2.4 mile walk in forest

Here's an easy 2.4 mile hike we took today in the F. Gilbert Hills State Forest (a.k.a. Foxboro State Forest). I've also done it as a trail run. Easy surface for beginning trail runners.

Foxboro State Forest 2.4

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Trying out EveryTrail

We turned on EveryTrail on my iPhone about halfway through our quick walk in the Foxboro State Forest today. One bad data point in there, but otherwise pretty good. We'll try to remember to turn it on when we start next time.

Foxboro State Forest

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Wiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!

We bought a Wii and Wii Fit a few weeks ago. I haven’t bought any of the music-based games yet because I’ve been having fun with the skiing and bowling. In fact I’m very intrigued by the way that Wii Fit is forcing a rethinking of the potential gaming audience and the possibilities for games. For instance, senior centers all over the country are holding Wii bowling tournaments, as well as classes on how to use your Wii for fitness. A study is under way in Scotland to study whether the balance board can be used in helping elderly people improve their balance and prevent falls.

It occurred to me that some clever programmers, working with doctors and researchers, could design specially tailored rehabilitation programs to run on the Wii. The best design would involve a series of modules that could be enabled and configured specifically for the patient’s needs. Information from the patient’s sessions could be stored and transmitted to the supervising medical professional for review. I imagine this would be most useful in orthopedic and cardio rehab (some extra telemetry could be added for that one for even better monitoring). And there’s no reason it couldn’t be as fun as bowling or skiing or Zelda or Mario.

Gotta go. It’s my turn at bowling. My Wii Mii has a habit of tapping her foot if I take too long.

Spring fever!

There's nothing like a 50+ degree day or two in Massachusetts in March to make me get a wicked case of spring fever. I'm heading out to do my run in shorts and can't wait. Other people start cleaning their houses...I start counting my short-sleeved running shirts!

Album Cover Art

Downloading music from sites like iTunes and Rhapsody means album cover art is nearly a dying art. I remember spending hours browsing through album covers in record stores, decoding images on albums I owned, and trying to see something of the musicians' personalities in the artwork and photographs. In all my time spent with the covers, though, I don't think I ever encountered ones like these.

Gulp

I'm organizing a run/walk to commemorate the 1-year anniversary since my event. I've been reluctant to bring any more attention to me, but at the same time I want to celebrate living, thank my friends and family, and encourage people to get out and exercise. I finally sent the email today inviting people to join me in this celebratory run/walk after thinking about it for months. If only one person makes a lifestyle change and gets out there walking, then whatever discomfort I feel will be worth it. That's always been my mantra working with kids in music and theater--if it makes a difference for just one kid, then my work is worth it. And I would probably go running that day anyway so having at least one or two people join me will make it more fun.

Crestor Update

It's been one month since I quite taking Crestor. I think I might be sleeping better since dropping the Crestor from my drug regimen, but it has not been an astounding difference. I wake up less during the night and my dreams are less vivid and disturbing. When I do wake up, I generally fall back to sleep within a few minutes rather than laying awake for up to an hour twitching my foot. In fact, the foot thing got so bad I was beginning to consider asking my doctor about restless leg syndrome. It would be much better to solve that problem by eliminating drugs rather than by adding them.

The jury is still out. I'll wait another month and see how things are. If anyone has experience with statins and wants to weigh in here, I'm listening.