June 2010
186 posts
May 2010
171 posts
Harmful Drinks in America →
worldmysteries9.blogspot.com
Have you ever considered what the calorie equivalents are of the sweet beverages you consume? Is it sort of sick that instead of appalling me, it makes me want them more?
Check out the article here.
“The clock isn’t slower; you’re just faster.”
—
-Adidas
A Crack in the Stoic's Armor →
opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
Image by Erin Schell; article by Nancy Sherman
Epictetus, who was a slave around the time of Nero, wrote: “Our thoughts are up to us, and our impulses, desires, and aversions — in short, whatever is our doing … Of things that are outside your control, say they are nothing to you.”
The Stoic doctrine is essentially about reducing vulnerability. And it starts off where Aristotle leaves off. Aristotle insists that happiness depends to some degree on chance and prosperity. Though the primary component of happiness is virtue — and that, a matter of one’s own discipline and effort — realizing virtue in the world goes beyond one’s effort. Actions that succeed and relationships that endure and are reciprocal depend upon more than one’s own goodness. For the Stoics, this makes happiness far too dicey a matter. And so in their revision, virtue, and virtue alone, is sufficient for happiness. Virtue itself becomes purified, based on reason only, and shorn of ordinary emotions, like fear and grief that cling to objects beyond our control.
Something's Missing
John Mayer
John Mayer | Something’s Missing
“The majority of American adults, 57 percent, now keep tabs on their reputations online, using search engines to track information about their Internet identities, according to a report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, released today. That’s up from 47 percent in 2006.”
—
Most People Google Themselves Now | LiveScience (via urlesque)
Common sense of plain old narcissism?
“Into each life some rain must fall.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (via quote-book)
“It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the words, “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”
—
Abraham Lincoln (via psychotherapy)
A really humbling and uplifting point about how nothing is ever permanent.
“The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don’t let it get the best of you.”
— Will Rogers (submitted by incandescentdreams) (via quote-book)
It's Fleet Week in NYC again...
and in honor of the Navy, I’m aiming to do a quick jaunt south along the Westside Highway, past the USS Intrepid, in time, I hope, to catch another gorgeous sunset.
Listen
Lasso - Phoenix
Art of Attention: From Complaint to Gratitude →
drfranklipman.com
“Gratitude- the most effective healing state”
[Charla Nash] isn't angry at Herold. "I don't hold it," she said. "It's unhealthy to hold it in." →
aolnews.com
Nash said it wasn’t hard to let go of the anger.
“I woke up, and it was like everything was OK,” she said. “I’ve gotten angry at times. You can’t hold anger. It’s unhealthy. It goes through you. You see it through your face. You got to enjoy what you have.”
Following the February 2009 incident that left her sans hands, nose, lips, and eyesight, survivor Charla Nash has become a stellar example of what forgiveness looks like.
“Very few can withstand the test of [true] friendship without showing chinks in their armor.”
— Kyle Valenti, certified yoga instructor and friendship guru
Concept of the Day
Physical Stress Theory
Physical stress theory, as it is called, is based on the simple premise that body tissues adapt in a predictable way in response to changes in the relative level of physical stress they are exposed to. When tissues are exposed to an accustomed level of stress, they maintain their current structure and function at a state that is often referred to as homeostasis.
When these same tissues are exposed to a slight or gradual increase in stress, they modify their structure and function—after an initial period of breakdown—to become more tolerant of that type of stress. They achieve a new homeostasis at a greater level of durability. For example, a recent animal study found that when rats were exposed to a running program, fingerlike branches of new tissue grew in the attachment between the tendons and muscles of their legs, strengthening these important junctions. But if a stress is increased too quickly or abruptly, the tissues never recover from the initial period of breakdown. They lose their homeostatic balance and progressively degenerate. All running overuse injuries follow this pattern.
On the other hand, if the level of stress is reduced, the tissues adapt in the other direction, finding a new homeostasis at a lower level of durability and function.
From 3 Ways to Prevent Overuse Injuries by Matt Fitzgerald
“After you’ve built up your base mileage, it’s really about how much pain you can take. You have to reach into yourself and find that toughness.”
— Michelle Barton, winner of the 2006 CA’s Orange Curtain 100K
“To be aware of a single shortcoming in oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else.”
—H.H Dalai Lama (via: dinastik) (via quote-book)
Road Trip!
So excited.
“Zuckerberg needs your data. His business is built upon it. The most important thing to understand about Facebook is that you are not Facebook’s customer, you are its inventory. You are the product Facebook is selling. Facebook’s real customers are advertisers. You, as a Facebook member, are useful only because you can be packaged up and sold to advertisers. The more information Facebook can get from you, the more you are worth. In response, a FB spokesman told me: “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
—
Lyons, on Facebook (via newsweek)
Does this really come as a surprise to anyone?
Lessons learned on a playground.
- L: It's definitely a question of knowing how far you can go and then realizing your own limits... We were in the park yesterday and [my daughter] did a crazy three-flip thing. When I first saw it, I told her to be careful, and sure enough, after the third time, she sprained her ankle. She's six, and it blew her mind that she could get injured.
- J: It's amazing how frail we are are humans.
- L: Oh, but we're strong. We're just not invincible.
Scott Jurek, Vegan Ultramarathoner Extraordinaire →
nytimes.com
photo by Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times
Jurek grew up in Proctor, Minn., eating cookie dough, canned vegetables and his share of fast food. When his mother, Lynn, developed multiple sclerosis (she died this spring), he and his siblings began cooking, but the food was, he said, “very Midwest — meat and potatoes.” In college, his diet began to improve, and as he “saw how much disease is lifestyle related,” he began eating “real food, eating the way people have been eating for thousands of years.”
Can you imagine consuming 5,000 - 8,000 calories a day as a vegan?
Long Story Short
I have a marathon in two weeks, which means that I have a long run or two to churn out before June 5.
A few things inspired my registration for the God’s Country Marathon, including a warped sense of adventure and the token impulse to test my limits, the desire to take a field trip outside of the city, a wish to hang out with a friend who will be leaving for an indeterminate period of time in Ghana, and perhaps more importantly, an overwhelming feeling of gratitude that I am healthy and seem to have found a sweet spot with running.
Two long loops in CP and three miles into the 8 mile leg home I made a routine stop for water along the Hudson River, only to discover that my right knee had become stiff and uncooperative. It never warmed back up. Understanding that you can’t un-run an injury, I called it an early night. To be completely honest, when passerby started shooting me looks of concern and I realized that I was running like an injured animal, I decided enough was enough.
Is this a reaction to my new thinner running shoes? Is this the universe’s way of reminding me to be more thankful? Is this a manifestation of a weird strike? Is my body in revolt because I haven’t taken enough time to rest?
Please feel better, knee.
“They say you can’t run away from your troubles. I say that you can.”
—
John Bingham, The Courage to Start
um.. hells to the yeah.
Your Daily Kick in the Butt Runnersworld
(via theroadtoslimcity)
(via runspiration)
“Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.”
—Samuel Butler (via kari-shma) (via quote-book)
Word of the Day
Biophilia (noun):
The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book entitled Biophilia.
The term “biophilia” literally means “love of life or living systems.” It was first used by Erich Fromm to describe a psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive and vital. Wilson uses the term in the same sense when he suggests that biophilia describes “the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.” He proposed the possibility that the deep affiliations humans have with nature are rooted in our biology.
from Wikipedia
Today's Running Hero
On May 14, Matt Hart ran the 48 mile Trans-Zion Trek in 7 hours, 58 minutes, effectively shattering the 2009 record of 9 hours, 8 minutes. Check out the full article here.
Brooklyn Half Marathon!
Congratulations to everyone who ran this morning!
"Running fast and running far is not about winning. It's not about money. It's not even about suffering, or redemption. It's about discovery." →
runnersworld.com
Awesome article about ultra runner Scott Jurek from Runner’s World.
And in case you didn't know...
Kansas is Not Flat
Course Profile: One 15-Mile Loop
Summer Concerts in NYC →
newyork.timeout.com
Preparation for summer in the city begins.
