Jogging

I've been thinking about taking up jogging for awhile.

This idea originated a couple years ago when, for a month or so, I had an irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath. My doctor ran a EKG and found something "abnormal," so they sent me to the hospital in Owosso so that they could run a stress test. I had to run on a treadmill with a bunch of cords and stuff stuck to me, during which the doctors kept pointing at my overweight stomach. After the test was over, I was out of breath, and they concluded that I was severly out of shape and needed to start exercising.

Finally, about 3 weeks ago, I decided to start jogging. Based on the experiences I've had so far, I have a few suggestions for anyone that is thinking about starting. I'm not reinventing the wheel here - you could probably google "how to start jogging" and you'd probably get the same suggestions - but this is just my personal experience:

- You need a warm up/cool down period, at least 3 minutes for each. That's a given.
- You need a good breathing pattern. What's working pretty good right now is inhaling every 4 steps, then exhaling every 4 steps. If you don't develop a pattern, you get side cramps. I've gotten some of those and they put a damper on the remainder of your jogging session.
- You need a routine. Pick a time when you're going to jog, and stick with it.
- Start by doing an even amount of jogging/walking. If you have lamp posts, walk to one, jog to the next. We don't have street lights in our neighborhood, so I started jogging for one minute, then walking the next.
- Set a goal, but be patient, and don't burn yourself out. I'm up to 2 minutes of jogging, one minute of walking. I'd like to run a few 5Ks next year, but I'm nowhere near that point yet. It's going to take me awhile to get there, but I'm not in any hurry.

I hope that helps. If you have any running ideas for me, or if there's something I'm doing that I shouldn't be, please let me know.

Beijing Restaurant Prepares

My friend Ty told me about this restaurant that was nice enough to translate its name for all the English-speaking tourists in Beijing. Unfortunately, they used an internet translator instead of someone who actually knew English. This is what they came up with:


I'm still laughing. I wonder if I could get some core dumplings there.


Read more here: http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2008/07/then-well-grab.html

4 day workweek pt. 2

Today marks the end of my 4 day workweeks. If you didn't read pt. 1, you won't have to scroll down very far to see the intent and purpose of the condensed workweek (again, my life is not that interesting). As I mentioned, they will be asking everyone to give feedback about how it worked (or didn't work).

I thought it was great to have Fridays off. Last weekend, Heather and I went up north. Friday, we stayed with her sister, and I took my nephew Noah to Michigan Adventure where we rode the rollercoasters all day long. We then spent Saturday and Sunday in Manistee with my grandparents, which I was grateful for considering they're 87 and have traded trips to the hospital the past couple years.

When we didn't take trips, Heather and I found ourselves running errands and getting Saturday's stuff accomplished on Friday, and Sunday's stuff done on Saturday, leaving Sunday wide open. Most importantly, I got to sleep in 3 days out of the week instead of 2.

Working longer hours throughout the week wasn't that big of a deal either, because Heather took 9 graduate credits in a 5 week period, so she was plenty busy while I worked later. However, her classes got done last weekend, so this week she spent every day until 6:30pm (or later) by herself. Had she not taken those classes, she might have gone crazy. I sympathize for the other employees who have families. Is the extra day off worth the previous 4 days of lost time?

As for work, I was more productive and felt that it was easier to stay on task. However, this 5-week timeframe is also the slowest time of the year, so it probably wouldn't make a difference if you compared it to a normal workweek.

In general, for me, the pros of a four day workweek outweigh the cons. For others, though, it may be the opposite. At this point, I would support doing this again next summer. Now that we're going back to a full 5 day week, I wonder what I'll miss and what I won't miss. I guess I'll find out and let you know.