There Is Nothing New Under The Sun

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Coco

I love it when a devotional reading strikes a chord. Since I started listening to the daily podcasts of the (Anglican) Morning Prayer service from the New Zealand Prayer Book, I have noticed that readings often speak to an issue that I am facing or a feeling that I am struggling with. The words may comfort, inspire, or nudge me in a certain direction. It can feel like God is answering a prayer even if I didn’t realize that I had prayed about it. But then there are days when it feels like God is playing a cosmic joke on me–or at least revealing His sense of humor.

Last Monday I was getting ready to go in to work even though it was a holiday because I just have so much work to do.

The Old Testament reading was from the first chapter of Ecclesiastes:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?

Ah, those are words to inspire someone who is giving up a holiday to try to get ahead at work!

Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;
round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

Now, that doesn’t sound so bad. Isn’t there comfort in the sun’s constancy? And wouldn’t we be devastated by floods if the sea could get full?

All things are wearisome, more than one can say.

So much for trying to find some reason for optimism in this passage!

The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

What?! Is that where that phrase came from?

Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

Oh, Dear Lord! What are you trying to do to me?

I am a patent attorney! My job is to convince patent offices around the world that my clients have indeed discovered something “new under the sun,” that they have invented “something new” that was not “here already, long ago!”

All I can say, God, is that at least on Monday, I got the last laugh. Sitting in my inbox were notices for several clients indicating that their patents would be granted.

Letters Patent coverBut still, I have to wonder, what were you trying to say to me? 🙂

Have you ever felt that a prayer was being answered through something you read or heard in a different context?

Do you think God has a sense of humor?

 

Posted in My Faith, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hotel Gym Redux

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Coco

This is NOT the same post I wrote last weekend. Yes, I am on the road again. Yes, it is for a wrestling tournament that my son is in. Yes, I am going to tell you about another mix-and-match workout that I did at a hotel gym. But, hey–consistency is one of the keys to getting fit and staying fit. Besides, this time we drove north instead of south. This time we are in a Courtyard Marriott instead of a Westin, and this time my son is competing in the National Prep Wrestling Tournament since he did so well at the state tournament last weekend!

Between the excitement and stress of last weekend and the long hours spent in a very breezy arena, I finally lost my battle against that cold that started as a sore throat the week before. I needed Nyquil to sleep, so Monday I started my day with a 40 min/2 mile walk to shake off that grogginess. Tuesday I felt a bit better, so I opted for the elliptical and a freestyle weights routine, similar to the one I did today. Wednesday I felt better still, but not “better,” so I stuck to the elliptical again, and did different strength moves. Yesterday I was ready for the treadmill, but not as ready as I thought! I slogged through 50 min (40 min running) but had to keep to a moderate pace (6.0 mph) for my breathing to keep up.

For today I was planning on another elliptical/weights combination workout. I had set my alarm for 5:30, but woke up at @ 5:00 (my usual alarm time). I decided to go ahead and get up and get moving, and I’m glad I did. There already was someone in the small hotel fitness room (on a treadmill) when I got there @ 5:15.

The fitness room at this hotel has two treadmills, 1 bike, 1 elliptical, a set of free weights and a bench. But as I walked in, I saw that my plans to use the elliptical were not going to work out:

What did that note say:

Yes, I could have used the elliptical without the TV working, but “without being plugged in” meant no program, no resistance, no lights and numbers to keep me entertained.

Even though I usually limit my runs to alternate dates, since yesterday’s treadmill workout wasn’t intense, I decided that I could use the treadmill again today if I stuck to 30 min running and kept the incline low (level 0.5). So, I hopped on the other treadmill and got started. It was a nice LifeFitness machine with a built-in TV:

Shortly after I started, four more people came in! Yikes! One woman started doing a weights routine with that new Nike iPhone App. One man sort of hung around stretched and did some weights. One man got on the elliptical. One woman got on the bike.

I worry about gym etiquette and try not to hog equipment in a hotel gym, but since the man on the other treadmill started before I did, I figured he would be finishing relatively soon. And, I was only planning to run for 30 minutes, although with my warm-up and cool-down my total time on the treadmill was 40 minutes. After the first man finished with the other treadmill, the only person interested in it was the man who was sort of hanging out. So, I didn’t feel badly about finishing my program.

Then I moved on to my free weights superset routine.  

  • dead lifts/overhead press/push-ups
  • plie squats/tricep dips
  • lunges/bicep curls
  • squats/French press
  • lateral arm raises
  • chest flies/crunches

Since I’ve done this a few times this week, I thought I remembered everything, but now I see that I forgot plie squats. I did remember the lateral arm raises that I forgot skipped last weekend and–bonus!–did short sets (8 reps) with 10 lb weights because the 5 lbs felt like nothing! (At home I have 8 lb weights that I use for that move).

I grabbed some coffee from the hotel lobby (I will be fixing a cup of Starbucks Via soon!) and saw my son and his teammates heading out as I was heading back to my room.

When a gym has a time limit on cardio equipment, does that include the cool-down time that most programs add to the end?

Do you have that Nike iPhone App?

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Dear Blogger

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Coco

Dear Blogger,

I enjoy reading your blog. Sometimes you make me think. Sometimes you make me laugh. Sometimes you give me a glimpse of a totally different lifestyle. Sometimes I learn something from you. Sometimes I just enjoy reading about how someone else juggles work, family, fitness, food, etc.

I know that many bloggers monitor the statistics on their sites. I learned from Katy Widrick that it’s better for you if I read your posts directly on your site rather than in Google Reader. I know that the bloggers I follow enjoy getting comments (I do too!) and I usually will leave a comment if I have something to say about (or in response to) your post.

But (and here’s why this is in my “venting” category), I am busy. I don’t have a lot of free time. I enjoy spending time reading and commenting on blogs, but I don’t like to waste time waiting for your blog page to load with all of its fancy plug-ins and add-ons and (seriously?) pop-ups. I will run away (“back” or “x”) if I can’t load your page quickly and I won’t come back if you have pop-up ads–they just scare me from a virus/malware standpoint.

Now for those comments. If you want comments, please make it easy for readers to leave comments. First, make it easy to find the comment box. If it’s not on the same page as your post, check the font size on the “comment” link, especially if you welcome visually challenged readers like me. 🙂

If you really need to weed out spam comments, test out the system that you are using. I think there must be some incompatibility between my computer (or browser, IE7) and some of the Blogger captcha plug-ins, because sometimes I have to hit “post” three times before a captcha code will show up. I will accept that this is a problem on my end and keep clicking, but I encourage you to view your blog as an external reader and try leaving a comment to make sure the process runs smoothly.

I also have learned (the hard way, of course) that sometimes logging in through OpenID will erase my comment. So, when I remember this issue, I write a comment, copy, log in, paste into the now-blank reply box, and then submit.  Again, this might be an issue between OpenID and WordPress, but it doesn’t happen on every blog. If I am really pressed for time, I may select “anonymous” although I will leave my name, so just know that it’s nothing personal and I’m not hiding anything.

I am new to blogging, but I want to point out some cool features of WordPress that make my own comment review process go pretty smoothly. I have my comments set up to require my approval before publishing. I probably will change this eventually, but I am comfortable having it this way for now. That said, WordPress lets me approve a commenter, so that when the same person leaves another comment (on the same or different post), it will publish automatically. Also, WordPress has a built-in akismet program that seems to do a good job of identifying spam, although sometimes it tags non-spam as spam (this is easily rectified). Maybe when my blog is older spam will be more of a problem, but for now the basic WordPress tools are all I need.

What about you–do you have any pet peeves about blogs?

Aside from content, what makes you like or dislike a blog?

Posted in Venting | Tagged | 16 Comments

Breathing Patterns For Running

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Coco

When I first started running, one of the books I devoured was The Complete Book of Running For Women by Claire Kowalchik.

One of the tips that has stuck with me over the years relates to different breathing patterns for running, and how to monitor and control breathing to monitor and control pace.  Continue reading →

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Hotel Gym Mix & Match Workout

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Coco

A family overnight trip for my son’s wrestling tournament meant a Saturday morning in a hotel gym. I did an awesome 7+ mile run Friday morning, but since I was going to spend the day sitting in an arena, I wanted to get some cardio in. I decided to do a 30 minute elliptical workout and then a free weights routine.

Since I usually workout in my basement, I enjoy getting to use fancy machines in hotel gyms, but the downside is not knowing what I’m getting into with unfamiliar equipment.  I selected a “random” workout at level 4. It probably was harder than I needed after a 7 mile run, but it got the sweat dripping and the endorphins flowing.  The machine had a built-in TV and a built-in fan that I turned on for the last 10 minutes. I couldn’t find a screen that showed the workout “profile” (what incline I was on, what was coming up), but I did find this screen at the end: 

 

I have no idea what the “WtLoss Training” and “Cardio Training” numbers mean, or how “Stride Length” correlates with the “Strides Per Minute” I usually monitor. 

The program did not give me a cool down, so I got on a treadmill and walked for 5 minutes before heading to the free weights area.

Since I’ve been doing my Bob Harper Pure Burn Super Strength DVD since January, I had to dust off some mental cobwebs to remember my free weights superset routine. This is what I came up with:

  • dead lifts/overhead press/push-ups
  • plie squats/tricep dips
  • lunges/bicep curls
  • chest flies/crunches
  • squats

Yes, I skipped lateral raises, but they get overdone with Bob Harper!

I did 3 sets of each move, with 15 reps for each set.  For most of the segments I paused between the 2nd and 3rd sets to grab a sip of water .

After that, I tried out the stretching “machine:”

The tilting “chair” and handle bars really did seem to give the stretches an extra oomph.

Did I forget any of your “must do” moves in my free weights routine?

Have you ever tried the stretching machine?

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , | 4 Comments