Losin' It

Metabolism issues

My Lord, it's difficult to lose weight when you're middle-aged.

Admittedly, I haven't been trying real hard lately to shed the excess poundage that still plagues my 50-year-old body. But I have been training relatively hard lately. I've got my weekly running mileage up to around 35 miles a week. Plus, I've been swimming laps three times a week and lifting weights two or three days a week. So, you'd think that if I maintained the same caloric intake but substantially bumped up my calorie intake I couldn't help but lose a few pounds. But no, my weight hasn't moved more than a couple poounds since I started my spring marathon/maybe a summer triathlon training program in mid-January.

I thought maybe I'd started subconsciously consuming more calories to compensate for the extra physical activity so I've now started to log everything I eat so I can gauge how many calories I'm taking in. I'll see where that takes me. But I suspect it might be just that my metabolism is down to zero. It's hell getting old.

More on people who don't shovel their walks

I've alrady heard from a lot of friends, colleagues and other readers in reaction to my Tuesday column about people who neglect to shovel their walks.

Some of them have mentioned that it's not just homeowners and apartment landlords who refuse to shovel their walks for weeks or months at a time. They noted that some businesses and even schools have stretches of sidewalk that are left unshoveled all winter.

That's a point well taken. I'm not going to name names. But I've noticed on my long runs that some businesses and schools have left stretches of sidewalk unshoveled most or all of the winter. They shovel and clear ice away from the main entrances to the building, but apparently assume that no one is using — or needs to use — the other sidewalks. Either that or it's just too much of a pain. Would these same schools and businesses neglect to mow the lawn behind the building because they assume no one sees it?

Granted, I'm probably overly sensitive to this issue because I'm a runner. But I think it's downright dangerous not to shovel. On a certain stretch of roadway in front of a certain educational facility I'm forced to divert my route from the sidewalk to the street because the walk isn't shoveled. And I know I'm taking my life into my hands when I do that in the middle of the winter when the roadways are slick and a lot more narrow than they are when there aren't snowbanks along the street.

I know how some people are going to respond to this — well then DON'T RUN THERE. But citizens shouldn't have to change they're routes, whether they're walking to the bus stop or out for a 10-mile run, just because a school's or business's maintenance staff has decided that pedestrians don't need to be using the sidewalk this time of year.

Guest footwear and shoe mountain problems

One of the things I hate about winter is the growing mountain of shoes that piles up in front of our kitchen door. My wife has trained all of us to dutifully remove our footwear at the door so we don't track snow and mud all over the house.

I don't mind padding around the house in my sock feet, but no one seems to want to take the time to put their shoes away once they've dried, creating a massive tripping hazard. I take full responsibility for two or three of the what seems like two dozen pairs of shoes that litter the entryway like deadfall. But when I see there in front of me how many pairs of shoes other people in my family own I wonder how we can afford college tuition for two kids.

There's no easy answer to this problem. Every two or three days, my wife commands us each to take at least two pairs of shoes with us upstairs in an effort to tame the mountain. But a day later it's baaaack.

This brings me to an issue that's always bugged me. Why is it that even when the sidewalks are dry and there is no snow on the ground we have this strange custom in this country of removing our shoes when we enter someone else's house. This can be an embarrassing problem for me because I won't throw a pair of socks away until the heel is completely gone. Friends must think I have a terrible time making ends meet on a journalist's salary.

What are hardwood floors and carpet for, if not to be walked on. With shoes. Not long ago, I was at a friend's house and my shoes were dripping with snow and dirt. I started take my shoes off, and he said "Oh, don't bother. It's linoleum."

How refreshing. (Admittedly, if his wife had been home it might have been a different story.)

Just another one of life's vexing problems.

Respect Mother Nature

Here's an exchange I had with reader Don Gabrielson regarding my Xtreme cold weather run earlier this month...

Mr. Sellnow, the same day you ran six miles, I ran 9.5 miles and had a great, comfortable run. Both me and my running partner were actually a bit warm. You have to be smart, not foolhardy when exercising in such conditions. Get the technical clothing to take moisture away from your skin is number one. And then, dress in layers. I had three layers on top, two on the bottom, with two pair of socks. With my head covered, all that I had exposed is my eyes. One has to be smart, and respect Mother Nature.

As a matter of fact, I felt so good, that (I think) I referred your son's Bantam game Saturday evening! They played a good game.

.... Here's my response:

Thanks for the feedback, Don. Yeah, I know the drill when it comes to Xtreme running. I dressed in wicking layers and never felt cold on my 15-below run. And, in fact, I've never before in my 30+ years of running gotten sick after a run (sub-zero or otherwise). So, maybe it was just happenstance. Or maybe I'm just getting old. Well, OK. I KNOW I'm getting old, but running is one thing I do to defy the aging thing.

Running when it's below zero: A worthy challenge or just plain dumb

You might have read about the guy from Davenport Iowa who ran one of those ultra endurance races in Wisconsin last weekend when the temperature dipped as low as 15 below.

No one actually finished the 64-mile course in the Kettle Morain State Forest. It was just too darn cold. But a 27-year-old man named Andrew Wells was declared the winner when he completed the longest distace, of 47 miles.

After the race, Wells goes to a friend's house and takes a nap. Which is understandable for a guy who'd just spent 17 hours running through ankle deep snow in the forest. When he wakes up, his feet are throbbing. He looks down and a few of his toes have turned purple. Not a good sign.

Turns out he was suffering from severe frostbite. A few days later doctors remove the big toe and the one right next to it on his right foot.

"My feet were obviously frozen," Wells said according to the Associated Press. "And it was too cold to take my shoes off to check my feet. On my hands, I had mittens on, and just to take them off for 30 seconds, my hands got really cold, painful. I thought my toes were OK."

I don't know what sort of prize Wells won, but in my book whatever it was it wasn't worth sacrificing two toes for. One, maybe. But two?

Now, if a guy happened to be prejudiced against people who live south of the border he might chalk this up as Iowa ignorance. But I'm going to dispense with the Iowa jokes because this sounds like something a Minnesotan might do.

The fact is, I ran six miles early last Saturday morning when it was 15 below. I kept all of my fingers and toes. But now I have a cough and my voice sounds like Marlon Brando in the Godfather I. If this turns into pneumonia and I end up in the ICU or Oakwood Cemetery I'll have no one to blame but myself.

What do you read?

We just started in an in-house blog at the P-B where we share information on good writing. I just finished an item on the need for writers to read the works of other writers, if they hope to get better. It occurs to me that some of you might be interested in sharing ...

Whenever I talk to high school and college students about writing I almost always close with this advice: READ!

You cannot become a better writer unless you read. The same holds true for even the most experienced journalists. And I don't just mean newspapers. I suggest reading everything you can get your hands on. Personally, I'm a magazine addict. I subscribe to a half-dozen of them, and regularly read at least that many more at the library or here at the P-B. Esquire, the New Yorker, the Atlantic and Food and Wine are a few of my favorites.

I also read novels, non-fiction, poetry and literary journals. (My favorite is the Kenyon Review.) Well, OK I'm biased because my daughter goest to school at Kenyon College. Right now, I'm in the middle of a book called "The Blade Itself" by first-time novelist Marcus Sakey, and recommended in Esquire. I'm not a big fan of thrillers. But I'm trying to broaden my horizens. It's terse and gritty and moves along at a very brisk pace. (I wish I could always say the same for my column.)

I'd be interested in knowing what some of your favorite mags, journals, and books are. What have you learned from them?

Ten-mile runs already?

So, I'm taking this 18-week marathon class through the Running Room. (This is week 1.) I'm thinking slow gradual increase in mileage, right? A few miles a day to start, with maybe a five-mile "long" run on the weekend. But yesterday, the class instructor tells me we're scheduled for "10 on Sunday."

Yikes, I've been running three or four miles a day for the last couple of weeks, but I figured that if I really buckled down I could probably gut out a 10K by the weekend. No, she said, that's 10 MILES.

We'll see. I ran 6 miles during a group run from the Running Room on Wednesday, and I'm, well, a bit sore today. I know I can cover 10 miles on a long session, but I might have to walk half of it.

This is good for me, though. No goofing around. I'm going to have to get these runs in and stick to the program, or I'll be lost to eternal damnation — or at least a lot of self-loathing.

See you on the (snow-covered) trails.

The marathon season begins

Yesterday, I took the plunge and committed to a spring marathon. I entered one yet — It could be Med City, Fargo, or Grandma's. But I signed up for the marathon training class at the Running Room. I'm at a point in my life where I have so many excuses not to run that I think I need a group mentality to keep me going. Sort of like Weight Watchers. If I stumble and don't show up or slack off on my training I'll be accountable not only to myself, but to the group.

There are only a few of us signed up for the Marathon class, which is being led by experienced marathoner and ultra-race veteran Judy Weller, so feel free to join us. The more the merrier.

Foster Arend and the triathlon

I've written several times on this blog about my goal to someday complete a triathlon. I thought maybe this would be the year.

The only thing that's held me back to this point is the fact that I'm not a strong swimmer. But I took swimming lessons for a couple of months this fall and winter at Mayo's Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center, and I'm much better now. It's just a matter of getting to the pool two or three days a week to train.

But now comes the news that a retired Mayo doc is attempting to pursuade the city to close Foster Arend Lake to swimming. There have been eight drownings in the lake in the last 20 years, and he says enough is enough.

I'd considered making the first Rochester Triathlon, which this year is scheduled to be part of Rochesterfest, my maiden triathlon voyage. But I have to admit that the prospect of swimming in Foster Arend Lake, where the water leg of the event is scheduled to be held, gives me the creeps. I've read about how cold the water is outside the beach area and how there's almost no visibility. And now this.

I have to admit I'm having second thoughts. Maybe I'll leave this one to triathletes who are seasoned open-water competitors... There are other triathlons in the state where the swimming portion of the event is held in warmer, more shallow, clearer waters or in pools.

Another year, another attempt at journaling

Yesterday, I read an interesting online interview with John Camp, a Pulitzer prizing winning journalist who later became a best selling mystery author under the pen name, John Sandford.

I looked up some information about Camp after reading that he's going to dust off his reporting skills and travel to Iraq to report on the war for MinnPost.com, the online newspaper created by former Star Tribune Publisher Joel Kramer and others.

(Here's some brief Greg Sellnow trivia. Camp and I have something in common. Our first jobs out of college were at the same newspaper, at different times, the Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Camp lasted 11 months. I was there for a little over two grueling years. Camp parlayed his experience there into an eventual Pultizer and a major book contract. I'm still working both. But Camp is 11 years older than I am, so I figure there's still time to catch up.)

The interviewer asked Camp, who won his Pulitizer while working for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in the early '80s and is the author of the popular "Prey" series of mysteries, if he keeps a journal. Camp said he's tried several times over the years but he's always quit after any where from a couple of days to 300 days. In addition, he says he's never used a single element in his books from any one of those ill-fated journals.

I started another (probably ill-fated) journal on Jan. 1. I've probably started 50 journals in the the last 30 years, and like Camp I've never been able to stick with it. I wish I could. I have a poor memory for detail and it would be nice if I had a journal to call upon when I'm working on my column idea list or looking for past performances in 10K or half marathon races. It would also be nice to look at trends in my weight loss (and gain).

Any tips from you vigilant journal keepers out there on how to keep it up?