I think the sentiment for today is nicely summed up by what a friend said sometime back, "Reasonable greeting of well being for approximate completion of Earth's orbit from an arbitrary origin."
Today morning, I woke up with a sore body and I knew just what I had to do: Put my running shoes on, walk to the nearest Starbucks, have two shots of espresso, and go for an easy slow run.
After yesterday's pavement incident, I was really grateful to get any amount of running done today. I woke up in the morning with my knees still hurting but the swelling was mostly gone. That was a good sign. I popped another pain killer, rested and waited in hope for the pain to subside. By evening I was felling better, so I confirmed Jay last minute about today's run. We ran to Lake Montebello and did five loops before heading back home. Lake Montebello is a beautiful almost-flat oval loop in northeast Baltimore. On a nice warm day this place is milling with joggers, runners, dog walkers, housewives taking a stroll, bikers, and kids on skateboards. But on this cold (31 degrees) evening, we were pretty much the only ones there.
I had a long work day today and wanted to get fresh with a nice long run. But alas, I had to trip on a pavement, fall flat, and abort a run that had begun so well.
Today was my running sabbath! I met with my best pal and his wife in DC and kind of toured the city. After quickly seeing the obligatory monuments, we spent most of the time at the Arlington National Cemetery. There is something nice about this place -- beautiful and serene -- but it's also the first runner unfriendly place I've been to. There was this big sign at the entrance saying "no jogging". How about running, sprinting? May be I'm being borderline irreverent here but I guess that was my first reaction as a runner. Are there other public places where runners are prohibited?
The whole DC travel, catching up, etc left us with little time for breakfast and lunch, so we had a late meal of cannelloni spinach ricotta and gnocchi, and finished it with coconut macaroons and latte. For dinner today, I just heated up a bowl of pasta fagioli (left) that I had made earlier. After my recent large expense computer purchase, I've been doing some cost cutting and started cooking at home. I am constantly surprised at how easy, cheap, healthy and efficient it is to cook at home. Ask me for a killer almost-instant pasta fagioli recipe :-)
Why does it feel that Christmas is not yet over! I am still in that holiday mood for not doing anything other than running. For the most part of the day, I ate, slept, cleaned the house, and messed it up again. The weather outside is becoming warmer. 48 degrees, really? Perfect weather to run long distances but today was a recovery day for me. So, I did a slow 7 mile run to flush the toxins away. Reading Galloway's book, I realized I am not hydrating enough. Jeff seems to be drinking from a fire-hose all the time!
I did the usual route to the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill, Fort McHenry, Little Italy, Fells Point before heading back with a comfortable 8:10 pace. The post run drink was a quart of chocolate milk. Yes, I drank a whole quart of chocolate milk! Isn't that worth running for? With all the calcium and Vit-D it's the best $1.69 I spent. What do you like to eat/drink after runs? My favorites are pizza and chocolate milk. I usually carry a credit card so I can buy something on the way but today being Christmas, most places were closed. After relaxing a bit, I heated up a HUGE lunch (left) that I had made earlier. Brown rice, tofu, 3 kinds of beans, mushrooms, celery, tomatoes and onions. Yum!
Wonderful weather today evening with a nice cool 34 degrees. Jay & I ran to the harbor, Fort McHenry, and back. The snow on the roads are mostly plowed, or walked over making it easier to run. But watch out for the clear roads with black ice! Those clear puddles of water with a dangerous icy film on the top waiting to deceive the most unsuspecting runner. On these days, your best bet would be to run on slush however yucky it might feel.
I still haven't figured out a way to beat the traffic lights and esp. with these road conditions you've got to be extra careful on the roads with approaching traffic. Fortunately, there was nice 4 mile patch around Fort McHenry where I could run uninterrupted with an avg 7:30 pace but overall this run took around 8 min/mile.
There is something nice about running in the snow. The Celtic Solstice run was freezing cold and not really my kind of running weather -- Oh, how I miss San Fran! However, Sunday was gorgeous and sunny although a bit cold. The snow plows working overtime, people shoveling their driveways, kids playing in the snow; it's so festive! A combination of the snow storm and weekend lax made it possible for me to run on nicely plowed roads on N. Charles and St. Paul's in the middle of this Sunday afternoon. I had an easy 5.5mi run to the harbor and stopped at the Eddie's of Mt. Vernon for a coffee only to realize that I forgot my credit card :(
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Distance: 5.6mi Time: 49:37 | Slow jog from Eddies to home |
I'm really anticipating the Celtic Solstice run and have been taking it easy for the last three days. Wednesday, I worked out at the gym (core, shoulder) and have been saving myself yesterday and today. That also did a lot of good to my work. Another thing that's helping is my new computer. I recently got a new computer, which means I'll have to be very, very frugal for the next few months.
Life is not always going to be this care free happy place that we would like it to be. What life throws at you is a lot of negativity. It's what you do with that negativity that makes you a stronger human being ... Failure is an option. It's what you do with the failure that makes you who you are. Our failures mold us. [more]
Today's run was towards the Hampden to see the Christmas decorations. What a sight! Will be going there again to get the pictures. Jay joined me on today's run. I had planned initially for 5 or 6 miles but ended up doing 12. The weather was a nice 48 and the sights were pleasing -- couldn't stop. Yeah, right! Okay, that's only half the truth, the other half is we got lost. I "thought" I knew my way to the Hampden but we ended up taking a scenic route trying to find our way.
Something happened today evening: After the visit to the doctor's office for a mono test (negative), I had an irresistible urge to go out. This will be the first time in days since I've gone farther than a block. So, I decided to go for a jog and soon I started running!
Okay, it's not all junk food that I eat but hey cravings are better off gone at once. Talking yourself into "I will eat a little bit of junk each day. Moderation is the key." is also not a good idea. That leads to snacking junk food which can become a serious problem. My take, you want to eat junk food, no problemo. Just down the entire bag of chips or whole bar of candy until you don't feel anything for it. Then you can mind your running business without feeling deprived.
Today's breakfast was obscenely healthy -- Steel cut oats and flax seed meal with Greek yogurt topped with fresh blackberries and honey. This is high calorie breakfast but every bit of it is gold. The orange juice was a perfect finish to what turned out to be a yummy breakfast. This breakfast costed me about $2 to make, much better (and cheaper) than grabbing a sandwich on the go. Steel cut oats take while to cook so I usually make a big batch and put it in the refrigerator.
Lunch was a similar heat and eat fare. I had pre-cooked a big bag of fusilli and stocked it in the fridge. The vegetables are the microwave-in-the-bag ones found in the frozen food aisle and the chicken salad was from a deli. I LOVE vegetables, so you will find a more than generous portion in my plate :-) This deal costed me around $4 to make but way cheaper than eating out. Also, most restaurants only offer you a mingy portion of veggies.I missed BOMF timed run today morning. But who really get's up at 4:30? Because that's how early I should get up to be at Christopher's Place by 5:30 am. On race days when I've to be up early I end up not sleeping at all but can't do that every week for the BOMF run -- esp. for short runs.
Today's run was towards Loyola college. I went in my comfortable 8 mile pace. But the biggest change was my shoes -- I'm trying out a new pair!
Mayan hot chocolate from Carma's in the morning
I am giving up on BuddyRunner app. This could've been the coolest app on the Android phone but given that it's free I can't seem to expect much from it. I've written to the developers about the problems but after several missed runs, bad pace calculation -- overall this is a buggy app and I don't have patience to wait for their development cycles to kick in and fix the bugs.
So after running more than 250 miles with BuddyRunner, I switched to my Forerunner 405 which was gathering dust since Toronto marathon. It's easy to use and very reliable except that it was very expensive! But doesn't make sense to not use it if you already own it. Does it? It has several cool features but the learning curve is steep. I've used it in fixed settings mostly during marathons -- also ran the San Francisco marathon with it.
Oh BTW, I am starting this new running blog. Exciting!
