Home Again - One Week Later

I've been back home for a week now and things are finally starting to feel somewhat normal again. I'm back in my old routines, I'm caught up on groceries and laundry, and I've about gotten my brain back at work. Funny how much you forget or lose sight of when you're out of the office a couple of weeks-- What happened with that new hire? Did that purchase go through yet? Is that manager still unhappy about the chairs? Did the furniture specs get reviewed? Are the printers are already here? What the heck is my password???

Now that I've had a week to settle in, I'm going to try doing something new. Since September I've had to be in a late meeting every Tuesday, which has led me to often wish that I could come in late that day, so as not to make it a 10 hour workday. But with a vacancy I wasn't allowed to fill and an assistant whose health was uncertain, I had little choice but to show up every day at 7 to ensure that someone would be there to open doors and handle problems from our early-arriving programmers.

But no more! Right before I left, I got a new person transferred to me-- someone reliable, who I've worked with before. So starting next week I'm going to go to the Y on Tuesday mornings. I'll either swim (if lanes are available) or hit the 6 am spin class. If I like Tuesday mornings, I'll add Thursdays as well. I'm pretty excited about this and I think I'll have a lot of fun with it. And if I don't, well, my weights, music and stretch cords are still waiting for me here at home. Or I can go for early morning runs or something. Either way, some serious early workouts are about to become a reality.

I also picked up a copy of Mark Verstegen's Core Performance this weekend. Already I can see why it's gotten so much praise in triathlon circles. Now that it's out in paperback and available cheap online, I highly recommend it to just about everyone. You don't even have to do sports to benefit from this book-- you just have to want to have a well-functioning body for the rest of your life. But hey, if anyone out there really wants to be a shuffling, hunched over old thing with back and hip problems some day, have at it. I'll even try not to say I told you so.

I had a good run this morning, in spite of being nearly three weeks out from my last massage. I saw my young cottontail in his usual spot on the bayou trail. Funny little thing, it's interesting to watch him grow more confident as early morning runners pass his favorite breakfast spot. I saw a lady walking along the trail inexplicably wearing a washcloth on her head. It wasn't even wet, so I can't imagine what its purpose might have been. And I saw a race going on! I hadn't even known there was a race today, but I was near the outdoor chapel when a tall guy ran past me and then turned off the trail to do a hill repeat on the steep bank. As he ran up toward the street level, I heard cheering. Wow, does this guy have a fan club or something? I turned to look and saw that there were runners passing a water station at street level on Memorial. Hey, where did they come from?

The really odd thing was that when I came around the Allen Parkway side of the bayou, I saw walkers on the street, then some fast runners wearing numbers. It didn't seem likely that this was a 5K fun run/walk because there were so few of them and the route was too long. It was the route of the annual 20K/25K, as far as I could tell. But then I doubted myself because as I got to a spot where I could see Memorial and Allen Parkway simultaneously, it didn't look like it was the same event on each side. Or maybe it was. I'd seen no crossover between the streets at Shepherd or Sabine, but maybe it was someplace in the middle, such as Montrose where the bayou trail goes below the street level and I wouldn't see them. I don't know. It was definitely a race though, because I heard people calling split times. But where did the walkers fit in? Odd.

After running along the bayou, I did a loop through River Oaks, then went up to Memorial Park and did a loop there as well. It wasn't as crowded as it could've been, so I guess the race siphoned off a few folks. Luke's Locker had their Gatorade tent set up, and the ice-cold Gatorade was very welcome.

Then I headed home, encountering only one weirdo on the way-- a lady on the bridge over Memorial that puts me back home. She was striding along briskly, elbows out, hands in the air, waving her fingers. I couldn't figure out if she was practicing chisenbop or doing some sort of mental rehearsal of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but I passed her twice-- once on the bridge and a second time on my cooldown by the softball park and she was still ambling along, waving her fingers in the air. Very strange.

Tonight I'm trying to decide between going to the Y in the morning for a short spin class and a swim (if I can get a lane), or just spin at home and make some yogurt. I'm leaning toward the Y in the morning, but that would mean I'd have to get off the computer now and make yogurt.

Decisions, decisions.

Recent Workouts
Tuesday: 45 minutes core and stretch cords, 45 minutes bike - Spinervals 7.0 The Uphill Grind
Wednesday: 45 minutes core and weights, 5 mile run
Thursday: 45 minutes core and stretch cords, 45 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes stairmaster
Friday: 45 minutes core and weights
Saturday: 14 mile run