Days of the Phoenix

As far as the soup, maybe add a teaspoon of sugar?  It takes some of the acidity down.

Wear an old pair of socks in the building or wrap them in Saran Wrap.    It must be a building insurance thing.

Mark - Even in bed.  ...Nah, just in common areas.

Oz - I'll have to try that.  Thanks for the tip.  ...With regards to the soup.  

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Welp, I foresee the future, and it ain't pretty.  If/when I get a steady 40hr/week job, I doubt running will be as much of a part of my life.  It simply isn't fun - and never has been - after a full day of work.  And the motivation that drove me to train even when it wasn't fun (and by extension, "prove" something) just isn't there anymore.  Other things are starting to become more important.  

That said, at least I can finish out this training cycle before reconsidering the future.

6.5mi today.  Everything from the knees to the ankles ached pretty bad.  Unpleasant.  I'm sure that my stride somehow changes between morning and afternoon, but I can't figure out how.  It seems like my cadence is sluggish, but I'm not sure that's it.

Mike MacLellan wrote:It simply isn't fun - and never has been - after a full day of work.

Simple solution. Haul your keister out of bed in the morning and start the day off right. It may end up being the biggest accomplishment of your day, sometimes. Don't discount how important that can be once you get sucked into wage slavery the working life.

Yeah, that may work if I'm able to leave at, say, 8am.  But that's rarely the case, so far.  I suppose there may come a time when 9-5 becomes routine and the energy (or itch, whichever is greater) to do something else comes back.  For now, the prospect of starting all that stuff I rebelled against for most of my life seems kind of exciting.

Well, for what it's worth, I absolutely HATE running after work.  It's hot, I'm tired, I have all the days crap on my mind and I just really want a beer.  When I started running I ran after work - if I hadn't changed that up I may not be running now.

Me, I get my ass out of bed at 5am every day (Of course I go to bed early).  Cup of coffee, one game of Sudoku to get the brain started, read a little of the newspaper and out the door.  Start by 5:30 or 6:00 depending on how light it is, finish, shower, eat and I'm to the office by 7:30.  Of course I have a 3 minute commute, which helps….

I feel SO much better heading to work after a nice 45 minute run.

Tim - I guess it'll be a matter of getting to bed earlier.  I agree with you about post-work desires, especially a beer.  Maybe once the time changes it'll be easier to imagine waking up at 5am.  Currently, it's just too damn early to think about.  Also, 3min commute!  I would kill for that.  Hell, I'd even take a 30min commute.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Tim - I guess it'll be a matter of getting to bed earlier.  I agree with you about post-work desires, especially a beer.  Maybe once the time changes it'll be easier to imagine waking up at 5am.  Currently, it's just too damn early to think about.  Also, 3min commute!  I would kill for that.  Hell, I'd even take a 30min commute.

I prefer running after work as I start at 6:30 and have a 30 minute commute. To run before work I would have to get up before 3:00 AM on some days. That isn't going to happen. Weekends I run in the morning.

Another point to morning running is that you have all day to keep your muscles loose, rather than tightening up overnight after an evening run.

But most of the time, I've done more activity before even the Marines get up to do more activity before the average civilian gets up.  I have to, in order to meet the mileage requirements.

In a couple of years Mike, you'll be doing things you would SWEAR that you'd never do 5 years ago because 'old people' do that...not ME!

Oof.  Adulthood.

Decided to take today off.  I couldn't mentally bring myself to do 11mi after work, and I'm glad I let myself be flexible.  It'll mean getting up early tomorrow, but that's okay.  I think it's the only viable solution.

Early runs can make all the difference when you have a job. There's something deeply satisfying about cruising along in the stillness of early mornings and watching the world slowly come to life. You almost start feeling sorry for those poor schmucks in bed for all they're missing.

Still, I refused to get up earlier than 4 a.m., so I'm a wimp by Ounce's standards.

I ran every weekday morning (when I lived in Atlanta) except Tuesday with a good friend at 5:25 am.  We used to joke that we were in the Army as we did more before the sun rose than most people do all day.  Now I have the flexibility to run whenever I want, and I usually run in the morning after traffic calms down, etc. except on track nights and my one other night with the group.  I still dislike running at 6:30 pm though and would rather run at 4:30 am.  Something about those early mornings, the dark, the stillness.....

I'm not a fan of really early runs...just can't seem to get my body going that early.  But evening runs are even worse.  If I need to wait and run late I often don't make it happen.  I'm lucky to be self employed and have a fair bit of flexibility.

I chuckle when I read your comments about becoming an adult.  My daughter still complains that I didn't warn her about adult life and she doesn't like the responsibility...and she's 35.

It looks like mornings may be the way to go.  Pushed myself out of bed this morning for my planned 11mi.  I was already conceding to myself that anywhere from 10-11 would be fine, and I ended up with 10.4, so that's good enough.  Paces were kind of all over the place, but mostly in the low 8s.  

Nancy, that's actually comforting.  Currently, responsibility sucks (in a half-joking sort of way; I'm content with where I'm at, just not sure how to go any further), I'm not sure how any parent makes it look easy, and I do wonder if I'll ever be able to provide for my family the way my parents provided for me.  I imagine the first part will become a little easier as time goes on, the second part will be a matter of good acting skills, and the third... well, I just don't think it'll happen.  Not to say that I don't think I'll be able to provide everything my kids might "need," but I don't think I'll ever have the money to be able to live where I grew up, in a single-family home.

No worries, Mike, I can't afford to live where you grew up in a single family home and my hubby is a corporate VP and I have three houses now.  You will be fine, but I get it as I worry about my daughter all the time and what is ahead for her pursuing education.

Nice running - you'll get the hang of those morning runs and you'll find them necessary in the humidity.  You might want to explore running groups in the area too as you might like to run with a group once in a while and many do speed or other workouts together.  A local running store will certainly steer you right and I'm sure Kevin or Chris can help too.  Meeting up after work or on a Saturday morning is often all the motivation that you need.

Mom - Yeah...  I just really like where I grew up, haha.  I do wonder if it'd be better to raise kids with exposure to reality instead of "the bubble," though.  I never realized how much it costs just to live, nor did I appreciate the amount of work my parents did (both professional and at home) to raise us.  I guess it's good to come around to these revelations late than never, right?  

Re: running groups, we do have a Pacers down the street.  I might have to check that out.

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7mi this morning.  

Thought it would be rougher than it was, given that we went out with Aileen's PhD cohort last night.  Found a nice watering hole in Dupont Circle - most Yelp reviewers called it a dive, but it's the nicest "dive" I've ever been to - with good beers and a good staff...  And drank (and drank and drank and drank and drank).  Got to play interpreter for a bit, which is always fun when you've had a few beers.  While your sight is a bit unreliable and your receptivity starts to tank, your ability to use clozure* skills to fill in the blanks skyrockets.  Interesting.

Anyway, after sleeping in a bit and taking the morning nice and slow (I'm not sure I could've taken it faster), I was off in what felt more like an early-summer day than a late-summer day.  Warm, breezy, but not uncomfortable at all.  Miles came easy and quick (low 8s), and the legs felt strong.  Body, meh.  

*Clozure - apparently this isn't a real word; go figure.  Basically, it's the ability to use contextual clues to fill in pieces of information you might have missed.  For example, if you knew the person was talking about cars and saw them fingerspell M-------, you've really only got 3 to choose from: Mercedes, Maserati, or Mitsubishi.

It was hard to wake up this morning.  My poor old body (ha!) isn't used to staying up past midnight 2 nights in a row.  

But I knew that if I waited, it'd get hot - I guess summer is making its final stand today - so I forced myself up at 8 so I could get out the door shortly thereafter.

Ran an out and back into the District and up Rock Creek until I hit 7.5mi.  I got chicked early on, but didn't feel too badly about it - she was a strong runner, and her form was beautiful.  Running form.  I used her as a rabbit to get myself into a bit of an uptempo groove in the 8:00 range until we parted ways.  Tons of traffic on the paths today - at least 10 groups I assume were out for a long run for MCM.  Some beautiful dogs, as well.  And a woman with her ferret sniffing around in the grass.  Kind of cute.

The whole run was sort of like a progression run, from the warm-up to an easy, steady groove, to the last 5mi in the 7:30s.  Was definitely starting to suck wind by the end, but my legs are definitely coming around just in time for this race.  

15.1mi total, 2hr even.

Good running despite the challenges you're throwing at your body! I don't know about you, but "dives" are often the *best* places around.

BTW, a question. When you've had too much to drink, do you slur your ASL?

Mike MacLellan wrote:

*Clozure - apparently this isn't a real word; go figure.  Basically, it's the ability to use contextual clues to fill in pieces of information you might have missed.  For example, if you knew the person was talking about cars and saw them fingerspell M-------, you've really only got 3 to choose from: Mercedes, Maserati, or Mitsubishi.

And Maybach and Mercury.

Nice runs, too.  Don't fret about the future, just do what you can to prepare and enjoy the present.

Mark - Agreed.  Dives are by far my favorite place to get a drink.  None of the showiness or posturing you see at most places.  
Yes, you slur a little bit, if you're drunk-drunk.  I wasn't bad enough to be unintelligible, but I've seen it.  

Oz - Yeah yeah yeah.  Maybe the example my teacher had used was starts with M, ends with I.  In which case, she said it had to be Mitsubishi.  Everyone was shocked when I pulled out Maserati, as I'm NOT a car person.

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4.5mi recovery today.  Felt pretty good/easy/whatever, considering it was after work.  I found a great .5mi long hill for repeats, which was not as great for recovery, but oh well.  

Found out that my week-long job doesn't actually start til 9am (why we're scheduled for 8am, no one knows), so I can run in the mornings for the remainder of the week.  And it'll be sub-50 degrees tomorrow morning.  Yippee!

Whaddoyaknow, you morning runners are onto something...

Despite the slightly higher difficulty of pushing myself out of bed before 6am than resisting the urge to sit after a day of work, the run itself felt 10x better.  A nice cool morning, a beautiful sunrise over the District...  Okay, I could get used to this.  Plus plenty of other nutjobs - many of them fast - getting their miles in early.  

7mi with the last 5 @/below 8min pace.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Whaddoyaknow, you morning runners are onto something...

Despite the slightly higher difficulty of pushing myself out of bed before 6am than resisting the urge to sit after a day of work, the run itself felt 10x better.  A nice cool morning, a beautiful sunrise over the District...  Okay, I could get used to this.  Plus plenty of other nutjobs - many of them fast - getting their miles in early.  

7mi with the last 5 @/below 8min pace.

Shhhh.  Don't let the Fluff out of the pantry.  We can't let the evening runners in on our secret, but your attitude might change when "A nice cool morning" becomes a brutal, OMFG it's frigid out there morning.

But I'm tickled that our cool front came in on time and it was 67 degrees with a 57 degree dewpoint and it's supposed to be cooler tomorrow morning, to boot.

On the flipside of my recent musings of my upbringing... I never learned to deal with failure or rejection. Particularly in skill-based areas. Like interpreting. Yeah, got a job rejection. For those of you keeping count, that's two. Meh. Feel pretty shitty about it. Missing Sacramento, where I was pretty much set with my career. 

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4.5mi this morning. Pre-bad-news. Went well. Chilly with a beautiful sunrise. 

Meh.

Good to hear you're enjoying your morning runs.  They'll help keep you sane.

Sorry about the job...

Mike MacLellan wrote:Beautiful sunrise. 

this^^^

Thanks Nancy. I'm coping with the job thing. Gotta think of what's important, and what I already have. Doesn't hurt that Aileen bought me some pumpkin porter and brownies last night. 

Mark - yeah, that's pretty much what motivates me to get up for runs, haha. 

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Drizzling today. Not cold, but wet. Made for a very solitary run. I think I passed maybe 3 other runners instead of the usual 3 per minute. 

6.5mi with 25min progressive tempo. Felt good. All my taper niggles from this week (left calf and knee) stayed calm, though my right shin muscle was a little stiff. I've noticed that those muscles tend to get sore with faster runs. I wonder if I'm tensing up and pulling my foot up or something. 

Rest day tomorrow.