![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change.
An August summer night...
—The Scorpions
My evening had an uncanny resemblance to the 1990 song Wind of Change, referenced above. Having been at LomCon-16 for the past seven days, I have not worked out in a week. My darling
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
miss_amaranth and I went for a swim right before I left to catch my flight... but then nothing since.I rectified that this evening. On this August summer night, I went for a 10K run that started in Gorky Park and followed the Moskva along its embankment, out and then back.
I had been trying to figure out where in Moscow I could go for a run, and Gorky Park was what I finally settled on, partly after serendipitously finding this article in the New York Times on Monday. This turned out to have been an excellent choice... for several reasons!
For example, the Moscow Running Club meets three times weekly in the park and goes for a run. So there are 1K, 3K, 5K, and 10K routes already marked out, including signs to indicate when one should turn around for each distance. That made the logistics of the run quite easy.
Also, the run along the Moskva embankment was absolutely lovely! I don't usually run linearly, going out for the first half and coming back the same way in the second. I normally prefer a circular run, to continually have new scenery during the run. In this case, however, I was willing to make an exception. The park and the river was such spectacular scenery. There were people out for a stroll, other runners, cyclists, skaters... and riverboats. What a fantastic environment! Turns out, most of the boats for the river cruises are faster than me... but only just!
My performance on the run was unremarkable. I covered 10 km in 56:40, which is pretty average for me. When I say "unremarkable", I mean just that -- it was neither particularly fast nor particularly slow. Since I have not exercised in a week and had been walking around all day, I suppose that average is better than I might have expected.
There is also another aspect worth noting about tonight's run. It pertains to just being able to run through Gorky Park and alongside the Moskva. As a US-American citizen, I am well aware that this would not have been possible in the not-so-distant past... within my living memory. Somewhat boggles the mind to think about it. And that's where the song by The Scorpions comes in again.
I've much more to share about this trip, but methinks that will have to wait. I should go to bed now, to be fresh and rested for another day of sightseeing in the morning. So, dear friends, I will leave you for now, signing off with this self-portrait taken not long after tonight's workout, at one of the illuminated fountains in Gorky Park:
(click for full-sized version)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I should also note that you have unleashed an earworm on me.
From:
no subject
I too try to take different routes back then I too forward. After a while I found it hard to do the loop backward.
From:
Looking good!
From:
Re: Looking good!
It's taken a lot of work, but I'm down about 70 pounds from my all-time high. That was 216 pounds -- a BMI of nearly 35, as I'm a short guy -- which I hit nearly a year and a half ago, in Spring 2012. I've not hopped on the scale in a bit, being in Russia and all, but shortly before I left, I was down to 146 -- a BMI of about 23.6. Very nearly a third of my body weight lost!
You would have seen some of this at P**T*** last year, as I was already down 30 pounds by then. I've lost another 40 since October, though, which is what you're seeing in the photo. It's been a slow and steady process; between diet and daily exercise, the goal has been to lose just a pound a week, which is why it has taken over a year to get from there to here.
Hmmmm... do you think I look younger without all the extra weight?
Of course, whilst it is nice to look good, the main motivation was for my health. The short term benefit is that I am sleeping better. I had gotten so fat that I was having trouble breathing whilst asleep. Not apnea, mind you. There was just so much fat in my neck that my throat would close off when the muscles relaxed. I had to sleep with a mouthpiece for awhile, or else I couldn't sleep at all!
The long term benefit is that my risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart problems has plummeted through the floor. And that's the real reason that I got serious about losing weight. I'll be forty in a couple of years, and I needed to start getting serious about my long term health. I've always bit a bit chubby, ever since leaving my teens, and I just accepted it until now.
Actually, I've reached the weight I was at about 20 years ago, when I was 17 or 18. Roughly the same weight as when I graduated high school, give or take a couple of pounds. When I was 21, I had a silk suit custom made for me in Bangkok, tailored to my precise measurements at the time. Wore it to a wedding last month... and got laughed at for how loosely it hung on me. That was a real eye-opener -- at 38, I'm noticeably slimmer than I was at 21!
The irony, of course, is now that I'm much slimmer and more attractive, I don't actually have time for new relationships! Especially since I've added an hour a day of exercise to my regular list of hobbies. It would probably be much easier to meet new people now... and I'm not even trying! It's okay, though. Part of me really doesn't want to date anyone who wouldn't have wanted me when I was fat. I've got partners now, like my beloved
As for you, my friend? Stay plush as you like. Just more of you to hug! And you do give such excellent hugs!
Can't wait to see you..... next month!! Wahoo!!!!
From:
Re: Looking good!
Apparently, amaranth is also called 'love-lies-bleeding' (for some species of amaranth).
From:
Re: Looking good!
Given the shared gatekeeping responsibility for the P**T*** community, I'm one of the first to speak out against the practice of brining one's "partner of the year" along. As you know, attending once potentially makes you a life member. So folks who have a different partner each year -- often non-Pagan -- and bring them all along, are potentially making problems for us by not using their invite powers wisely. (Thankfully, this has not created any issues for us thus far)
When
She is rather looking forward to experiencing P**T*** at last. I hope you will be coming along this year and can meet her, my friend!
From:
Re: Looking good!
From:
Re: Looking good!
Thirty-nine more days! Wahoo!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject