Greetings

PureCadence 2. The real thing's white
borders are a lot more gray than this. 

So I have this idea. I'd been kicking around two ideas lately, and they both went from idea to reality today. I had been trying Lumosity, the brain-training website, for a little while now via a free trial. I had also ordered myself a pair of Brooks PureCadence minimalist running shoes last week. Today, those shoes and I went for a run, and I took the plunge and signed up for the full Lumosity site. I'm trying to train my feet to land in a totally different way when I run, and I'm trying to train my brain to be faster and more flexible.

And I thought I would blog about it. I figure this way, I can keep a record of my progress with both of these quests. It's not like I need an excuse to write something anyway. So here we are.

This is present-day Carthage.
The Romans did in fact destroy it.
Several times.  Legend says they salted
the earth the final time so that
nothing would ever grow there again. 

In case anyone is wondering, the title of the blog is a Latin phrase that means Carthage must be destroyed.  Carthage was Rome's mortal enemy, a rival city in Northern Africa that thwarted their military conquest repeatedly. The great general Hannibal was famous for leading his armies through the alps, which was thought to be impossible, to attack the actual city of Rome. Carthage was Rome's only real existential threat during the Late Republic. A Roman statesman named Cato the Elder used to conclude every speech to the Senate with this phrase, no matter what it was about. So he might give a long speech about crop yields, building plans, the weather, and at the end he would say, "...and also I think Carthage must be destroyed." It was a sign of his single-minded stubbornness, and his refusal to give up on his belief that Carthage must be, well, destroyed. It seemed pertinent to both of these quests I'm on, since they're both going to require a lot of stubborn perseverance.  I'm teaching myself Latin, so some Latin might occasionally find its way here too. And let's face it, it sounds pretty badass, doesn't it?

Next post will be Day 1 of Lumosity and my first run with the PureCadence shoes on.