Finally - A Run, and some other stuff

BACK TO RUNNING

My back was sufficiently healed so that I could actually run Saturday morning.
The weather was nice, if a bit too warm and humid.
The temperature was about 68.
The sun was trying to peek through the hazy eastern clouds.

After not running for two weeks, I knew that I would have diminished aerobic capacity.
And I did.
By the time I reached the top of Hill One my lungs wanted more air than my regular running breathing rate could supply.
So I kicked into accelerated breathing for a couple of minutes.
As I settled down for Hill Two the slower breathing only lasted until I got to the top.
Then I went into the level two panting again for a couple of minutes.

Part of me felt uncertain about going for the four-mile course with my limited capacity.
The Runner, and the Coach in me both said go for it.
The line was, "If you have to quit and walk, deal with that if/when the circumstance presents itself."
So, on I went onto the long course.
And somewhere in mile three, the accelerated breathing kicked in again, even though this portion of the course is almost ruler flat.
I knew that this would be with me for the rest of the session.
But the runner in me was ready to prove something - mostly to myself.
So, I plodded on.

And, as I have found many times before, there is something deep within me that will push my body well into discomfort.
And as my mind bounced between "can I do this?", "I want to stop," and "Shut up and run," I kept going.
In all fairness, this was not the most difficult run I have ever done (that distinction would be my first Monte Sano 15K, and my second 10 mile runs, or my last Alabama A & M 10K - where I actually quit before the end of the race - my only DNF)

When I finished, my wrist clock told me that I had taken 43 minutes.
Not a bad time for diminished strength and endurance.
It was good to be running again.

BUMPER STICKERS

Following are a couple of bumper stickers I have invented for the doomsday global warming fans -

SAVE THE PLANET - KILL YOURSELF

The logic here being that if people (supposedly) cause all this bad stuff, the solution is simple - get rid of the people.

Next...

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE

Pretty self-explanatory.
But the point here is we are all going to die regardless of the cause.
So, chill out...oh, wait, you can't kuz the global is warming.
Um, well....

And, perhaps, just for the record, I need to state my position of the subject of "global warming".

GLOBAL WARMING (NOT!)

1) I am a firm believer in the concept of climate change.
"Climate change" is defined as long-term (measured in decades or centuries) trends in temperature change - of air and/or water - either up or down.
We are currently in a transition from an "Ice Age" to a "Warm Age" (whatever exactly that will be).

2) NONE of the long-term climate changes ever recorded are the result of the activities of people.
It is the most arrogant, self-important deception to believe that the activities of people on this planet can amount to enough to change the planetary climate system to even the most minute degree.

Even with 6.7 billion people on the planet (that reads as, 6,700,000,000), they populate only ONE PERCENT of the earth's surface.
(If you doubt this, just fly over this nation and look at all the open territory between the houses, towns and cities.)

Seventy-one percent of the earth's surface is covered by water.
That leaves only twenty-nine percent for people to settle on.
The total mass of the worlds oceans is about 1.4 × 1021 kilograms (14,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 grams)
Water has a ability to collect and store heat energy.
A collection of water this large has a huge effect on the weather of the planet.
There is NOTHING people could possibly do to alter the temperature of the worlds air and/or oceans to cause a change in the climate of this planet.

Regardless of the quoted statistics of how many tons of pollution or CO2 gas (or whatever your favorite poison might be) industrial plants produce each year, they are virtually insignificant when compared to the amount of energy produced, consumed, and stored by the weather system of this planet.

A single volcanic eruption will produce more CO2 in a few days than all of the people and their evil factories on the entire planet can produce in a year or more.

There is NO WAY the activities of people can affect the worldwide climate system of this planet.

The idea that people can "save" the planet from changing its climate a few degrees is an exercise in self-deception of the highest order.