Stairs of late, two-toned, plunk to plunk, skin like kiln, differences within differences, stress test metaphor

Wednesday 7/1/26

I got my hair cut yesterday after a few months. The back of my neck was quite scraggly. Not that I have anyone or anything to look good for. I went with the .5 razor setting on the sides and back and the 1 on the rest of it, so I don't have a lot of hair now.

I realized, though, that my head is two colors, which is a ridiculous look, on account of wearing my Celtics headband when I'm out and about for longer stretches for my walks that get lumped into my fitness endeavors, and wearing a Red Sox hat much of the rest of the time, and now not having any hair so skin that was covered is now exposed. Will have to try and remedy this and get back to one color.

The Monument is going to be closed today, tomorrow, Friday, and probably Saturday, because of the extreme heat. Can't say it too much: this is the worst time of the year. For the person who is strong and active, I mean. Because people who are strong and active don't mind winter. But it's harder to be as active as they wish to be in this heat.

The people who love the heat are usually sitters rather than movers. They want to plunk themselves down. Not, mind you, to read Plato or analyze versions of "Dark Star" or watch Chimes at Midnight or paint or think (there's an episode of The Great Gildersleeve where the kids complain that there's nothing to do; Gildersleeve tells them to sit down and read a book, or listen to the radio--presumably to something good in the "theater of the mind" style--or just sit down and think). Plunk to plunk. Sit for sitting. Having said that, I regard extreme heat as a challenge--to get out in it and run stairs. On heat warning days, where it's said to be unsafe, I wait for the temperature to reach its highest point, then I run stairs and test how well I can do. It's a way to measure fitness and challenge myself.

I should account for recent physical undertakings things. Last Wednesday, I walked three miles, did 100 push-ups, and ran five circuits of stairs in the Bunker Hill Monument. I tried to push the pace, which I'd written here that I needed to do on account that I've been going too slowly and am not where I should be. I'm still not where I should be and have a lot of work to do. On this day in question, I shaved off three or four minutes from the amount of time it had been taking me to do five circuits. I didn't have a stop watch on it, but I looked at the time as I went in and when I came out.

But it wasn't great. I struggled. It shouldn't have been that hard. Both my legs and my wind were problems. I have a long way to go. That this sounds nuts to someone else isn't really relevant. I've done this for ten years and worked hard at it so this isn't the same as someone who pops in there once and thinks two times up and down would be a crazy accomplishment.

The numbers themselves can be deceiving. You run all these circuits and it's laborious and you struggle. You run the same amount of circuits and you're light-footed and your pace is the same on the last circuit as on the first as well as at the top and the bottom. Having said that, the numbers are still the numbers. There's a big difference between being able to get them and not being able to. There are all kinds of differences and differences within differences. I'm pretty specialized at this point, so my focus right now is on the latter.

I did 300 push-ups and walked three miles and did five more circuits on Thursday, a minute or two faster than I'd been doing them. Not a minute or two faster than the day before. So I did worse. Then I did nothing on Friday. On Saturday, I walked six miles, did 100 push-ups, and ran ten circuits of stairs in the Bunker Hill Monument. This wasn't good either--it took me seventy minutes. It should take me sixty. A couple weeks back it took me seventy-five minutes.

It is summer. It is humid (on one of these workout days, the humidity was 97%). Those are factors, but I don't want them to be excuses. The sweat is total. You know when you know that the sweat situation is extreme? When it's dripping down the back of your shorts and running down the backs of your legs. That's been happening even with these five-circuit Monument workouts. I'd benefit from a changing room at the bottom and jumping into a new set of clothes. Your total wetness becomes a kind of workout burden you carry.

On Sunday I did 100 push-ups, walked ten miles (ducklings were observed in the Public Garden--cheep, cheep, cheep!), and ran five Monument circuits. That day also marked 3633 days, or 519 weeks, without a drink.

On Monday I did nothing again (bad). Yesterday I did 100 push-ups and ran 6000 stairs at City Hall. This was okay but not great. It included two stoppages for rest. When it's humid and you're outside running stairs with the sun beating down on you, your skin starts to feel like this kiln that the insides of you are inside of. You're not cooling down as you sweat because of that humidity.

I try to will myself to be cooler as I sit there and feel all that heat inside my body and in my skin. It's kind of like how when you have a stress test at the cardiologist, which I had to do back when I was drinking and laying waste to my heart. They have you run on the treadmill for X amount of time to get your heart rate up, then you hustle to a stretcher, lay on your side, and they gather their data. They tell you to try and slow your breathing as quickly as possible so that they can check what they need to check better in a timely manner.

So it's kind of on you in a way. Which seems counterintuitive. If you're breathing hard, how do you just make it so that you don't have to? But I feel like you can to some degree, or else they wouldn't say this. I look at trying to make my body cooler the same way, but I doubt I have much success. I also recall this anecdote when I'm in the Monument and trying to get my breathing back to normal so I can regroup and start going faster again.