Month: July 2004

Chris and I skipped the hour and a half trip to the Cliff Walk and back, and instead went and did the run from NUWC up the coast along Military Highway. Very nice.

Like I’ve mentioned, running with Chris is nice, as it
(a) brings out the small dog syndrome in spades.
(b) gets me to run faster.

Chris is making great strides (pun intended), too. Today, I was afraid that he was going to last until I needed to turn around, and I was going to have to beg him to slow down a little bit. Thankfully, he pulled up just as I started to go seriously anerobic, and I was able to turn out about 2/3 of a mile at recovery pace before we made the turn to head back to the showers.

The runner’s high eluded me for a while, but in large part, I think that was due to the weekend’s manual labor really catching up to me after a week of sitting at the desk. That, and I stopped taking Motrin Tuesday night.

Ah, I remember why I loved running in Houston – the sweat drenching humidity, and the follow-on sweat that lasts for hours.

Summer has arrived in New England. Which is like saying that spring has arrived in Texas, but I’m pretty convinced that I am going to make this our home, so I’m going to whine about mild heat and humidity just like the rest of us Yankees. In truth, today was my favorite kind of day for running – somehow, I just don’t feel like I’ve actually worked without being drenched and sweat and hotter than the bejesus.

Running with Christian has been improving my pace, BTW. I kicked out about 2.7 today in about 22 minutes. Made me happy as my goal was just to squeeze in about 20 minutes of running, just long enough to push myself all the way aerobic, but still make it to work in a decent time. Not running in the mornings has made it way too easy to blow it off.

So I’ve got that going for me.

I’m still sore from too much manual labor for an information worker/engineer over the weekend, but had no problems when I was actually running. One of the benefits that’s come back from at least a couple months of concerted efforts to get back in shape has been the rapid return of the fabled “runner’s high.” My Navy buddy Steve and my leftist/skating/high school buddy Johnny Rollerfeet have both insisted that I must be on crack for claiming a runner’s high, but it works. Back when I started running again, it would take a good half hour or so of effort to get the endorphins flowing; now it’s almost instantaneous. (reference last Thursday’s run with Chris). As soon as the heart rate is up, the adrenalin kicks in, pain goes away, and my feet feel light.

Now, it’s time to start working on endurance. Which means getting to bed reliably around 10, so I can get up in time to do long runs before work.

Sigh.

As in Pictures, Pictures, who’s got the pictures?

We do, we do!

This has got to be one of my favorite sights – the bike – lubed, aired, and ready to go in early morning light. Possibly the only prettier sight in this light would be gently spreading rings of rising trout … Oh, or my lovely wife (‘cept she likes to sleep late).

These two were at a boat yard I’ve been meaning to stop at. There were a couple of modern ‘glass sailboats for sale near the side of the road, but when I stopped to check them out (still about a half-decade out from buying a hole in the water, but looking’s free), it turned out that there was an entire shipyard operation there. They had these two beautiful old wooden boats and a couple more just sitting out, and a couple in a shop being restored.

Looks like I’m buying powerball again…

184 today.

But it’s all good. We’ve been breakin’ rocks, so some of that’s water weight, and some of that’s bruises.

Heh. Le Tour kicked off today, so I went for a quick bike ride this morning. Shocked at the number of folks riding in yellow jerseys. I was in yellow, too, but it was a beer jersey, so it’s alright.

Didn’t make me any faster.

So I wake up this morning, and am getting ready to head to Newport. Got the clothes in which to run on, shower bag all ready, and I’m pumped. Go to grab my keys, etc from the drawer, and realize I’ve still got the key for the projection equipment in the Waterford conference room.

Crap.

So, it’s round ‘about 6:30 AM, no one will be at reception at the Waterford office until about 8 AM. Rats.

I head over to the office on the off chance that I can catch one of my coworkers in early on the Friday before a holiday weekend (HA!), and as I pull into the office I notice:

Hey, that’s a darn nice hill out front.

Then I remember that our web group has a shower (that they keep silent about, I guess for fear that someone would actually use it.)

Score. The day is much, much better. As best as I can figure it, I did about 3.3 miles round trip, up the huge hill, down the other side, and over a few rollers, then back to the office.

Got back, showered, and reception was in. Woo Hoo!

Then I blew everything by stopping at Tim Horton’s on my way to Newport. Stupid Canadians. They’re invading, and taking us over with delicious baked goods (whatever the heck those are, but they’re all good, so far…) and about the best cup of coffee I’ve found at a donut store.