One Day Out

Race season officially begins with tomorrow's 5k. I'd like to clock a 21:30, but my real goal is to pass Mr. 111 at the line and turn his sweaty victory salute into a tearful moment of regret.

I know, you think I should forgive him for last year, but you weren't there. You didn't see what he did.

The Good News

Since so many of my recent posts seem to be about how much I'm not into my job right now, I thought I should take a moment to spread a little more positive energy. The twelve-steppers call their version of this a moral inventory, but in this case it's maybe more of a morale inventory.

Since the beginning of 2010, I:

1. shaved about two and a half minutes off my 5k time.
2. got close to seventy-five students through the semester (although some made the journey with more grace than others).
3. lost a little over twenty pounds (five or ten more and I'll post before and after pics).
4. got a lot better at swimming.
5. Finished running a short story contest that netted the undergrad winner $500
6. spent about forty hours tutoring at the local literacy co-op.
7. presented at a national conference and won a $1200 grant from the NEH.

Individually there's nothing super awesome here, but all together I suppose that means things aren't going too badly.

The Time Vampire

Imagine a vampire that sucks time instead of blood. He can look like Tom Cruise, Bela Lugosi, or that sparkly guy from the new movies--it's entirely up to you. Now imagine that this time sucking vampire waited outside your office door nearly EVERY SINGLE DAY you're at work, but instead of being all smooth and seductive and metrosexual and stuff he just makes really, really stupid noises about all the things he KNOWS about his job, which, by the way, is pretty much the same job you do, which you've pretty much been doing for just as long, pretty much just as well. Then suddenly a hour is gone, slurped right up into his stupid time vampire pie-hole. That's been work lately. Awesome. Thanks, time vampire, for making sure there's a little extra suck in my life.

Something I Probably Shouldn't Admit

We have a small running group here on campus. It's nothing serious, really just a couple of us tooling around the neighborhood next to the school for thirty or forty minutes. But there's something magic about spending your lunch hour exercising. Spring is coming on full force, the cherry trees and red buds are blossoming, the hyacinths and daffodils are up, and it's a really pleasant mid-seventies most afternoons. We go about three miles (the plan is to be out of the office for  only an hour including changing and clean up) but it usually makes the rest of my day a lot better.

Some days the run is the only thing that I can say worked. When that's all I have I try to go with it and wear my Road ID under my pants for the rest of the afternoon.

New Orleans

Work took me to New Orleans last weekend and when I wasn't busy explaining the ins and out of American literature to all my colleagues I was out and about in town trying to run--not so easy when your hotel is in the French Quarter and it's the French Quarter Festival. I know: boo-effen-hoo; but sometimes you really want a run more than you want jazz and living statues. Eventually I managed to get in a couple of good runs, one around Congo Square and its environs and the other along the river early on a Sunday.

I didn't get to go to my favorite New Orleans restaurant, but I did have a very nice brunch on Sunday including buckwheat pancakes and quite the tasty peanut butter cupcake with butter cream icing from a place called The Decadence Shoppe (mad props for juxtaposing the olde school spelling with the new wave sexual innuendo).

I've now got two races coming up, both 5ks and both pretty local. I'm hoping to get sub 21:00 by the second one, but what with work and cupcakes I'm not really in the shape I wanted to be in by now.

Brick

 

Nope, not this kind.


Today wrapped up my third brick workout of the spring. The distances are still short because I am weak and slow, but not only am I seeing wear on my bike's rear tire for the first time in two years, I'm also starting to like it. So far I've only done bike/run workouts. I was going to do a swim/run tomorrow, but for some unfathomable reason the folks at my gym think The Second Coming is reason enough to close down for the day. I guess I'll either bike/run again or else do one of those activities individually.

I'm due for a test 5k next week, something I'm pretty excited about as I think I'm closing in on a couple of numbers that are pretty special to me.