Smoke on the Water

My fellow racer JG likes to quote “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Running”, and I wonder if her book has anything to say about smoke not really being anything like oxygen. Yesterday was ridiculously busy and I wasn’t able to work out, so exercise was moved way up the priority list for Tuesday. Today was shoulder day, which is the easiest of my lifting days, so I knew I could book it down to the Y and still have enough left in the tank to teach my delts a thing or two. I stepped out of my door and I noticed a burning wood smell in the air, but I didn’t think twice about it as I took off. I had to make it to Publix, which is a mile away, in less than seven minutes. I did: 5 minutes 57 seconds. Normally this is no big deal, but today I was laboring and I had to slow down. Apparently Ware, Georgia is engulfed in flames, and the smoke is wafting south into Jacksonville. Smoke is not conducive to cardiovascular activity. I ran the second mile in just under ten minutes. I couldn’t see the tops of any of the taller buildings downtown as I ran along the river. This gave me a moment’s pause as I walked into the Y. Maybe running in smoke isn’t a good idea, but I don’t want to walk home, that will just add to the length of my exposure. I put it out of my mind as I blasted my delts like they owed me money. Shoulders are where we separate the champs from the chumps because they hurt. No other muscles trap blood like the deltoids. Working shoulders is by far the easiest way to feel the burn. Unless you run through smoke filled air to get to the gym; blast your delts; then run home through the still smoke filled air. Shoulder burn is different from lung burn: one is good, the other is bad. I score in the 99th percentile on aptitude tests. Maybe they’re not good indicators of intelligence.

Teachers of English as a first language and other educated people who may have the correct answer, I have a question. Other than in the present tense, how does one conjugate the verb forego? I wanted to use it in the past tense but I didn’t want to side step it by using the infinitive form after another preterit tense verb i.e. I decided to forego.