How to preserve your cash and stay fit in Las Vegas

I haven't been to Las Vegas in about a dozen years, so I don't know if this suggestion will actually work, but back when I was living in Southern California (i.e., before kids), my wife used to go to Sin City once or twice a year.

I was never that much into gambling; mostly, we enjoyed the different themes of the big-named casinos, and of course the sumptuous buffets. When I did gamble, I was pretty disciplined about it. I looked for the cheapest Blackjack table I could find (usually $5 minimums) - or occasionally Pai Gow Poker. I changed $40 into chips, and then I bet the minimum every hand. I played standard, non-counting strategy.*

* I doubled-down on 11s always, 10s mostly, and occasionally 9s, depending on what the dealer was showing. I split Aces and 8s. I hit on hands under 11, and stayed on 13-16 if the dealer was showing a 2-6; otherwise, I hit until I got to 17 or higher.

The discipline part was this: if I lost the $40, I would leave the table and head back to the hotel room to read or watch TV until the next meal. In addition, if I doubled the $40, I would also leave the table. This limited my daily losses to a maximum of $120. It also capped my maximum winnings, but I didn't go to Las Vegas to make money.

Anyway, we're in no rush to introduce our kids to Vegas, but it occurred to me that my previous approach would work quite well with the addition of running as one of the activities in between gambling sessions. This would probably call for a lot of treadmill miles, though, since it's so hot most of the year in Vegas, and the sidewalks along the Strip are bound to packed with tourists (I guess off-strip running is possible during the winter). The biggest downside I can see is that the desire to go running might lead to reckless gambling, just to reach $0 or $80 ....

Fitness for the exercise junkie stuck during an airport layover

Back in the days before I got into shape, whenever I found myself waiting for an airplane flight - and traveling alone - I would find a seat, preferably with a power outlet nearby, and either read a book, do some writing on my laptop, or play computer games.

Nowadays, I use the time to boost my step count for the day. During my layover in Salt Lake City yesterday, I deplaned in Gate B, walked to end of Gate C, back to the connecting hallway, all the way to the end of Gate D, then back to the hallway, to the end of Gate E, and back. I went back and forth along Gate C so often that I was surprised when the Delta credit card guy kept trying to get my attention. I'm not sure if he realized that the same guy kept declining interest with the same explanation: "No thanks, I've got enough plastic."

Walking was better than nothing, although it was a bit of a pain to lug around my "carry-on" bag, which contained my laptop, power supply, and other stuff I didn't leave in my checked bag. During my pacing, I noticed that one of the airport vendors offered massages. For $65, you can get a 30 minute full body massage.

That got me thinking: someone should start an airport business that offers treadmills, free weights, and maybe stationary bikes, along with a quick shower facility. You can't really go running in the airport, because (1) TSA probably wouldn't like it, (2) it's too crowded in spots, (3) you can't run effectively with your carry-ons, and (4) you can't leave your carry-ons in a fixed place. With a treadmill, though, you could just leave your bags to the side where you can keep an eye on them.

I don't imagine there would be a big audience for this service, but I think there would an intense and dedicated one. Obviously, it would work best in the "hub" airports where more people have layovers for connecting flights.

First world problems . . . so much TV, so little running time

This is obviously a "first world problem" of the most insignificant kind, unless, of course, you are TV obsessed like I am. But here it is: I'm slightly more than halfway through (re)watching season 5 of "24," but now that FX's "Justified" has started its sixth - and last - season, last year's episodes are now available for streaming via Amazon Prime.

"24," season 5 cast

Promo for "Justified," season 5

What am I to do? "24" is my favorite TV show of all-time, and season 5 is the best season of "24," which makes it the best of the best. On the other hand, "Justified" is really, really good. I think it's not quite as good of a show to watch while running, because it has a more laidback tone punctuated by occasional bits of violence, whereas "24" is nonstop suspense with lots more violence. Still, "Justified" is all new to me, which is obviously worth something extra.

For now, anyway, I've decided to power through "24." That meant I ran my long run today on the treadmill even though it was sunny and relatively mild outside. I know a lot of runners can't stand the treadmill. But I may be using it for the foreseeable future for at least a few more weeks . . . .

Do you give unsolicited advice at the gym?

Tonight at the gym, a guy got on the treadmill next to the one I was using. He didn't look like your stereotypical runner (i.e., he was a bit overweight, though definitely not obese), but he set off at a decent 10 min/mi pace. I'm not immune to the perception that runners are mostly thin, so this was a good lesson to check my biases, I thought.

After half a lap, though, the guy reached out to support himself on the side rails for about five seconds. Twenty to thirty seconds later, he reached for the handles to steady himself while gasping. This went on for the rest of his run, which lasted one mile. The crazy thing is he even upped the speed on the treadmill by a tick!

I was tempted to suggest that he slow down, as he seemed to be running faster than he could handle, but (1) I was doing a threshold run and hence couldn't really carry on a long conversation; and (2) I don't give unsolicited advice to other people.

Anyway, he took a break, got off the treadmill (but kept his jacket on it to reserve it), drank water, rested, and then got back on. Once again, he ran at a 10 min/mi pace, and once again, after half a lap, he was doing that grabbing support/gasping bit. This time, he made it only 3/4 of a mile before stopping.

It was kind of painful to notice, not to mention somewhat distracting, so I might have overcome my natural reluctance to say anything, but he finished and left before I was done, so I was spared having to make a decision. But I wonder if, given the opportunity, I should have said something....?

PROS: He seemed to be struggling with his running. Slowing down would have enabled him to run more smoothly, as well as suffering less misery.

CONS: Maybe he was pushing himself on purpose (although interval training would probably be more effective than what he was doing if that were the case). And it's not like I'm actually a certified running coach.

62 miles on a treadmill . . . in a single session!

Photo courtesy of Canterbury Christ Church University.

I don't mind the treadmill the way that many runners do, but 10-11 miles is about my limit for a single run, even with TV (which I love). The guy in the picture is British Ph.D. student and ultramarathoner Phil Anthony, who ran 100K in 6:40:35 on a treadmill!

You could watch the entire original Star Wars trilogy in that time (A New Hope = 2 hours, 1 minute; The Empire Strikes Back = 2 hours, 4 minutes; Return of the Jedi = 2 hours, 12 minutes), or 9 episodes (stripped of commercials) of 24.

Of course, given that Anthony averaged just under 6:30 per mile, it would take me a lot longer to run that distance. I'm sure I'd have time to squeeze in another Star Wars movie. Then again, since that would have to come from the execrable prequel trilogy, maybe it would inspire me to run faster just to endure less Jar-Jar Binks....

Embracing my inner "teenage girlness"

I once posted on Facebook that when people ask if I like country music, I respond I like Taylor Swift's songs, and that people find that a non-responsive answer. (Admittedly, the more she's moved toward pop rock, the more I've liked her albums: Red > Sparks Fly > Fearless. I've got high hopes for 1989.)

One of my Facebook friends commented, "When did you turn into a teenaged girl?"

Ha ha ha ha! Fortunately, I am comfortable in my fortysomethingness, and I'm not embarrassed to write that I really do enjoy listening to Swift's music. However, today I'm ready to embrace my inner teenage girlness fully.

I went for a threshold run this morning, and for entertainment, I was prepared to watch the end of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which I had leftover from yesterday's long run. For some reason, though, my Kindle Fire wouldn't stream in the gym even though it appeared to have connected to the wi-fi. I could have listened to an audiobook on my phone (I'm about 2/3 of the way through Peter F. Hamilton's space opera Judas Unchained) but on a whim I decided to shuffle through the selected songs I loaded on my phone from Red. That turned out not to be quite enough, so I moved to Sparks Fly from there.

Anyway, the resulting threshold run rocked in more ways than one! I had intended on a 2-3-2/2.5 split, meaning 2 easy miles* to start, and then 3 miles at threshold pace, and then 2-2.5 miles back at an easy pace. I ended up feeling so strong that I increased my threshold pace from 7:13 to 7:08 and then to 7:03, and finished 5 miles instead of 3. My 10K PR is around a 7:12 pace, so the last three miles of this run were slightly faster, and yet I didn't feel like I was pressing; I'd categorize the effort level as a 3 on a 1-5 scale.

* My easy miles are around an 8:30 pace.

There is some research to the effect that for non-elite runners, music can boost running performance. I don't usually listen to music when I run, as it's mostly TV on the treadmill, or an audiobook if I'm outside (and I live in a hilly area, so it's hard to track "fast" performance outside), but Taylor Swift really seems to get me to run fast without feeling like it's too hard.

Hmm, guess I need to head out to Target to pick up the deluxe edition of 1989. . . .

Am I cheating on running ... ?

Thanks to one of those unexpected coincidences, I recently came across a used Concept2 Model D indoor ergometer (rowing machine) for sale on Craig's List. If you know anything about Concept2 rowers, they are very hard to find used, because they tend to get snatched up quickly. They are durable, reliable, and awesome!

Rowing is my preferred cross-training exercise. I can swim enough so that I won't drown in a pool, but I don't particularly like it (even though I recognize it's a great no-impact workout). I have my bike set up on a trainer so that I can ride in the garage, but cycling is just okay for me. As I'm optimized as a runner, I don't seem to have the leg strength to drive the bike hard enough to get a good cardio workout. Of course, as a rower, I'm mediocre; the times that dedicated rowers post on Fitocracy are well beyond me. But I like that the cross-training is no-impact and an all-around body workout.

So when I saw the used Concept2, I pounced on it. Some Fitocracy members gave me advice about what to check out in a used rower, and this one tested as close to new. I was so excited that when I paid for it, I actually waved it toward me and said, "Come to Daddy...."

Why do I want a rowing machine of my own when the gym has one? Well, the gym isn't open as late as I would like, and its weekend hours are even stingier. Plus, there are occasions when I can't leave the house (the very rare snow-in; more frequently, Mr. Mom duties) and would like to get in a good workout.

Still, I wouldn't have felt anywhere near as excited about a used treadmill, for which I feel like I'm maybe "cheating" on running.

Yeah, I know it's a silly analogy. But there are very real reasons I much prefer to have my own rowing machine than my own treadmill. I'd use a treadmill a lot more than I plan to use this rower, which means I'd need to do more frequent maintenance of the treadmill. I'd much rather leave the treadmill maintenance to the gym, and deal with the (lower) maintenance requirements of the rower.

In addition, unless I'm stuck at home, or the outside weather is too foul, I can run on the roads or at the track. If I had a treadmill, I could run at home anytime I wanted to, but my cross-training options would be more limited.

The question now is, do I look for a cheaper gym membership just for access to treadmills?

Fully converting my road bike into a stationary bike

When I first started getting into shape a few years ago, I was briefly indifferent between running and biking. Running had the advantage of being the most efficient workout from a calorie-burning perspective (I was trying to lose some weight) while biking offered the advantage of being more useful as a means of daily transportation.

I realize that it's not a "one or the other" situation. Duathlons involve running and biking, and of course if you throw in swimming, you get a triathlon. However, I fairly quickly gravitated more strongly toward running. Among other things, biking outside seems much less safe than running does.

Funny episodes of "The X-Files"

It's hard to believe that Fox's "The X-Files" has been off the air for over a decade now. Of course, it's been even longer since it was good, despite the valiant efforts of Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish as the ostensible replacements for David Duchovny. It makes me wonder how well even early "X-Files" episodes hold up today.

Recently, I went for a long run on the treadmill and didn't feel like watching my current binge-fest ("The Wire"), and for some reason I was inspired to stream "The X-Files: Fight the Future." It was better than I remembered, although exhibiting much of the same flaws as the TV show: excellent on the mood and atmosphere, and better at setting up the conspiracy angle than at resolving it, and disastrously weak at the end.

Still, it was a positive enough (re)experience that when I had only 45 minutes for a treadmill session, and hence not enough time for a full episode of "The Wire," I opted for "The X-Files"' season 5 comic vampire episode "Bad Blood."

This is really a brilliant - and funny - episode, with the first and second third of the episode being told from Scully's and Mulder's points of view, respectively, and then an objective/omniscent view for the last third that follows the events of their earlier narration. The acting performances that each gives in the other's viewpoint are appropriately exaggerated versions of their character foibles (Scully comes across as a bit of a whiny and annoying skeptical; and Mulder comes across as manic and dismissive). The clues are all there to figure out the mystery, and in retrospect you can see how cleverly and meticulously writer Vince Gilligan (who would go on to create "Breaking Bad") was about getting all the details right.

It got me thinking about the other funny episodes of "The X-Files," which ran long enough and had enough creativity on the part of the writers to put together a number of intentionally comic efforts. Here are my rankings on the best:

Olfactory offensiveness, a downside to the treadmill at the gym

Apologies for the rant that follows; I know that no one is to "blame" here, and no doubt there's a reasonable probability that I'm as much of an offender as the guy I'm writing about, but when it comes down to it, we only have our own subjective experience of reality.

Today I went to the gym for my long run (delayed from Monday due to my schedule this week as Mr. Mom). It turns out that I could've run outside, but the weather forecast had called for afternoon rain, and the skies were looking ominous.

I got on the treadmill in the middle of the row, with at least two empty treadmills on either side of me. Six minutes later, a guy started setting up on the treadmill to my left.

He smelled really bad! Not in the "having taken a bath in a week" kind, but the heavy smell of rank sweatiness.* And this was before he ran a single step. . . .

* Correction: Sweat doesn't smell; the bacteria that feed off sweat do.

What was especially annoying was that (1) he could have taken a treadmill two spots to my right, where he would've had no one on either side; and (2) the treadmill he took indicated that it needed to be lubricated, but he started it anyway.

He then proceeded to jog along at a 10 minute/mile pace. He looked much more like a weightlifter than a runner, so I was hoping that he would warm up for a mile and then go lift heavy things. I also thought maybe I would get used to the smell and stop noticing, but it didn't work like that. It seemed like the smell would fade, and then I would be blasted by a fresh wave of it.

Ten minutes passed, and he stepped off the moving belt and manually slowed the treadmill to a walking pace. Excellent, I said to myself.

But after a bit of walking, he sped the treadmill back up to a 10 minute/mile pace!

Okay, maybe he was going to cover two miles . . . .

50 minutes!!!! I ended up enduring 50 minutes of olfactory offensiveness before he finished.

The worst thing is that, of course, I realize that there's nothing reasonable that I could say to him. I mean, if I'd said, "Dude, you smell really bad," what response could I really expect? It's not like he had slathered on way too much cologne or anything. When we exercise, we sweat - some more than others. And for all I know, I might also have a Pepe le Pew-like effect on those around me after I've gone running (though, I think, not before I've even started). In my defense, I do try to avoid taking a treadmill next to other runners if possible.

UPDATE (6/26): Apparently this may not be an uncommon problem....

Yikes, a reason to embrace the treadmill?

Yikes! A lot of runners don't like treadmills, referring to them as "dreadmills." They're kind of monotonous and they don't teach you to monitor your own pace.

But maybe there's a place for them after all. Outside running may be more scenic, and it may train your pacing better, but it's not without hazards: cars, air pollution, bad weather, and so on. Skin cancer, too.

At least skin cancer can be avoided by using lots of sunblock.

Not so fast, says a Runner's World article. Sunblock works, sort of, but it's not close to 100 percent protection against damaging UV rays.

Per the Nature article cited in RW:

Here we show that sunscreen (UVA superior, UVB sun protection factor (SPF) 50) delayed the onset of UVR-driven melanoma, but only provided partial protection.

Partial protection is better than nothing, of course, but it's still only partial.

Well, I ran my 11 miles this morning on the treadmill. Yeah, 11 miles was pretty monotonous. I was planning on 12+, maybe even 13 while watching "The X-Files" movie, but just as the movie started wearing down after about 90 minutes, so too did my mental fortitude.

Long run motivation

Napping was at the top of the list of what I wanted to do this morning. Going for a long run was much farther down the list. I mean, I love being a runner, and I love the feeling of satisfaction that comes with a good running workout, but sometimes I have to motivate myself to go for a run.

This is apparently common for runners.

One way to get myself up for a long run is to go to the gym, get on the treadmill, start streaming my latest binge-watching obsession, and press "Start." However, while "The Wire" is good, it just hasn't been as compulsively addictive for me as, say, "The Shield" or "Justified." Plus, the weather outside looked divine for running: temperature in the low 60s, lots of cloud cover with isolated patches of blue sky, just a gentle breeze for circulation.

So I followed the suggestion of putting on running clothes: light blue Patagonia wool/polyester blend tech shirt, black tech shorts, and merino wool socks, SPF 50 sunblock.*

* I dislike putting on sunblock, because I've read that oxybenzone - the primary ingredient in many sunblocks - is pretty nasty stuff. I go out of my way to buy sunblocks that rely on physical barriers, as opposed to chemical ones, meaning either titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. Physical barrier sunblocks are apt to leave white streaks and they're not that easy to clean off, even in the shower; often I have to scrape a bunch of it off.

It did get me closer to the door, which got me close to my running shoes, which I put on. All that was left was headphones and firing up the Audible app on my smartphone (I'm about halfway through Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star right now) and then my trusty companion RunKeeper.

A good audiobook makes a big difference for me. When I run races, I don't listen to anything except RunKeeper's periodic audio cues about time, distance, and average pace. When I do speed workouts, I sometimes don't listen to anything. But when I go on long runs, I like to listen to audiobooks (or music, but I prefer audiobooks). I've discovered that some books I liked in print make not so good audiobooks, and other books I liked in print make really good audiobooks. I'm not sure why, exactly. It's tempting to blame (or credit) the narrator, but I don't think that's it. I like David Baldacci's thrillers, but when I listened to The Whole Truth, I found that a lot of the writing seemed corny in a way that didn't appear that way on the printed page. Pandora's Star, on the other hand, has been crackling good, even though I've already read it before and hence shouldn't be surprised about anything.

Anyway, 11.25 miles later, I was done running. It had been a mild day, mostly cloudy with isolated patches of blue skies, and temperatures in the low 60s. Really a perfect day for running. Long run of the week in the books. Glad I got out there, even if napping is so awesome.

This site will tell you how much time you've spent (wasted?) watching TV

This might be scary, but if you go to this website and start typing in TV shows, it'll calculate the total amount of time you've spent watching. You can keep adding shows to get an updated total of the number of days/hours/minutes.

As I started entering "Star Trek," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," etc., the number at the top got staggeringly large, so I decided to start over and input only shows that I watched over the past year. That got the number down to a more comprehensible 18 days, 12 hours, 16 minutes, which is still kind of stunning.

Of course, the website counts each episode of an hour-long show as 60 minutes (not sure where that 16 minutes came from), whereas I rarely watch anything live, tending to run most things through TiVo so I can skip commercials, or streaming shows on my Kindle Fire or RoKu where again there aren't any commercials.

Plus, 5 days and 20 hours of my total were spent on "The Shield" and "Justified," both of which I watched exclusively via Amazon Prime and mostly while running on the treadmill in the winter, so I don't think that time was "wasted" in any sense of the word.

Series-wide thoughts on FX's "Justified" (through season 4)

For some reason, I didn't notice FX's "Justified" when it premiered back in 2010, which is strange because it's based on a short story and novels by Elmore Leonard, and for a while, I read pretty much every Leonard novel as soon as it was published.

But anyway, it wasn't until I got my Kindle Fire and started checking out various serialized action/dramas for treadmill entertainment that I discovered it. I watched the pilot and was immediately hooked (although I did end up making a detour for another FX series, "The Shield"). Suffice to say that "Justified" has provided plenty of treadmill entertainment/distraction the past few months.

The premise of "Justified" is that Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, played perfectly by Timothy Olyphant, grew up in the coal-mining environs of Harlan, Kentucky but left and at the beginning of the series is based in Miami. He tracks down a mobster and gives the mobster 24 hours to get out of town, and when 23 hours and 50 or so minutes have elapsed, Givens shows up on the penthouse balcony to confront the man. Naturally, the mobster tries to shoot Givens secretly, but we learn that Givens is a very fast draw. When Givens' boss criticizes him about the shooting ("You know we haven't shot anyone on sight in about a hundred years, right?"), Givens' drawls in response, "He drew first, so I was justified."

Thoughts on the finale of CBS's "Survivor: Cagayan"

Billed as "brains versus brawn versus beauty," the 28th(!) edition of CBS's "Survivor" ended a terrific season last night with its usual 3 hour finale + reunion show. The final four were lawyer Kass (brains), econ student Spencer (brains), cop Tony (brawn), and martial arts instructor Woo (brawn).