So earlier today I wrote that forces had conspired against me to prevent me from running on Friday and Saturday. Friday I fully intended to go home and get to the gym but Annie called me at work and wanted to go shopping. Being the accomadative fiance that I am, I agreed so long as she stopped by my apartment and got my Banana Republic gift card that I have been waiting to use for about 6 months now. So we went to the mall instead of to the gym and I got a nice new pair of dark brown pants for casual Fridays.
Saturday I woke up with every intention of getting to the gym at some point. Annie was working on young artist applications and stuff for her graduate assistanship, so I had practically the whole afternoon to myself. I went to the REI store in Timonium and bought myself an awesome new North Face fleece, a pair of running socks made for men's shoe sizes 12-15 (I wear size 14!), the Clif Bar seasonal flavor (Spiced Pumpkin is excellent) and three Clif Shots (Razz, Vanilla and Apple Pie flavors). These were my first Clif Shots and I was a little hesitant to buy them for the simple reason that I don't honestly feel that mt running necessitates them. This despite the fact that I am running 8 miles for my long runs, which demands more of a refueling effort than Gatorade now. When I hear people say they took a gel at mile 20, something inside me thinks, "You're barely running 8 miles. YOu don't need to use gels yet." Nevermind that the person had already taken a gel at mile 8 an hour before.
Anyway, on my way back into Baltimore I also drove over to the Maryland Zoo to see where I'd have to go for the Zoo Zoom next Sunday. After making it to the Zoo, I got lost trying to get back to the highway before making it back home. I got home around 3, ate some lunch and watched some of the Navy-Notre Dame game. Any time I can see Notre Dame lose is a good time for me. The gym closes at 4 on the weekends so I was going to go down to the workout room in our apartment building around 5 after I had had time to digest. 5 PM rolls around and I get down there only to find both treadmills occupied. I was meeting Annie at 6:45, so I really didn't have time to wait around and thus, my attempts at running were foiled.
Today I got up early because of the time change and got to the gym around 10 AM. I decided to employ a simple fueling strategy for my run today. About 15 minutes before leaving for the gym, I ate a Vanilla Crisp Power Bar. When I was running, I waited until I had run about an hour (mile 6...slow yes, but easily calculated) before trying the Razz gel shot. After managing to dry my hands enough to tear the foil, I just went for it and squeezed the whole thing in my mouth best I could. It tasted like rasberry flavored energy goop, which is exactly what it is. I forced it down and chased it with a couple swigs of Gatorade. This basic strategy helped tremendously! I had a comfortable time getting to mile 5 and only started to get tired between mile 5 and 6, and even then I wasn't hurting...just mildly uncomfortable. It took about 10-15 minutes for the gel to fully kick in but it helped keep the cramps from my abdomen and took all the burning out of my legs. When I got to 8 miles, I felt that I could ahve gone for 10 if I had to. I felt worlds better than I have the past 2 weeks when I've run 8 miles. That coupled with a conscious effort to drink plenty of water after the run probably helped me feel normal today. My legs are tired, but that's par for the course.
So, I am going to stick with that simple fueling strategy for my long runs from now on. Power Bar before, one gel every hour or so afterwards.
And finally, the Redskins pulled out a victory over the lowly Jets today, which made me quite happy. They have little chance at winning the NFC East so long as the Cowboys are around, but you never know. One bad Cowboys game and the Redskins are rulers of the division! It could happen!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
On my Way Out the Door
Quick note before I head out to my long run for the week.
First, after patiently waiting for some of my Running Blogs of Note to post updates over the past few weeks, I've grown tired and have removed some of them. If you don't update your blog, then really you're taking up valuable space on my awesome toolbar. I've added a new blog, however, called Boston or Bust that I would encourage the 2 people who read this blog to check out.
Secondly, I watched the Olympic marathon trials yesterday and was saddened by Ryan Shay's sudden death on the course. His tragic story made me think back to a story I read in Men's Journal several months ago about a condition that is endemic to athletes that involves the natural enlarging of the heart that comes with greater endurance. Basically, the wall of the heart get thick enough that it's too hard to pump blood and the heart stops, killing you instantly. There is another condition, which I have actually, where your heart's electrical currents don't work properly and causes your heart to skip beats. If that happens enough times in succession, your heart might stop. This is what happened to FloJo years back after she ran a race and dropped dead on the track.
Unfortunatley, she didn't know she had the tachycardia. If you know, you can take steps as I have to prevent the skipped beats.
Anyway, I will be interested to see what caused an elite athlete in better shape than 99% of the population to drop dead.
Lastly, forces consipred against me to keep me out of the gym on Friday and Saturday. I'll talk about that more when I post after my long run. For now, I'm off to get 8 miles in before the morning ends.
First, after patiently waiting for some of my Running Blogs of Note to post updates over the past few weeks, I've grown tired and have removed some of them. If you don't update your blog, then really you're taking up valuable space on my awesome toolbar. I've added a new blog, however, called Boston or Bust that I would encourage the 2 people who read this blog to check out.
Secondly, I watched the Olympic marathon trials yesterday and was saddened by Ryan Shay's sudden death on the course. His tragic story made me think back to a story I read in Men's Journal several months ago about a condition that is endemic to athletes that involves the natural enlarging of the heart that comes with greater endurance. Basically, the wall of the heart get thick enough that it's too hard to pump blood and the heart stops, killing you instantly. There is another condition, which I have actually, where your heart's electrical currents don't work properly and causes your heart to skip beats. If that happens enough times in succession, your heart might stop. This is what happened to FloJo years back after she ran a race and dropped dead on the track.
Unfortunatley, she didn't know she had the tachycardia. If you know, you can take steps as I have to prevent the skipped beats.
Anyway, I will be interested to see what caused an elite athlete in better shape than 99% of the population to drop dead.
Lastly, forces consipred against me to keep me out of the gym on Friday and Saturday. I'll talk about that more when I post after my long run. For now, I'm off to get 8 miles in before the morning ends.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Spooktacular!
Happy Halloween to those who read my blog by accident! Halloween at my office is taken as a serious event and all the employees are “strongly encouraged” to dress up for the day. And by “strongly encouraged” I of course mean “dress up because if you don’t, you’ll get a stern talking to about playing on a team, etc.” People are even given a hard time if they take the day off! Last I checked, the markets aren’t closed on Halloween and the federal government is still operating. Thus, this is not a serious holiday.
My plan for next year is two-fold. If I can, I’m taking the day off and not even bothering with the whole thing. If I get some push back on that (corporate speak for catching flak), I can either use the old “St. James Aluni Council meeting” excuse or I can drop it and come to the office. This is where the second part of my plan comes into play.
This year I went as a masquerader from Venice (think of the hooded guys in spooky masks from Eyes Wide Shut or, the costumed guys from the Mozart opera Don Giovanni). It’s a great costume because it’s mysterious and spooky but it’s damn near impossible to explain to people. Two people today got it right away without an explanation, which surprised me. However, most people are just kinda freaked out by it because they can’t see your face. I’m keeping this costume for the future because it’s easy to wear, always cool looking, and easy to maintain. I’ll put a picture that Annie took over the weekend on my Flikr album. I am definitely going to keep an eye out for a better mask to use, preferably one that covers my entire face and has a creepy look on it like these from Eyes Wide Shut.
My plan for next year is two-fold. If I can, I’m taking the day off and not even bothering with the whole thing. If I get some push back on that (corporate speak for catching flak), I can either use the old “St. James Aluni Council meeting” excuse or I can drop it and come to the office. This is where the second part of my plan comes into play.
This year I went as a masquerader from Venice (think of the hooded guys in spooky masks from Eyes Wide Shut or, the costumed guys from the Mozart opera Don Giovanni). It’s a great costume because it’s mysterious and spooky but it’s damn near impossible to explain to people. Two people today got it right away without an explanation, which surprised me. However, most people are just kinda freaked out by it because they can’t see your face. I’m keeping this costume for the future because it’s easy to wear, always cool looking, and easy to maintain. I’ll put a picture that Annie took over the weekend on my Flikr album. I am definitely going to keep an eye out for a better mask to use, preferably one that covers my entire face and has a creepy look on it like these from Eyes Wide Shut.
But, for next year, should my attempts at getting out of Halloween fail, I will get back to my roots and come as a stereotypical WVU fan. Accent and all. Having been born in West Virginia (OK, actually Virginia, but I grew up in WV), I speak hillbilly fluently and can switch back and forth at will. So, with that in mind, I don’t feel quite as desperate to get out of the day next year.
On to running issues. I did my fastest easy run to date last night. I ran 4.5 miles at 9:50 or better. I ran the first mile at 9:50 and then the rest at 9:30. Even though I felt tired when I stopped, I wasn’t exhausted and felt like I could have kept going by mixing in some short walking with my running. Tonight I’m going to do a shorter tempo run of 3 miles, with one-mile warm-ups and cool-downs.
Also, if you didn’t catch it last night, I would strongly urge you to find a re-running of the NOVA Marathon Challenge episode. I TiVoed the episode but watched it immediately after it was done. That way I can keep it on my TiVo and re-watch it without spending the $20 for the DVD from PBS. It was really interesting, though, They took 13 non-runners and gave them 9 months to train for the Boston Marathon. During that time, they had two coaches from Tufts University working with them to help them prepare properly. It was interesting to see how each member faced the prospect of running a marathon and how they responded, both physically and mentally, to the stresses of training for that long a distance.
I’d be interested to know more about the details of each member’s training because it seemed that some of them just weren’t prepared to run 26.2 miles, despite having completed a training program successfully. Their longest training run was 20 miles, which is huge, but leaves that last 6.2 miles unexplored. I’m not sure if you need to run 26.2 miles during the training process, but the difference between 20 miles and 26 miles is enormous. I have seen programs that recommend final training runs of 22-24 miles to get your closer to that exhaustion point that most runners reach after mile 20. The Team NOVA runners didn’t have that experience and so most of them fell apart after the halfway point, although they all finished the marathon eventually.
I was checking my bank account statement last night and saw an odd check that had been cashed for $20.00. I thought it was odd and couldn’t remember writing a check for $20 recently so I took a look at the check because I get free imaging with Bank of America. And what did I write a check for $20.00 to? Why, the Great Strides Against Prostate Cancer 5K! The very race that I was sure I had forgotten to register for back in late September (see September 29th’s post, “I’m an Idiot”)! So apparently I not only registered for it, but I totally failed to document the registration both physically and mentally. Nice. Well I donated to the St. Joseph’s Medical Center so all is not lost. I would have felt bad if the race had been done through a race company because my money would have gone there instead of a medical center treatment program. Nonetheless, this is a good lesson to always document your race registrations.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Back to Normal
OK, so it was a crazy week at work. I’m sorry, I know I should have told you before I just went off working and not posting. But don’t worry, my running also suffered. I ran on Tuesday night and then failed to get to the gym again until Friday night after the week was done and my huge project had been delivered. So both days I did the usual 4.25 miles. I had planned to go running on Saturday, but instead we went to Target and got some errands done. So, yesterday I got up and went to the gym and did my long run. Forces were conspiring against me, though. First of all, it was cold and windy outside, but that could not deter me. Secondly, I got to the gym and warmed up and then turned my iPod on to find that it had frozen just like it did a few months ago! This time, however, I had a backup. My company gave us all new 2nd generation iPod Nanos with the company logo on them. This was my emergency backup so I went back to my apartment, downloaded my running playlist onto the other iPod and returned to the gym. Screw you, Forces Conspiring to Keep Me From Running.
I got my 8 miles in, although I was stupid and failed to drink n much water afterwards, which had me feeling like crap the entire day until I finally got 3 full glasses of water in my system. Literally within minutes I felt worlds better. Stupid. I won’t do that again.
So, tonight I am not going to the gym to give my legs another day to recover. I am setting my goal for the week as the same as last week, with higher hopes of actually meeting that goal now that work has quieted down considerably. Once again, for those who don’t feel like scrolling down, is my goal schedule:
Monday (10/29): OFF
Tuesday (10/30): Easy run, 4.5 miles
Wendesday (10/31): Tempo Run (1 mile warm up, 3 mile run, 1 mile cool down)
Thursday (11/1): Easy run, 4.5 miles
Friday (11/2): Easy run, 4.5 miles
Saturday (11/3): OFF
Sunday (11/4): Long run, 8 miles
Total: 26.50 miles
This is ambitious, but I need to get my act in gear here, because the Zoo Zoom is the week after next and I’d like to put in a good effort there if possible.
I got my 8 miles in, although I was stupid and failed to drink n much water afterwards, which had me feeling like crap the entire day until I finally got 3 full glasses of water in my system. Literally within minutes I felt worlds better. Stupid. I won’t do that again.
So, tonight I am not going to the gym to give my legs another day to recover. I am setting my goal for the week as the same as last week, with higher hopes of actually meeting that goal now that work has quieted down considerably. Once again, for those who don’t feel like scrolling down, is my goal schedule:
Monday (10/29): OFF
Tuesday (10/30): Easy run, 4.5 miles
Wendesday (10/31): Tempo Run (1 mile warm up, 3 mile run, 1 mile cool down)
Thursday (11/1): Easy run, 4.5 miles
Friday (11/2): Easy run, 4.5 miles
Saturday (11/3): OFF
Sunday (11/4): Long run, 8 miles
Total: 26.50 miles
This is ambitious, but I need to get my act in gear here, because the Zoo Zoom is the week after next and I’d like to put in a good effort there if possible.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Ever Closer and Ever Farther
I really hate Mondays, but not because I have to go back to work after having two days off, although that certainly sucks. However, I’ve gotten to the point where I get bored if I have more than a few days without any structured time consuming the middle of my day. I feel lethargic and lazy if I’m not doing something from 7 AM to 6 PM.
No, I hate Mondays because they are the day when the shit hits the fan at work. All the work that people put off on Friday suddenly becomes really important and it all needs to be done. Mondays are the biggest days for work coming into my inbox, by far. Today was not too bad, although still not an easy Monday. Boot.
Anyway, the weekend was good. I broke another distance record on Sunday by running 8 miles. I took my sweet time doing it, but hey, that’s the point of a long run: endurance rather than speed. I was very pleased with that effort but won’t be upping the mileage again until at least the weekend after this one coming up. For now, I will keep it at 8 miles. I think I will also stay at 4.25 miles as well on my easy runs.
Tonight I am not going to the gym so my legs can fully recover from yesterday, even though they feel OK right now. I’m supposed to be going to a performance of French opera scenes at Peabody tonight, which hopefully won’t last more than 2 hours. So, my tentative schedule for the week is going to be:
Monday: Totally off
Tuesday: 4.25 miles (easy run)
Wednesday: Tempo Run (1 mile warm up; 3 mile tempo; 1 mile cool down)
Thursday: Cross training
Friday: 4.25 miles (easy run)
Saturday: 4.25 miles (easy run)
Sunday: 8 miles (long run)
If all goes according to plan, that should be just about 26 miles for the week. If I get caught at work or lose the motivation to wake up early one morning when my schedule demands it, then there’s always next week.
On another note, I am still holding out hope for getting up to New York next Saturday to see the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials in Central Park. However, hotel rooms in Manhattan are killing my budget so we’ll see if I can find something relatively affordable. The cheapest I’ve found is $200 a night, which isn’t terrible because I haven’t gone anywhere in a while. And finally, I’ve posted the photos from the Baltimore Running Festival on my Flikr site. Check them out by clicking on the link on the toolbar!
No, I hate Mondays because they are the day when the shit hits the fan at work. All the work that people put off on Friday suddenly becomes really important and it all needs to be done. Mondays are the biggest days for work coming into my inbox, by far. Today was not too bad, although still not an easy Monday. Boot.
Anyway, the weekend was good. I broke another distance record on Sunday by running 8 miles. I took my sweet time doing it, but hey, that’s the point of a long run: endurance rather than speed. I was very pleased with that effort but won’t be upping the mileage again until at least the weekend after this one coming up. For now, I will keep it at 8 miles. I think I will also stay at 4.25 miles as well on my easy runs.
Tonight I am not going to the gym so my legs can fully recover from yesterday, even though they feel OK right now. I’m supposed to be going to a performance of French opera scenes at Peabody tonight, which hopefully won’t last more than 2 hours. So, my tentative schedule for the week is going to be:
Monday: Totally off
Tuesday: 4.25 miles (easy run)
Wednesday: Tempo Run (1 mile warm up; 3 mile tempo; 1 mile cool down)
Thursday: Cross training
Friday: 4.25 miles (easy run)
Saturday: 4.25 miles (easy run)
Sunday: 8 miles (long run)
If all goes according to plan, that should be just about 26 miles for the week. If I get caught at work or lose the motivation to wake up early one morning when my schedule demands it, then there’s always next week.
On another note, I am still holding out hope for getting up to New York next Saturday to see the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials in Central Park. However, hotel rooms in Manhattan are killing my budget so we’ll see if I can find something relatively affordable. The cheapest I’ve found is $200 a night, which isn’t terrible because I haven’t gone anywhere in a while. And finally, I’ve posted the photos from the Baltimore Running Festival on my Flikr site. Check them out by clicking on the link on the toolbar!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Getting Back on the Horse
So after my long weekend in the Midwest, it’s been tough getting back into a running rhythm. Thursday evening I went and did 4.25 hard miles. I’m not sure if it just seemed hard or if I was actually working harder. I did the whole distance at 6.3 mph (9:30 min/mile) and at 1.0 incline. That and the fact that it had been several days since the Baltimore Running Festival may have made it tougher. Oh, that and the fact that I had eaten a bag of M&M Peanuts ad drank a Mountain Dew around 4 PM so I could make it through the rest of the workday probably didn’t help either.
I’m happy that I got through the entire distance at that clip. It’s evidence that my endurance is picking up slowly and that my body can handle that stress, even with Mountain Dew (liquid cocaine) and M&M’s in my stomach. However, I was really getting tired by the end of it, which made me mad at myself. I guess it was just the frustration from Saturday, my shirking of running while in Cincinnati and then the sluggishness I felt when I got back to the gym that all came together at once. I was planning to stop at 3 miles because I was feeling like crap and could feel a slight pull forming in my lower left calf (is that the beginning of your Achilles? I think so). But I was pissed off so I walked long enough to take a couple drinks of Gatorade and got back to it. I got to 4 miles and wanted to stop again, but again I was still angry at myself for wimping out on Saturday and not running like I should have, so I kept going and finished the allotted 4.25 miles. At that point, I did stop because that’s as far as my mileage has naturally progressed thus far; going any further would have really risked injury.
As it was, my lower left calf was tightening up as I cooled down. I stretched it out thoroughly but it still twinged as I walked home. I was concerned that I had really pulled something so I stretched it again once I got home and cooled my body temp down. I took two ibuprofen to help prevent further swelling, and took it easy after showering. Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious and healed up nicely by yesterday mid-morning. Today I can’t feel anything wrong down there, so no injury report is forthcoming.
I had intended to run yesterday after work but Annie came over and we just chilled since she had opened at Starbucks the last three mornings (getting to work at 5:15 AM each day!) and was tired. In retrospect, it’s probably a good thing I stayed off the calf last night o give it an extra day to regain its strength. I’m not running today because I spent the late morning at the office trying to get this enormous project done that’s due this upcoming Friday. This afternoon we might go to my firm’s company picnic, but Annie has rehearsal until 2:45 and it takes 40 minutes just to get out to where the picnic is being held. The picnic ends at 5 so it might be a waste of time to drive out there for all of an hour. We’ll see. I won’t be heartbroken if I get to spend Saturday afternoon on the couch.
Tomorrow I will do my long run and will aim for a base of 7 miles, with aspirations of 8 miles. I’ll do that in the morning so I have the afternoon to watch football and generally not move too much beyond eating and napping.
I’ve now registered for the Baltimore Zoo Zoom 2007 race on November 11, which is World Run Day and just four days before my birthday. According to the MacMillan Running Calculator, I should be able to run that in about 45 minutes (just under a 9 minute mile pace), so that will be my goal. I am going to try to also get an idea of the course itself so I can have some intel going into the race. Running Smarter. That’s my new motto.
Also, Annie and I are planning on going up to New York the first Saturday in November. She has at least one audition scheduled for that day and I will be going to see the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Central Park. I’m so excited for this; it’ll be awesome to see some of these elite runners in person and to get to see who will make the Olympic team! I’m pretty pumped. We will be back on Saturday night so she can sing at her church job the next morning.
Annie has finally caught the running bug. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she wanted to get in on the benefits of running. I’ve started her off with the walk-run program to build her stamina and her confidence in her running ability. She’s already been doing spinning classes and lifting weights, so she’s not starting from scratch. I’m hoping that I can talk her into running a 5K with me sometime next spring. She’s already running for 8 minutes and walking for 2, which is great! She’ll be hitting the 3.1-mile mark before too long. Her sister just did a 100-mile bike ride down in Salisbury, MD so she has a high bar to meet!
And finally, I was very happy to see that the 2008 Baltimore Marathon will be held on October 11, 2008, which is one week before our wedding. I was concerned because I want to make that my first marathon but if it had been held the third weekend in October for some reason, I would not have been in town. This way, I can run the marathon and have a week to recover and regain the ability to walk before we get married.
I’m happy that I got through the entire distance at that clip. It’s evidence that my endurance is picking up slowly and that my body can handle that stress, even with Mountain Dew (liquid cocaine) and M&M’s in my stomach. However, I was really getting tired by the end of it, which made me mad at myself. I guess it was just the frustration from Saturday, my shirking of running while in Cincinnati and then the sluggishness I felt when I got back to the gym that all came together at once. I was planning to stop at 3 miles because I was feeling like crap and could feel a slight pull forming in my lower left calf (is that the beginning of your Achilles? I think so). But I was pissed off so I walked long enough to take a couple drinks of Gatorade and got back to it. I got to 4 miles and wanted to stop again, but again I was still angry at myself for wimping out on Saturday and not running like I should have, so I kept going and finished the allotted 4.25 miles. At that point, I did stop because that’s as far as my mileage has naturally progressed thus far; going any further would have really risked injury.
As it was, my lower left calf was tightening up as I cooled down. I stretched it out thoroughly but it still twinged as I walked home. I was concerned that I had really pulled something so I stretched it again once I got home and cooled my body temp down. I took two ibuprofen to help prevent further swelling, and took it easy after showering. Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious and healed up nicely by yesterday mid-morning. Today I can’t feel anything wrong down there, so no injury report is forthcoming.
I had intended to run yesterday after work but Annie came over and we just chilled since she had opened at Starbucks the last three mornings (getting to work at 5:15 AM each day!) and was tired. In retrospect, it’s probably a good thing I stayed off the calf last night o give it an extra day to regain its strength. I’m not running today because I spent the late morning at the office trying to get this enormous project done that’s due this upcoming Friday. This afternoon we might go to my firm’s company picnic, but Annie has rehearsal until 2:45 and it takes 40 minutes just to get out to where the picnic is being held. The picnic ends at 5 so it might be a waste of time to drive out there for all of an hour. We’ll see. I won’t be heartbroken if I get to spend Saturday afternoon on the couch.
Tomorrow I will do my long run and will aim for a base of 7 miles, with aspirations of 8 miles. I’ll do that in the morning so I have the afternoon to watch football and generally not move too much beyond eating and napping.
I’ve now registered for the Baltimore Zoo Zoom 2007 race on November 11, which is World Run Day and just four days before my birthday. According to the MacMillan Running Calculator, I should be able to run that in about 45 minutes (just under a 9 minute mile pace), so that will be my goal. I am going to try to also get an idea of the course itself so I can have some intel going into the race. Running Smarter. That’s my new motto.
Also, Annie and I are planning on going up to New York the first Saturday in November. She has at least one audition scheduled for that day and I will be going to see the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Central Park. I’m so excited for this; it’ll be awesome to see some of these elite runners in person and to get to see who will make the Olympic team! I’m pretty pumped. We will be back on Saturday night so she can sing at her church job the next morning.
Annie has finally caught the running bug. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she wanted to get in on the benefits of running. I’ve started her off with the walk-run program to build her stamina and her confidence in her running ability. She’s already been doing spinning classes and lifting weights, so she’s not starting from scratch. I’m hoping that I can talk her into running a 5K with me sometime next spring. She’s already running for 8 minutes and walking for 2, which is great! She’ll be hitting the 3.1-mile mark before too long. Her sister just did a 100-mile bike ride down in Salisbury, MD so she has a high bar to meet!
And finally, I was very happy to see that the 2008 Baltimore Marathon will be held on October 11, 2008, which is one week before our wedding. I was concerned because I want to make that my first marathon but if it had been held the third weekend in October for some reason, I would not have been in town. This way, I can run the marathon and have a week to recover and regain the ability to walk before we get married.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
No Real Surprise
So I actually woke up at 5:50 AM this morning, sat in bed for about 20 minutes and then came to the realization that one of several things must happen for me to actually get up early:
1.) It has to be work-related (i.e. I will get fired or not paid if I don’t get up)
2.) It has to be vacation related (i.e. I will miss my flight/train if I don’t get up)
3.) There must be fewer than 2 obstacles between bed and my activity (i.e. shower, dressing, walking to said activity exceeds this limit by one)
4.) The sun has to be expected to be up within 45 minutes.
This morning, none of those criteria were met. Running is the opposite of work-related and I wasn’t flying off to Maui to run a race on the beach, so that nixed 1 and 2. The sun wasn’t supposed to rise until about 7 AM, so number 4 was out. Number 3 was close. All I had to do was get dressed and go outside either to the gym or just on the streets of lovely Baltimore. I would classify that as 2 obstacles. The third, of course, is the fact tat Baltimore is a terrible city to run in. There are not that many places close to downtown to run through.
In other words, I’ll be going to the gym tonight after work. This is going to be more difficult than I anticipated. Maybe I’ll get up tomorrow morning. I know it’d be better if I got up in the morning, I wish there was some way to translate that knowledge the night before to my brain at 6 AM.
1.) It has to be work-related (i.e. I will get fired or not paid if I don’t get up)
2.) It has to be vacation related (i.e. I will miss my flight/train if I don’t get up)
3.) There must be fewer than 2 obstacles between bed and my activity (i.e. shower, dressing, walking to said activity exceeds this limit by one)
4.) The sun has to be expected to be up within 45 minutes.
This morning, none of those criteria were met. Running is the opposite of work-related and I wasn’t flying off to Maui to run a race on the beach, so that nixed 1 and 2. The sun wasn’t supposed to rise until about 7 AM, so number 4 was out. Number 3 was close. All I had to do was get dressed and go outside either to the gym or just on the streets of lovely Baltimore. I would classify that as 2 obstacles. The third, of course, is the fact tat Baltimore is a terrible city to run in. There are not that many places close to downtown to run through.
In other words, I’ll be going to the gym tonight after work. This is going to be more difficult than I anticipated. Maybe I’ll get up tomorrow morning. I know it’d be better if I got up in the morning, I wish there was some way to translate that knowledge the night before to my brain at 6 AM.
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