More random discourse and 3½ weeks of running

Actually I consider this week 3½ of the Couch to 5K training. It's really more like week 5 or 6, I lost count. But I'm still running every 3 or 4 days and my knees are holding up well. I'm calling it week 3½ because I took the week 3 plan and accidentally expanded it. It turned out well so I intentionally did it again. At the risk of boring you: walk 5 min, run 90 sec, walk 90 sec, run 3 min, walk 3 min, rinse and repeat. Except the second hand on my watch is so small that I can't hold it still enough while running to see it. I ended up running 4 minutes instead of 3. Knees are ok, AND the good news is that I think I've finally reached a level of leg muscle fitness where my weakest link is now my breathing. So I can finally start getting the cardio/respiratory element in better shape.

I discovered a miracle recovery aid....came across it and tried it. Compression. It's the bomb. The idea is to put something tight on your legs post workout. It reduces swelling and forces the blood internally where it does more good healing muscles and providing recovery fluids to joints. Athletes have been using this for a while but it's now becoming more popular. If you're worried about looking silly, well, you will look silly. Wear some long pants over it.

Now on to random discourse:

The turkey population is booming on the eastern shore. I remember hunting wild turkeys in college in central PA. I spent hours and hours in the woods and never got a shot off. Although I did hear them and actually saw a few at a distance. I concluded that turkey hunting was the biggest waste of time and vowed not to spend another precious minute on the vain pursuit. Yesterday morning (wish I'd gotten a picture) I was driving down our lane heading to work and there were 3 adult turkeys and about a dozen chicks milling around the blacktop. They didn't want to move. It's strange irony that it's evolved into me honking the horn and yelling "get out of the way!".

Remember this from back in October?

It appears to be almost finished. At least the lawyers are using some of the money they make on class action lawsuits to keep the construction workers employed.

There is a debate under way in Congress about whether political contributors of very large sums of money should have their identity disclosed. Those against it argue that disclosure infinges on their right to free speach because identifying them can lead to outing and harrasment. Those for disclosure argue that the public wants to know what the motivation is behind large contributions. Will a special interest expect favors down the road? How do you come down on this issue?

I do know this:

This guy drives his truck around DC all the time. He is exercising his right to free speach.

Label him crazy, but in how many other countries would this be allowed?