Kate Can Cook

I had this bizarre experience on the metro last night, and I wanted to write about it because I need your opinion (you being anyone who reads this, of course).

The Scene: I was on the Metro (which is D.C.’s subway system) last night during rush hour. I ride Metro practically every weekday during rush hour, so I know how it can be. I’m lucky in the sense that my normal commute is pretty easy, because I think I’m on the least crowded subway line. Last night, because of a class I’m taking, I was on a different line, and it was packed. When I say packed, I don’t mean like sardines in a can, because I’m assuming the sardines leave room for some sort of water/oil and air. There just wasn’t any room at all. It was painful, and I feel bad for the people who have to ride it everyday.

I’m standing in the metro car, holding on to the pole that is in front of me. Past the pole are two gentleman (I use this term loosely now) standing back to back. One is probably in his mid-to-late 40s. He’s white and very sharply dressed. The other is probably in his early-to-mid 50s, also white, and nicely dressed as well, although honestly he looked a little less pretentious (he was wearing like a bizarre floppy safari hat). So let’s call the 40 year old guy “Pretentious Guy” and let’s call the 50-year-old guy “Safari Guy.”

Safari Guy is obviously used to the Metro. He’s holding on the the bar running across the ceiling, and he’s swaying along with the train, as most passengers do. I notice Pretentious Guy doing something very strange. He has his right arm down at his side, his fist balled. Once in awhile, he will sway his hips backward, and hit Safari Guy with his butt and his fist. The first time it happened, I thought it was a mistake (maybe he was swaying with the train too), until he kept PUNCHING the guy. Safari Guy turned once, but probably thought it was a mistake too, and went on with his life… for about a minute.

We get to the next stop, and Pretentious Guy turns around so he is facing Safari Guy’s back. Again, I can’t stress enough how packed this train was. At this point he was touching Safari Guy’s back. There’s no way around it. And then I hear this:

Pretentious Guy (PG): Do you want to sit in my lap? (sarcastically)
Safari Guy (SG), turning his head: What?
PG: Want to sit in my lap?
SG: Who?
PG: You!
SG: Were you punching me in the back?
PG: Yes–
SG: You bastard.
PG: Don’t call me a bastard…
SG, interrupting: I just did
PG, interrupting: You asshole
SG: Takes one to know one, asshole
PG: You fat f*ck (Note: SG was not, in fact, fat by any means)
SG: What is your problem?
PG: You in my lap
SG: It’s crowded! Where do you want me to go? Haven’t you been on metro before?
PG, sneering: This is my second time, and I’m glad I’m well off enough not to ride it everyday.

At this point, they were nose to nose and bright red. I was staring, frankly a little scared. PG saw me watching and lowered his voice, so I didn’t get to hear the rest of the conversation, but it was obviously heated. The end result was that at the next stop, SG moved to another car. PG got off about two stops later.

So now my question: What, if anything, should I have done? For what it’s worth, I’m a white female in my mid-20s, and I could’ve taken both of them in hand-to-hand combat (I’m joking; it wouldn’t have come to that). My initial reaction, other than gaping, was to say, “Break it up guys” in a joking way… but honestly, I was too shocked to say anything. And I was scared too. I’ve seen fights like this in metro before, always (the only ones I’ve seen) middle-aged white men peacocking around. They don’t amount to anything, but I always wonder if there’s the possibility of physical violence or worse. People are crazy sometimes.

Did I do the right thing by doing nothing? Should I have said something? Should I have reported it? What would you have done? I want to know for next time. I’m going to be riding this line regularly now for class, and I have the feeling it will always be packed, and tensions will be high. I want to arm myself mentally at least.

I guess I have two major problems here: (1) the guys made an already annoying and painful ride worse and (2) I let it make me afraid. I’m not saying it’s bad to get afraid; fear is a mechanism that tells us something is wrong. But it paralyzed me. I wanted to say something and didn’t… or maybe it was better I didn’t. I don’t know, I feel like I should’ve done something.

On some/most of the days that I have to run for my 8K training, I don’t want to run. I really don’t want to run. My mood tends to plummet right as we’re walking into the apartment… okay, really, as we’re walking from the car to the apartment… okay, honestly as Jazz picks me up from the Metro. Or, sometimes, before then. The closer I get to running, the grumpier I become. Then I put off getting changed into my workout gear until Jazz says something funny, and I laugh, and then really, who can be grumpy then? (Seriously, this is why I married the guy.)

Sometimes. Sometimes I’m ready to go, and sometimes I am not feeling excited about it but I don’t mind it.

I stick with running partially because I can and partially because I like getting free t-shirts at events. Also, part of it is that I think it brings my family closer together, and we need all the help we can get.

I think my biggest impediment to running longer and faster now is my weight. I weigh more than Oprah (oh the horrors!) and I’m only 5 foot 3. I feel every one of my pounds when I’m running, and I know it slows me down and makes me tire quicker than Jazz. Running will not help me lose weight, at least not at the pace or distance I run right now. I’ve been eating better and losing weight s-l-o-w-l-y, and it’s helped my stamina so far.

I get frustrated because I just want to be able to run without needing to stop every half mile to mile. Part of that is a lack of training, but part of that is trying to move an 18-wheeler with a V4 engine. I need to be patient. I’ll get there when I get there, and not a minute sooner.

So I try to keep this in mind during those times that training seems a waste. It’s okay to not want to run. It’s okay to not want to work out. It’s okay (here’s looking at you, Oprah) to weigh over 200 pounds. What’s not okay, what will never be okay, is to let nonsense get in the way of your goals…no matter what your goals are. People do crazy, wonderful, inspirational things all the time. Surely my goal of 5 miles isn’t impossible.

I’ve given up soda for at least 30 days, just to see how I feel. I don’t drink regular soda, so it’s not like I’m saving any calories by doing this. I just love diet soda. Prior to starting this, I had many days where soda was the only thing I would drink all day. Surely that much sodium is not good for you. There are some people who are nervous about artificial sweeteners causing cancer or the bubonic plague; I’m not. I just really want to know how I’d feel if I didn’t drink so much of it.

At first I was worried about lacking caffeine when I stopped drinking soda. I have about one cup of coffee a week, if that, and maybe one cup of tea. Soda was basically my only source of caffeine.

I’m on day 4, and so far it’s been an interesting experiment. I’ve actually slept less this week than normal, but I’m definitely more awake and have more energy. This could be from the lack of soda or the regular exercise though.

You may remember that I did a kettlebell exercise on Friday, and took Saturday off the recover. On Sunday, I was still sore, but it was a wonderful kind of sore. My abs hurt, but somehow they hurt in such a way that I was forced to sit up/stand up straight or be in pain. I tend to be a horrible sloucher, so this was welcome. The plan is to do my kettlebell workout again tonight.

When I trained for my 5Ks in 2008, I started way too quickly. I figured I would just do the whole distance every time I trained, and try to run more of it each time. It really burned me out. For the 8K, I’m trying to get back to basics. Let’s run a mile before we try to run 5, shall we?

I’m nervous because I’ve already started making excuses for missing workouts. On Monday, I was supposed to do strength training via the Wii Fit. But then I had to stay at work late, was hungry when I finally got home, and just wanted to relax for the short time I would actually be awake at home. I don’t regret taking Monday off. However… the excuses slipped into yesterday as well. I was supposed to run a mile, but it’s been raining and icy out, so I would need to run in our apartment complex’s gym. The gym was packed. I was at an impasse and not sure what to do. I’m sure I could have done *something* — I have other workout DVDs. Instead, I did nothing.

Hrm. You know, self, if you think you’re going to slouch on workouts, that’s fine. But you’ll regret it come 8K time.

Tonight, I have no excuses. No good ones, anyway. It’s hell’s bells kettlebell time!

I recently bought a kettlebell at Target. Kettlebells are weights that have handles on them. Basically, it looks like a ball with a handle at the top. I had heard of kettlebell classes at gyms from the Misfits at the Washington Post and was interested. However, I refuse to spend money on a gym membership, so I was excited to see kettlebells at Target. I didn’t know what weight to buy, so I bought the middle — 10 pounds. In hindsight and after watching the video, I probably should have bought the 5 pound kettlebell.

This brings up an important gripe that I have. Most exercise equipment is not explicit on the package as to who it’s for or what fitness level you need to be at to use it. I bought the 10 pound kettlebell because it was the middle and I figured I could hold 10 pounds in two hands, but I had no idea how kettlebells were really used. And maybe that’s my fault; as a consumer perhaps I should be a little more educated about my purchases before I make them. Also, I know companies do this because they know people like me will buy the equipment without doing any research, thus making them more money in the long run as the equipment sits on the corner of my apartment collecting dust.

The kettlebell I bought (and no, I’m not affiliated in any way, shape, or form with the company) is Gin Miller’s Calorie Burner Workout with kettlebells. It is composed of a warm up, cool down, and three workouts. I think each of the workouts is about 10 minutes long, and I gathered from the first workout that you could do just one, a couple, or all three depending on your level. I did the warm up, workout 1, and the cool down.

Most of the first workout involved what Gin (the “host”) called “kettlebell throws.” You don’t actually toss the kettlebells anywhere, and my downstairs neighbors are thankful for that (although they don’t realize it). Basically, you stand with your legs shoulder-length apart with the kettlebell in your hands in front of you. Then you begin a squat, swinging the kettlebell between your legs. As you come out of the squat, you swing the kettlebell to be above your head. According the Gin, the crux of the workout is in using your core/legs to swing the kettlebell and then stabilize your body enough to stop it from moving.

It was tough. My lower back and thighs were killing me by the end. My arms, unfortunately, felt fine. (I say unfortunately because I need to work on my arms.) I did the workout last night, and my legs and back are very, very sore today. So sore that I did not run today out of fear of injuring myself. Now I know better: I need to have an off day after kettlebells, I think, until I get used to them.

I will say this, though: it was quick and I was feeling it. I think I’ll stick with it. I don’t necessarily think that people need to run out and buy kettlebells though, as I think that dumbbells could suffice too.

…and ends with me holding my stomach.

As you may have noticed from the right side panel, I plan to run a St. Patty’s Day 8K with Jazz, my brother, and my dad. Jazz and I haven’t run since… hm… early November-ish, and it’s showing in more places than one.

So we have our training schedule for the 8K, as you can see on the right, which today means a mile run. We have to ease back into this.

Our first mile of the new year was less than stellar, and my lungs burned so much when we finished… but we did finish. For about a minute afterward, I thought I was going to vomit. (I guess I should be glad I didn’t!!) It was a good start to the new year!!

I don’t really make resolutions. I’m not sure I know anyone who does. I could resolve to lose weight (lord knows my butt would thank me for that when I run) but I don’t want to delude myself. Whatever I say I’m going to do, I probably won’t, perhaps just out of spite. :o)

Do you make resolutions? What goals/dreams/aspirations do you have for the new year? I just want to run the 8K, and we’ll see where I go from there.