Eleven miles, that is.

If you're wondering why tiki didn't blog about 8, 9 or 10 miles, it's because, well, we didn't do 'em. We just started with an 11-miler today. Because, we are macho. And kind of stupid.

Oh, and register to vote.

Ooo, tired footies....

Dragged our sorry tiki ass out of bed for our daily drag around the park this morn, and then came home and saw this....

Want to live a long life? Run

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running. A study published on Monday shows middle-aged members of a runner's club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run.

Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers at Stanford University in California found.

"At 19 years, 15 percent of runners had died compared with 34 percent of controls," Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Yay, us.

But, you may ask, what about cranky old people???

People who took up exercise when they were older also improved their health, he said.

But, but, what about my knees?

The study also showed that people cannot use the risk of injury as an excuse not to run -- the runners had fewer injuries of all kinds, including to their knees.

PWND.

Like we usually do.

Up at the crack of dawn to squeeze our chubby, chubby thighs into unflattering lycra and then plod park-ward.

At this time of year, at least, it's not dark and cold and scary when we wake.

But, today, we were blessed with Seattle Liquid Sunshine. A magic substance, which converts all other substances instantly into mud.

Special slimy Northwest mud.

So, after a time, we wheezed our way to Volunteer Park, where we usually revolve around the path several times, us and the dog walkers.

But, it was difficult to make it around the path.

Because.

The SPRINKLERS were all on.

O_o



(And, no, they are NOT automatic. There's a guy. A guy with a metal tool thingie. We've seen him.)

After years and years and YEARS of dieting, this one is kind of a no duh, but we're glad somebody thought to take the time....

Restaurant menu promises buried in calories, fat

Dishes targeted to health-conscious consumers at popular chains such as Chili's, Taco Bell and Applebee's contained as much as twice the calories and eight times the grams of fat than the restaurants claimed in their published nutrition information, a Scripps Television Station investigation revealed.

....

The Macaroni Grill sample showed the widest variance from the menu's claims. Its "Pollo Margo Skinny Chicken," which was supposed to have 500 calories, actually had 1,022, according to the testing. The chicken dinner was supposed to have 6 grams of fat. It had 49.

They go on to list several dishes where the fat content is off by about an order of magnitude. Not surprising, as it's not terribly hard to go a little crazy when you're adding oil to the pot, and more fat just makes stuff taste nummier, so we doubt anybody would ever complain.

Just, rule of thumb: if you're reducing calories to lose weight, cut down how often you eat out. Period. And the whole "divide it in two and eat the rest at home" nonsense? That just means you'll be sucking down half the fat and calories whilst standing around in your bathrobe over the sink, instead of sitting in a chair.

Eleven miles.

Actually, wasn't so bad.

Our new best friend John McCain called again while we were out. He was sad to miss us, but he left a message. He promised to be Ronald Reagan. McCain's certainly old enough to play Gipper, but we think maybe he doen't have the hair for it. We would have preferred fresh snickerdoodles.

Ten miles.

To do:

1) Need new running shoes
2) Need new feet