Saturday, July 14, 2007

Refreshing Run!

Okay, so fourteen miles isn’t most people’s idea of refreshing. But the morning was overcast and cooler than is typical for this time of year. And much of the time, I ran in a light sprinkling of rain, which helped regulate my body temp, even though it didn’t do much to keep me from getting sweaty and stinky. But at least it never really rained, for which I was grateful. With such fine running conditions, I was able to get through my long run at a pretty good clip, feeling strong at the end.

And then the weather indulged me by staying overcast all day. Had we gotten a real rain shower, it could’ve been a problem. The ground is still saturated from all the wet we got last month. But instead, it just sprinkled on and off all day, with lots of cloud cover to keep our a/c from working so hard.

At the office, I was boss-free this week, and didn’t have to bring much work home, either. Very nice. But my hopes of making up for working part of the Fourth of July holiday and part of Saturday didn’t come to much. I had forgotten that I had approved vacation time for one of my employees, and another is on summer flex time. I don’t like to leave one of my employees playing Lone Ranger for more than an hour, unless it’s for a work-related reason like meetings. It just doesn’t seem fair to ask someone who earns significantly less than me to run the place solo while I take personal time. And since one of my managerial counterparts was also on vacation and the other was busy with meetings, there were several afternoons when I was the only one in our entire business office who could make Important Decisions (as if there were any to be made!) and Sign Things.

Well, maybe things will work out for some other time.

At least I got some things moved to the house. With all the work being done on the house itself (painting, new sheetrock in areas that need it, etc), I’m staging things in the garage apartment. I’m taking the attitude that with so much to do, anything I do will help. Therefore, I try to take a few items to work each day and drop them off at the garage apartment before going home. My hope is that by the time we’re ready to move in early August, we’ll only have furniture and essentials, like toothpaste, left to haul over there.

On a psychological level, doing something every day is also quelling the occasional waves of panic I still feel at the thought of all that needs to be done so we can move. I keep telling myself that there’s a bright side to having so much to do—I can do anything and it will be an improvement. Even if it’s just dropping off the waffle maker at the new place. Hey, that’s one less thing to take in August, right? And who needs waffles, anyway?

Recent Workouts
Monday: 30 minute elliptical
Tuesday: slacker, non-scheduled rest day
Wednesday: 30 minute elliptical
Thursday: 15 minute elliptical, 15 minute run
Friday: scheduled rest day
Saturday: 14 mile run

9 comments:

TX Runner Mom said...

Greaet job on your run! Ugh, I hate moving, but it's so nice once everything is finally done!

Moby Dick said...

14 miles is my idea of five days of cardio on the elliptical in the air-conditioned gym. YOU GO GIRL!

Anonymous said...

That's a great attitude, one step at a time -- I have to try to tell myself that, too, for big jobs. One step at a time, one thing at a time, and it's all cumulative -- over time, those one steps add up to a lot of steps and a finished job!

Best of luck with the moving, and wowie wow, fourteen miles -- that's fantastic!

Leslie said...

Definitely a good attitude to take with such a long list of things to do. Focus on the little things and they add up pretty quickly.

Reading about your run reminded me of that scene in What Women Want (did you ever see it?) when they were pitching the Nike commercial.

Vickie said...

I see from your workouts that you do a lot of elliptical and one long run. How do you think this translates? I am trying to find something to substitute running while my ankle heals, and I am wondering about the elliptical as an alternative. I still may have ankle issues, but it might be easier than pounding or risking turning it again.

Crabby McSlacker said...

I think with your drop-a-few-items off every day approach to the huge job of moving, you have discovered the Secret of Life!

No joke. I think so many people never manage to get big life challenges under control because they fail to break things down into smaller, doable tasks. Instead it's just one big Scary thing to avoid.

Rachel said...

You're funny. 14 mile refreshing run. I think the need to be in motion is a characteristic many triathletes share.

Anonymous said...

Great job considering all the stuff you have going on. Sometimes the runs are a nice way for me to not "do" anything for at least a few hours.

Anonymous said...

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