotation marks.) But this is the first time it's been used in something that I could actually hold it in my hands, which makes it feel more real.

Anyway, it feels good and I wanted to share. High five! Don't leave me hangin' now!

f-stop Friday - Buck Fawn

I took this picture three weekends ago while sitting in my bowhunting blind in Stephens County, Texas. I didn't see any deer that I wanted to shoot with my bow, but I did manage to shoot quite a few with my camera. This one's my favorite.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!