True Health Starts With...

Sunblock. I contemplated this fact during the extra mile I accidentally ran today at Lake Murray (pictured here). But I'll get to that in a minute.

I am so sore! Sore sore sore. That's what I get for waiting three months since my last plyometrics workout and then jumping in with an hour long session last night. I read about running. A lot. I know better than to do these things... but the thing with the kid with the stuff yesterday really threw me off. Don't believe what all the health magazines tell you about preventing soreness. I've read that drinking coffee will help prevent it or a light workout the day after the hard one will prevent it. Lies. All lies. There is nothing that can actually prevent soreness if you workout hard enough. Just have to push through it. But on to my sunblock contemplation.

Let's call her LeatherBlader. (The non-space is intentional...as an English teacher I always 1. Feel the need to explain my odd, but intential misspellings and 2. Also, as an English teacher, it's my perogative to make up words. So there St. Martin's Handbook- you can suck it.) The reason I "accidentally" ran an extra mile today. I couldn't stop thinking about her and lost track of my mileage. She is a blur of bleach blonde, spandexy, brown-skinned, cougarness on wheels. She is a walking, no rolling, contradiction of health and decay. On the one hand, she is the ideal model for safety while rollerblading. Helmet? Check. Wrist Guards? Check. Knee pads and neon colors? Check. However, while she does a very thorough job protecting her skin from cuts, bruises and road rash, she does not address the most important aspect of skin protection: sunblockage*. She looks like a super skinny leather suitcase...the kind with wheels...and I feel badly for her. She may never get hurt rollerblading at Lake Murray**, but she will get hurt by melanoma; it's only a matter of time.

Despite the obstacles-- soreness, sun damage and exhaustion from an honest day's work... gotta keep on truckin'.


*Sunblock is running gear item number one for a runner. My favorite brand is California Baby Sunblock Stick for my face. It's made for babies, but it's the only brand that adequately fights off the dark spots I get on my face from the sun.

**Lake Murray is in La Mesa. (East County San Diego) It is a 6 mile out-and-back, relatively flat, paved path that winds around the perimeter of the lake. It used to be a loop, back in the day, but the dam was blocked off (probably due to fear of terrorist attack...sillys) and is no longer accessible to the walkers, joggers and bikers that frequent the path. Watch out for rattlesnakes! Especially in the spring and summer. Parking is free, but all cars must be out of the parking lot by 6pm. For directions go to: http://www.mtrp.org/lake_murray.asp