According to my master plan, I should be at 1.5 miles by now with a short term goal of hitting 3 miles by December 31st - then the real work starts. Here is the progress chart-
I am still on track (no pun intended) to make the December goal. The 1.5 mile goal was pretty good actually - stretching was really the trick and the alternating speeds - 3 minutes jog, 2 minutes walk repeat 4 times and I was there.
Once I hit the 2 mile goal, I plan to leave the cozy confines of the gym and start on the hard ground. Running on the ground is a much different experience - it's less cushy, and with wind and elevation changes it cuts about half the treadmill pace. It is important as the pounding of the pavement actually builds up the muscles faster and bone density increases. Men get osteoporosis too and I do not want a hump back.
Now for the trivial knowledge moment of the day:
I was listening to KFRC and they replay Casey Kasum's Top 40 from the 70's with his commentary and long distance dedications,etc. Anyway there was a disco song in that was based on "Also Sprauch Zarathustra", the 2001 Space Odyssey theme but this one was set to disco and I vaguely recalled it. What interested me was the title - never knew what it meant. It is German for "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" which is German for Zoroaster. Strauss wrote the melodic poem based on Nietzche's book "A Book for All and None" which used a fictional Zoroaster as the main character.
Nietzche was apparently struck by the teachings of Zoroaster (600 BCE) that taught about the duality of man but not good and evil but more like chaos and order.
A cental theme of the book is the concept of "ubermensch" literally translated as superman or overman. He talks about the transition of man from ape to this concept of ubermensch. Think back to the opening scene of 2001 Space Odyssey - it is a transition of man from ape to space (over man) that is the basis of the movie.
So 600 BC Zoroaster teaches about a religion of duality which in the 19th Century Nietzsche reads and adopts to his philosphy. Strauss was impressed by Nietzsche so he writes this symphony based on the book which Kubrick/Artur C Clark uses in a movie about the themes of good and evil and the evolution of mankind from ape to superman. Wow, my head just asploded.
2 comments:
I wonder if Hanna Barbera was influenced as well when they created Space Ghost's keyboard playing, mantis Zorak ? Sounds the same to me.
Y'all too brainy for me. Where's my banjo?
But on the running thing, have you read 'Couch to 5k"? Its like a plan, a theory, something. They talk about it a lot at the WW boards (and that would Weight Watchers).
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