On going being on and going.

I have a feeling of glee as I pick out what shorts to wear for work. This is especially whimsical during the winter months. I have my ankle socks and undershirt out on the bed ready for post daily hygiene ritual.

I know that sometime during the day someone will remark on how cold it is, wondering how I could be dressed this way. Truth be told, I really do not feel cold during my work day, dressed in this fashion.

Also, I have ridden a bike 5 plus miles earlier that day. This gets curious reactions as well. The entire trip, for me, is between 15 and 20 minutes depending on various factors. I am wearing a jacket, tuuk, gloves and my shorts. By the time I lock up my bike and enter the facility my legs have warmed up comfortably. Some people see my ride as one of necessity as I possibly have no vehicle. Others see me as a green warrior combating the evil oil cartels. And then I could be some fitness nut trying to hold back the wages of time.

Why do I ride? That is more complex then I have fully rationalized. I do enjoy not seeing $$$ go into the tank of a vehicle. Not to mention there is a lack of wear and tear as well. Also, being a tad eccentric in the eyes of others has an appeal to my Ego. The fitness reasoning has its place as well.

I recall, not to long ago, struggling up the 4% grade that awaits me. Now I have great satisfaction of power up that hill with aplomb. The traffic forces you to be very alert and possibly carves new pathways into my aging grey matter. By deference of probabilities I have avoided many a mishap. Also, many new skills of a near acrobatic nature have manifested in regards to jumping up curbs and quick redirection.

The underlying theme for my dressing down in the cold and riding my bike to and fro has to be happiness. I am really enjoying this particular time in this particular place.

Yet there is a tinge of guilt for having this much fun.

Weight Controllingness.

Static weight is nigh impossible. Keeping your weight within a certain box is certainly doable. The devil is in the details.

I am having a tough time transitioning from a sloth job to an active one. I used to sit on my butt for a good 7 hours a day at work. That was reduce from 40 hours to 34. The rest of the time I would put my butt on other weight bearing devices. I did walk, then run to and from work, adding an hour of heart pumping goodness. Later I took to running two to five miles in the morning, prior to work and on days off.

Now I am on my feet for eight hours. If I am in early (opening) or late (closing) I spend one to four hours pulling pallets, stacking boxes and moving TV's around. My days off tend to reflect the ass on things. Oh, I am riding my bike to and fro nearly every workday adding 40 minutes of heart pumping goodness into the mix.

You can probably see how my old caloric intake of 1400 to 1800 calories can not fuel me. Getting the right amount of Cals into me has been a see saw of too little and too much. I would find myself exhausted with two hours left on my shift, only to down 200 calories and be back up in fighting shape.

I think I have come up with a gooder plan, but I am still looking for the gooderest.

According to my handy RMR calculator I need 2000 calories on my days off and 2600 on work days. This would be to maintain a 185 pound frame. My kyptonite has been snaking after dinner due to hunger then gluttony?? A want for a taste of something, regardless of its value...

My feeling is that waiting till 10:00 AM to have breakfast then eating every two hours for supplementation of fuel is a good route.

I have my egg burrito (280 cals), then at first break yogurt and Nutragrain bar (80 cals and 140), lunch, sandwich and Lean Cusine (150 and 230 calories), last break nutragrain bar (140 calories). Which puts me at 1020. Leaving 960 or 1560 depending upon the day.

I hate exercising but I love exercise.

I hate exercising but I love exercise.

Five days a week I start the morning with 20 hindu pushups. Even with regular sets I find that increasing the number is a challenge. In my mind I would like to do 50 per set.

Next exercise I like to call, riding my bike to work. I have two hill climbs that required me to get off the bike and walk initially. Now the first one gets my cardio up and I can cruise up without down shifting from my initial hill climb gear (front 2 and back 4). The next hill is more taxing a 4% grade for a half mile. I need to down-shift, the same amount but later in the climb. My goal is to keep consistent pedaling speed. This really targets my glutes, which I feel protest near the top. For the rest of the trip to work it is pretty much a rolling uphill and downhill course.

At work the exercise changes day to day. Most of the time it consists of 7.5 hours standing and walking with an occasional short running and lifting of an object up to 200 pounds. Sometimes there is a four hour period of lifting and pulling heavy objects.

Followed by a ride home that has another two hill climbs (or a longer route and one less climb).

Once a week I like to spend skating. This is for around 60 to 90 minutes and involves a surprisingly large amount of muscle groups.

When I go to a gym I find myself unmotivated and bored quickly. If I have someone with me I do better. Still, it is way down on my list of things I want to do. I think it is the open ended nature and a feeling that I am actually preparing myself for... well... nothing...

There is a lot of satisfaction with my current exercises. Every gas station I ride by gives me a little thrill that my money is staying away. Even the colder mornings now are more bracing then miserable. I am wondering about the occasional icy morning.

Skating stuff happens.

Thursday last I was invited to learn more about the possibility of being a ref for the new roller derby group. They skate a session then have an hour after for practice. During the skating session, while heading into a curve, backwards, at higher speeds, about to transition to front skating using a "move" that I enjoy. I found out that the resurfaced rink is "tighter" then usual. That is to say I fell, and fell hard. As far as falls go it happened very fast. Balance lost, flying, impact, stars, realize what happened, realize I am not wearing my glasses.

I am fine, just bruised and strained with the aches and pains of folly. So I have attempted mentally to figure out what happened during the fall. the point of impact appears to be just above and to my left of where the spine meets the hips. This was either a small slice of time before my left forearm took the rest of the initial impact, quickly followed by my right which started with my pinky and ring finger and hand. I surmise I had tucked my head, chin to my sternum as the neck muscles on either side of the adams apple are very sore as well. I tried to keep my head from the impact but to little avail as the back of my skull did make a loud bounce and sling shotted my glasses across the floor.

It must have made a sickening sound and quite a production as they turned on the lights and the manager lady was heading across the floor towards. My first attempt to stand was unsuccessful. A second attempt found sure inline bladed footing. My glasses were handed to me and I skated off to the side to assess. Total elapsed time was less then 20 seconds.

Back of head: No bruising, forgetfulness, ringing, nausea, tiredness or slurring of speech. I had no problems recalling short term memory and I slept rather well.

Neck muscles: Trapezius was tight and slightly sore, a wifey massage helped that. The sternocleidomastoid muscles are sore to the touch but have a full range of motion.

Lower back: Bruised with some stiffness. Careful stretching and warm up counters this throughout the workday.

left forarm: Mild discolor from bruising. No ache or pain (I think I landed pretty good there).

right hand: Ring and Pinky finger are stiff. Careful stretch and warm up counter as well.

So all in all not a bad fall for an older guy.

Athlete, am I?

Sometimes my mental definition does not seem to match a reality. Recently on Shoe's blog he announced that he had been an Athlete in High School. I recall thinking it would have been cool to have done that.

This totally disregards my two years on the swim team. Also, the countless hours playing little league baseball, skating, fencing and playing roller hockey. So what exactly is\was my definition? The more I thought about it the more I found I did not have a real definition, I just knew that it was not me.

Connor with special Olympics he is a recognized athlete. I recently ran a 10K. wouldn't that qualify?

So running down the definition: a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.

Well I was trained in baseball, water polo and roller hockey. Those are sports. I have not done any of these activities in six years or so... Roller skating in and of itself is not a sport, although there are sports that require skating, it is not a game. Running is a sport and an activity.

I can easily say I am athletic... is that the same thing?

“A lot of people run to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.” ~Prefontaine

I have been recovering from a 10k. The day after, walking was difficult and painful. My calf muscles were strained. I figure it is due to a lack of conditioning (running four 10 min jaunts does not prepare you for a 10K), and I have not yet gotten all the nuances of forefoot running.

Ice, ibuprofen, elevation and some mild stretching and NO running or walking long has helped quite a bit. Today I walked home after church. It is a 2.5 mile. As for the nuances, I have been pouring over various forums of known barefoot runners and Pose runners. Barefoot Ted insists that the best way to learn to run is to go barefooted prior to any minimalist shoes. You cannot run incorrectly, your feet will not let you if your barefoot.

The confirmation of various posters gave weight to his already sizable yet zealous opinion. So I slipped off my New Balance and strode forth. After a few minutes, my calves feeling recovered, I opted to run. My gait was much shorter and I did note a lack of heel touch. So I relaxed and focused in running very smoothly, this seems to correct the issue. Carefully I would stop and walk a few minutes to avoid re-injury. There was a sense of whimsy, barefoot walking as though I was eight and not forty-eight.

There has been a paradigm shift mentally. Prior to my 10k I would obsess a little on how far and long I was running with a nagging feeling about when to walk. That is apparently gone with the knowing that I can just run for an hour straight without taxing my lungs. I had no qualms about the length time, other then I was still recovering.

How odd to find enjoyment in running, after all this time.

Muscle Strain Treatment

Most muscle strains can be treated with the RICE protocol. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.

Rest: Take a break from the activity that caused the strain. Your physician may recommend that you use crutches to avoid putting weight on the leg.

Ice: Do not apply ice directly to the skin, but you can use cold packs for 20 minutes at a time, several times a day.

Compression: To prevent additional swelling and blood loss, wear an elastic compression bandage.

Elevation: To minimize swelling, keep your leg up higher than your heart.

Your doctor may recommend aspirin, ibuprofen or another analgesic for pain relief. As the pain and swelling subside, physical therapy will help improve range of motion and strength. The muscle should be at full strength and pain-free before you return to sports.

For my calf muscles I am looking at two weeks for a full recovery. With some stretching and easy walking after the first week. I am really trying to focus on hearing what my body is telling me.

My first 10K

It was a brisk cold, clear Oregon morning in the little town of Glide. The line up to register for the three races, was much longer then expected. The small table had forms that needed to be filled out and there was little done to make the process efficient. There was a surprising bunch of 40 and older, all dressed in what I can assume is higher tech gear then my shorts,Tee-shirt and river shoes.

Some faces I knew, some Tina knew. One of the advantages of living in a smaller town area. The crowed seemed a nervous excited about the event. There was a 1 mile run, 5k and a 10k. I have not been running all that long. This was the first 10k I have had the ability to run.

The course was a large triangle shape that ran alongside the river through a park and down the main highway for two laps. My mind briefly flirted with the idea of being first. Which was quickly ridiculed into submission by my concept of reality. I actually had a couple of goals. I wanted to finish the race and I wanted to run non-stop. Running like Kenenisa Bekele and finishing in 26min 46.19 seconds was not a goal.

It was cold enough that I left on my hoodie as the group lethargically headed to the starting line. Oddly enough no one wanted to approach the line and stood a wary distance away. Not knowing any better I went right up to the line and scooted to the far right hand side of the road. There was some arm waving and stretching and then the rules were explained. With a ready, steady go we went...

I decided to keep to the far right hand side of the road and find a pace. My instinct was to match each grouping as it formed along the run. There was a large herd that quickly took the lead. That human cloud would no doubt break down into smaller components. I admit my ego did take some bruising as groups slowly passed me, I tried to comfort myself by focusing on my goal.

As this fore-footed running style is still quite new I tried to focus on running smoothly and letting the full foot touch, allowing the calf muscle to have a moment of relaxation. Eventually I was running all alone in a further crushing thought that I was in last place.

I must mention that this stretch of road in Oregon is gorgeous and interesting. Lots of things to see at a 6 MPH pace. There was very little wind other then a river chilled gust. The canopy of tree's shading and retreating from the road. I had settled into a pace and my wind was good. I was not under any duress. My mind was wondering exactly how long it would take as the path seemed much longer then it should have been. Finally, the course finish line appeared. While this WAS the finish line, I still had another lap of the course. Tina and the boys were there. I handed off my hoodie and watch and kept. running.

Almost immediately I noticed the difference in weight. I also realized that I was not all that fatigued. So I threw my ego a bone and aimed my sights on the last person who passed me. This lap I would try to catch her. It is a machine like rhythm that took me by surprise. Music is something very personal and emotional. It is an important expression and I hold it in awe for its natural and supernatural existence. This running cadence brought to mind many different songs that played unbidden in my mind.

I greatly increased my running for a good minute and then slowed to recover. I had made up a good amount of ground. I was running faster then before or my opponent was slowing. The new goal was a nice diversion. Something was happening in my left shoe that felt wet, I figured it was a blister. There was nothing painful, just an annoyance of having to doctor that up later. My calf muscles were feeling tight, despite my efforts to relax each step. Heart and wind was perfectly fine. I caught up and passed the closest runner in front of me and it did feel pretty good. There was actually quite a few people on the course. A glance showed that they had started the 5k. (The nametag had a yellow dot).

I looked ahead to the next runner. I did not know If I could make up the distance but I decided to keep up with the faster, passing pace, I had acquired. At least I knew I was no longer in last place. Tina assures me that there were plenty of folks after me. I passed two lumbering masses I recognized from earlier. A couple of boys, late teens, who had ran out of energy to run any further! I was happy to have more people to pass.

As I headed down the final approach, again Tina and the boys were there and lofted a cheer. I went into a near sprint to shave a couple of 10ths off my time. As I ran through they had a ribbon and a glass of sports drink. Both were appreciated.

I headed back to find my time. It was just six seconds over an hour. Which is a pretty pathetic time for a 10k runner. The average falls closer to 35-45 min.

Still, I was very happy that I finished and ran non-stop. Now for some rest, ice, ibuprofen and leg elevation.

Personal best 10K time!

I ran my personal best 10k today. Not really all that impressive, as it was my first 10K run today. My video crew filmed a bit near the end, in which I have been running an hour.

Time: 1:00:06

Shoes: River shoes (see previous blog entry)

Style: Forefooted running style (aka: barefooted style)

Calories burned: 890

Distance covered: 6.21 miles (10k... duh)

Aftermath:

Cardiovascular system, no issues, I had plenty of wind. Lower back, Forefooted style is with a straight back and level head, no issues. Knees, no issues. Shin splints, no issue. Ankles, no issue. Feet, nothing structural. I did suffer some blisters on my big toe. Next time I will need some socks to wick away the sweat in the river shoes. Yes, I said next time. Calf muscles, strained and sore. In getting the running style down I have a tendency to not let my heel touch the ground at all. I believe I have this issue resolved.

I cannot recall needing to ingest food like I did after the race. In a good way. More to follow, I have to go ride bikes with Connor now.

Minimalistic Running.

Vibram makes a really cool shoe glove. It gives you a bare foot feel when running.

Unfortunately the ones I want are $85.00.

So, I was reading various blogs about barefoot running, I came across some guy reviewing various minimal footwear. Lo and behold, River Socks get a great rating! At $9.00 a pop I picked up a pair from Fred Meyers.

They weigh 290 gram compared to 350 for my New Balance. That 60 grams of bulk is VERY noticeable when running. I did remove the insole as recommended (it will jettison itself if you leave it) and tried a bit of running.

When you run the weight of the shoes on your feet must feel heavier due to the pendulum swing. Less weight means less fatigue, or so I noticed on a 25 min run this morning.

If this running thing sticks I may, at some point, get the betterest ones. In the meantime, $9.00 is a big win.

Small goals

Since I started walking to and from work, I always wanted to be able to run. After learning how to run again. I was able to attain that goal. I did not put much into that achievement. It had a feeling of "wow I did it, glad thats over" and running less then a mile is hardly anything by my measure.

Last week I started a good 10 week low calorie cycle, to loose down to a more healthy weight. Being nearly 6' and at 207 pounds is not a healthy weight. Yes, I know that height weight charts are fraught with errors and everyones body needs to be what it needs to be, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Still...

I am carrying too much body fat. By my estimation about 20 pounds too much. ANY physical activity I do would benefit from not carrying around 20 pounds. (I am hoping to find someplace that can check my fat by immersion... but thats another deal.)

So today I felt was worthy of a self-nod, this was the second day in a row I was able to run 30 minutes total. While that is 2.5 miles I would note that includes 783 foot climb and descent. I would love to do that barefoot. Over the last seven days I have been running 20 minutes a day with a 30 minute walk.

With a bit of work I will be eliminating the walk and running the full route. I guess thats my next small goal.

Week 1 of 10

There is a compulsion I have to get something to eat. I am not sure of the cause, I do not really care. There is a point were the choice of getting something or not comes into play.

Taking stock as to what to eat and why at this particular time is the assessment that I need to make. My High School friend Jack had devised a weight loss system that finally made sense to me. It was based on the simple concept that if you eat too much you gain weight. I recall my greatest weight being as high as 287. It is entirely possible it was higher then that, as I do not weigh myself that often. The weight was slowly put on over the course of 20 years.

After some dismal half attempts, I joined my wifes Weight Loss Club TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) and almost magically dropped down to 250. Then started creeping up to 265. That was a fairly static weight until last year.

Take your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), which is a calculation of how many calories your body burns in a day. I used the sedentary modifier. For each 500 calories per day you eat\burn per day, that is below that RMR. You will loose a pound.

I stared off with great gusto, lopping a good 1000 to 600 calories per day and putting in a good hours walk (over 400 calories burned). Over the summer and into the fall my weight dropped down to 198.

I did get quite a few accolades and some concerns. Around this point I stopped being as willful. I started choosing the compulsion. So my weight started creeping back up as high as 212.

Last week I geared my mindset to go into a 10 week period of weight loss. I weighed in last night at 207 which is a good start. My average daily intake is 1500 calories.

My RMR for my goal weight is 1890 Calories per day.

Now to keep making better choices in regards to compulsion. Week 1 of 10 done.

Bike riding

The only way to get better at an activity is to do said activity. Profound eh?

I read someplace that putting in 10,000 hours makes you an expert. While I am not really sure about expert, assuming the quality of the time you would certainly be much better. There may be oblique proof in my roller skating. I certainly put in the hours. I can certainly skate well now.

So with my statistical sampling of one goes, it is factual!

Connor has made great strides in riding his bike. He still has lots of control issues. Things like riding straight, starting from a stop, needs more time. His confidence has nearly outpaced his ability.

While camping he found great joy in heading down the boat ramp and seeing how close to the water he could stop. Mom got palpitations watching that one. He has enthusiasm galore and the ability to crash, recover and get back on the bike. I mean bad bruise raising incidents. Nary a tear as well. Just him grimacing and saying ow until the pain subsides and getting back on board.

It is oddly inspiring and a source of pride seeing this. His mind really is remarkable, as he is a remarkable kid.

Today we were going to go the the park and ride to Wendy's. The rain started and I decided going up the street for a root beer would allow us to get to cover easier then the park. We headed down our road (pretty good incline downwards). Connor was very happy with his using the break to not careen out of control into traffic (I was trepidation personified). At the bottom he followed my verbal instructions to the letter, going on the sidewalk and pulling to the right for pedestrians.

Whom Connor talked to with a friendly "Good Afternoon!" The bridge near our house has a very narrow sidewalk. Connor was not able to pedal across. So we walk\rode it across to were there is no sidewalk. I pointed out how he is to ride on the dirt and he complied. We visited the market and got some soda's. Rode to his old elementary school (via a foot bridge). Drank our beverages and headed out into the nature trails.

Connor had a route already planned, allowing him to see various features, which we dutifully stopped and explored. As Oregon weather complied by not dumping rain on us, it was a fun outing. I figure he has 99,990 hours to go...

Calories Calculations

Finding the calculations for the calories burned during an exercise is pretty difficult.

Calculators abound. They base the calculation on your weight, time doing activity and finally that activity itself. Finding that seed number list is what I am wondering about.

I found The Most Accurate Calories Burned Estimator.

Taking the run at 6 miles per hour and putting in a weight of 22 kg and a time of 10 min. shows the burn at 38cals. 46 kg raises that to 76 cals.

What is missing is the seed number for how intense of the exercise. There is an acronym METs which stands for Metabolic Equivalents, which does just that.

Calories burned by exercise = ((METs * 3.5 * weight in kg) / 200) * duration in minutes.

Rollar Skating

FYI: Healthcare is now a right. Demand your right for any visit, test or procedure today!

My skates have reverted to their previous size. I have a pair of Hockey style inline skates. Hard thick leather with a steel toe. They are size 10. My feet are 10-1/2 somewhat closer to size 11. This is typical for hockey, you want an intimate fit. The problem is the skates had shrunk just enough that my big toe would impact the steel like shell. Which is painful after a couple hours skating. The combination of sweat, pressure and heat has remolded them to their previous glove like status!

Woot!

Bare foot running

Running wrong

At one point, in elementary school. I started running on my toes. It was very fast, and fun going that fast. In Jr. High a coach pulled me aside and said to knock it off before I injured myself. At 12 years of age a learned authoritative position was not overtly questioned.

Aside from a couple of cross country runs here and there, I never got much further into the sport. I was just too slow to sprint, too clumsy for hurdles and too lazy to work on that. In retrospect maybe I saved my knees...

In the course of picking up my moving around for health and fitness, I started running here and there. I would run up the hills between me and work. Then the next day feel the pain and recover. It would be in my right hip, bottom of my foot and sometimes my ankle.

I was thinking I was still too heavy or too old or too whatever. Guru Jack, my fitness consultant. Had run a marathon and felt the pain, taking a week to recover. He found the afore mentioned Born to Run book (author in above video). At the same time my Nephew Daniel came across the same information and these interesting shoes. So after some investigation I decided to try out the fore-foot running. After my calf muscles strengthened, it became obvious that this put much less stress on the old body.

Yesterday, on my run home from work I was able to make the run without any ill effects. My foot was not bothering me, my knees did not feel tweaked. Also, there is considerably less energy used. That is to say, I did not get the fatigue feeling in my legs. This AM I ran all the way into work (two days running back to back) without any problem.

When I did this a scant few months ago, the bottom of my foot cried out in pain as something was torn or inflamed or both. While it is still way early in trying this out, there are parts that make a lot of sense. If you consider ancient man as a hunter who would have to travel barefoot (or minimal foot coverings) long distances running down wounded prey.

Adult Activities for Health and fitness.

With loosing some weight there is a desire to move and exercise. There is in me at least. It boils down to wanting to do things. Over the weekend I ran two and a half miles with Connor learning to ride the bike. Which was pretty good, I thought.

Tuesday afternoon they have an adult skate. Yes, in the afternoon. I went and it was nice and open, around 6 other people (I was the youngest...). I really enjoy skating. It is a bit odd for me to see the skill level has declined.

On recomendation I picked up the book, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

While the writers style irks me at times, the overall book is quite a remarkable journey into the past\present and future of running. Why is it that a community in the Copper Canyon area can run hundreds of miles a day without knee, foot, ankle problems? And why are they running into the 80's?

Because, we high tech shoe wearing folks are running wrong.

Pedal driven, human powered, single track vehicle.

Bicycle, I got to teach Connor how to ride one. That makes me three for three (woot!). Connors tutorial was very academic for me, due mostly to his autism by way of my earlier lessons with the older two.

We had two sessions. The first one, I'll call 'inner ear training', was learning that he can balance and pedal, turn and stop. Knowing how to set up the pedal to take advantage of that downward stomp, pushing power, is paramount. I find that working with Newtonian law is pretty difficult when starting out. We also had him 'walk' the bike while seated then glide to get the feel for balancing. After 10 minutes or so he was done and so we headed back home.

The next day I opted to bike ride to Burger King. This is a familiar route, we have taken many times, on the swing bike (kind of attachable tandem). Connor was quick to understand this familiar theme. Although he did keep asking if I was taking my grey bike.

When we arrived at the park (which is quite nice and quite large) I went over a few of the same lessons and we set off. Me jogging\walking and providing physical and emotional support. His ability had already jumped up from the previous day. I figure his muscle memory recall had taken over. We had several stops and starts with various degree's crashing, as expected. None were too bad. I was waiting for the inevitable big crash.

I noted he began to lean against me to ease the process. My response was to change sides. This was actually a good sign that he learned how to shift his balance. Around the five minute mark into the trip he put it all together and started riding. We covered some 100' to 200' long sections before going off trail. Around the third or fourth of these 'excursion' to the immediate right of the paved path, Connor was able to correct course and get back on trial by himself. He had that wobbly over-steering going on that is both amusing and dangerous to someone running alongside. I got to test my dodge a few times. While turning is something that we need to gain confidence on. The pedaling and general riding teaching was mastered. He did stop everyone on the trail to call attention to his being able to ride. People seemed amused and a bit later down the trail as we met two ladies a second time. The requested to watch his newfound prowess and heaped accolades. All good things.

We did have the bad crash. A sign pole over by our Wal-mart built wetlands (reclaimed). Like most poles to new riders it appeared to exert a some kind of attraction force and yanked him directly towards it, faster then I could respond, He let go with one hand and that was all she wrote. He went down pretty hard on his left knee. He had a bit of crying, which means quite a lot of pain was involved, Connor is not given to histrionics. He did not break skin and he was able to walk around without favoring or new pain.

Then the most important part. He got on the bike and continued. While I am not sure why this happens the way it does, it always happens. It strikes me as infinitely valuable in life, after crashes, you get back on the bike.

By the time we made it to Burger King Connor was riding very well. We took the road through the VA (also in the park) on the way back and I spent the bulk of the journey running.

It was a very good day.

Schools = social experiment with no outcome requirement.

Assume you are married and have a child who has a driving license a car which they support. Further, said child has an issue with driving too fast. As a parent you want to make sure they are safe and obeying the law.

What are the degree of options?

Do not allow them to drive is at one end with Do nothing at the other. I propose that most parents will do something within those parameters. I can think of a handful of discussion and demonstrations that would be pretty persuasive. In other words I would be inclined to have a sliding scale starting with discussion and education, which falls closer to the Do Nothing end.

The above analogy is a pretty typical problem solving exercise. Analogy? Oh, did I forget to mention this is about Childhood Obesity?

Obesity does have a number of health risk factors. It is a problem. So how to solve that problem?

Same degrees of options apply Do nothing to incarcerate the individual until they show proper health habits...

Seeing as how we do have mandatory schooling in this country and, to me, this is an educational issue. How about evaluating each kids health and informing the parents?

Or Having a class on exercise and health benefits, with Instruction, Hands on and Reading components makes a certain degree of sense.

If you wanted the same thing but done private sector you could push that burden to insurance companies with something like lower rates if your fit, or some insane idea like that.

Federally you could impose a Fat Tax on anyone obese. (okay, getting to much on the sillier end of things).

Of course you do need to factor in that being Fat does not pose health risks to everyone. (Here is the layman term press release of same). There are "thin" people with the same health issues as fatter ones. So why target the fat? Why not target the unhealthy? or why target anyone? Why not target everyone?

At Connors school the decided to eliminate the icing from the cinnamon rolls (because 48 less calories will solve obesity in children?). They also made the soda machines carry non-sugar\low sugar beverages. Anyone who has met Connor can see he is not in the fat category. If you spend a day with him, you know he falls into the fit category as well. Further he has a very tough time with Change. So I get a phone call from a lunch lady (who apparently loves Connor's demeanor) asking permission to add icing to his cinnamon roll. Curiously, I was not consulted to remove said icing.

As for the soda machines, what was the outcome? Jr. High students left campus to the corner store and bought a 64 ounce soda, instead of the 12 ounce they were drinking. So kids drank MORE SUGAR!