Random thoughts.

Furnace installers are here, installing a new furnace. Wow, what a bad sentence.

Anyway, I got out before they arrived. It was about 7:30, the sun was just coming up at the end of the street, it was cool and pleasant. I did the 2.5 mile loop. It felt good. Easy and probably slow, but steady.

4 miles and the week ahead.

Thursday I ran 4 miles. Slow and steady, it felt easy and fine. Sometimes my breathing would pick up, but nothing was ever too laborious.

It was a good start to the "getting back to it" week I suppose. 9 miles total. I had some yard work and an impromptu garage sale in there on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was a car day, and I was beat from Saturday (garage sale, parents, evening fun) so I didn't get up to run prior. It's ok though.

This week is busy. And furnace installers are coming Tuesday and part of Wednesday to install the new furnace. Thursday we leave for Baltimore. I'm definitely taking running stuff. Maybe Erika would want to go out with me.

Back to work. So much to get done in these next few days.

Squirrels are throwing nuts out of trees.

Another brisk, beautiful morning to run. This is two days in a row for me! Oh and it's the first day of fall - woohoo!

It was kind of hard waking up this morning. I didn't sleep well due to itchy ankles that kept waking me up. And I'm sore from using the weed-eater. But I did eventually roll out of bed and started my new routine of NOT worrying about work. Instead I did some stretching and some pick up the house kind of things to wake my body up. Yesterday at the end of the work day, I made sure I was really done. Mentally done. I wasn't going to worry about anything all night, having a project loom over my head in the morning, distracting me from running, starting my day how I want, and just relaxing in general. It worked. I ran and here I am writing. Yay!

So the run. I went into the Landen neighborhood that borders ours. With the sun so low, even at 8:30, most of the roads were in the shade. I wore shorts and a shirt with a long sleeve jacket over that. But I was out of the jacket by the time I was at the end of my street (about a half mile). However, in the shade it was chilly. It's just that time of year where you are hot and cold at the same time.

I took it easy again. Definitely didn't feel as peppy and strong as yesterday, but everything did feel easy, so that was good. I heard a lot of squirrels chattering and dropping nuts. I managed to avoid any bonks on the head.

At the half way point, I bent over to stretch my back. I did some yard work yesterday, and my lower back was tight. I thought it would have been tighter after running, but it actually felt ok, so on I went. Coming back I think I picked the pace up some. I felt like my stride lengthened. Again, no watch, so all that is left to do is feel good that I got out there. Accomplished.

And now I have my work day ahead of me. It will consist of more work, some more yard work (I'm so eager to get the back slate stuff figured out!), and maybe a motorcycle ride, but we'll see. Tomorrow I think I will just walk in the morning – make sure everything is adjusting nicely in my body to this consistency thing. Thursday...it's going to be even warmer and I hope to get in a real motorcycle ride up to where I used to live. I've been wanting to do this for years. I always want to go in the fall to see the crops. This week will be early, but I just don't want to miss the chance if it's there.

Pretty fall Monday.

My "getting back to it" began last Thursday. And I didn't really run again until this morning. But it's ok. I was relaxing, party planning, Ren-Fairing, strength-training and working.

This morning I ran the 2.5 mile loop again. It felt great again as well. I felt smooth, strong and light. Breathing was totally in control. Posture was good. I just felt like it was easy. It may be because it was incredibly slow. I don't know and it doesn't matter. The goal for the next few months is just to run consistently and enjoy every minute of it. So far, I'm on track!

It was brisk this morning. I know it's just going to keep getting colder, but running in the morning is a habit I need to get back into. While thinking about all of the triathlon training and work failures over the past months, one thing that I have discovered is I completely lost any kind of habit to anything I did. Be it work or training or making dinner, everything evolved to decisions rather than habits. I crammed things in when I could, never made lists, had no idea what I needed to accomplish except that I had to do it all and do it now. I have began to wonder if this lack of habit/structure is part of the reason I struggled so much. Yesterday I visited the book store and meandered over to the travel section, wanting to find a Lonely Planet book on Ohio. On an end cap I saw the book The Power of Habit. I'd heard about it before, as being really good for business owners. I scanned the back and decided to buy it. If nothing else, it sounded like a fascinating read about brains. I'm only a couple chapters in and have confirmed that it is going to be some good insight for my business and for other habits I seem to have lost (exercise, dinner, drawing, etc).

This week is full but not too crazy for work. It's also going to be absolutely beautiful. I'm hoping to get in a good motorcycle ride and do a lot of yard work. So now I better get cranking on work work!

My feet are polka-dotted with bug bites right now. I'm up to 15 on the left and 17 on the right. I slathered anti-itch cream on them and put them in socks. So far so good. Running was pretty uncomfortable though, as every step ticked the bites and made me want to itch. Lesson: don't start a fire in the fire pit in sandals.

Back to It

The triathlon is over, vacation is over, I had a very good break from anything physical (other than riding my motorcycle) during vacation and I feel rejuvenated.

Now it's time to get back to it...to running! Woohoo!

Triathlon training just didn't go that well for me this year. I'm still trying to figure out why. One thing was I got a late start. Another was I just haven't been feeling that great, and my bad performances seemed to lead to a bad mental state with working out. It's hard to do something a lot when every time you do it, you let yourself feel bad about it. I think that was the cycle I got into. At the triathlon, I told myself nothing mattered. I just wanted to have fun. I told myself how lucky I was to be there, and that this hour or two of activity would be a good celebration of being able to do things I like to do and being healthy. Surprisingly, I listened to myself for once. The swim was terrible - I couldn't breathe right for some reason. But I did a lot of back stroke and got through it. The bike was fun. It always is. Running was down right pleasant. But for the entire race, I was s l o w. For once it didn't bother me, and that was a great feeling. Erika had a great time and was so happy I did it with her. Her first race happiness became my happiness too.

After the race, I realized how glad I was to have the race be behind me. Next up was vacation! I didn't do anything for that entire week, and it was perfect. It's not that I had trained so hard I needed a break; I think I needed a mental break. I needed to not worry about when I was going to get in my workouts and still get all my work done. I didn't need to think about how I was feeling for workouts, and if I had eaten enough/the right thing. Man, all of that crap really got to me this year!

And so now...back to running.

This morning, I went for a 2.5 mile run. It was the first run since the tri. I didn't wear a watch, and I just went easy. It was great. It's so simple.

I need to simply run for a while. I'm not going to wear a watch until 2015. NO WATCH UNTIL 2015!!!! You heard it here. If you catch me timing myself, yell at me! (You, the invisible non-existent reader.) No timed workouts, no feeling bad for how slow I am, no comparing myself over and over and over again. I want to run, and feel my muscles working, steady my breathing, enjoy fall (my favorite time of year to run), and just get back to consistency. I also want to work on strength training. That will come too. But for now...just my old pal running.

Yes.

5 more days!

Yeah, so I'm just going to write tri and running stuff here now. Public blog with the parents reading just doesn't work out I'm afraid.

5 more days until the triathlon! I am excited. I'm a little nervous, but only that I won't push as hard as I possibly can. I think I've come to terms with my performance just isn't going to be what I want it to be because I'm not in the shape I want to be in. I got a late start. More than running, you can't make up physical gains with triathlon. You just have to have the time. I had a few bad bike rides. I have had many bad runs. Swimming has been steady, but I don't think I've gotten better. So where's that leave me? Just having fun on race day and pushing my hardest.

In a way, I'm looking forward to the triathlon being over. It has been so hard to train this year with work. My confidence has been sacked. I'm looking forward to just having some running ahead of me for the next few months. I want to start strength training and just haven't been able to with my schedule. I am going to stop swimming for a bit, or at least just do it once a week. Everything has just been way too hard and not fun. I want fun back.

I'm looking forward to camping. We're putting up a tent in the park we're racing in. I and E have a camper stove so we'll cook. It will be fun! Hope it doesn't rain!

Yesterday I went on a final hard bike ride. I did intervals, pushing 1 - 2 miles at a time, trying to push through that feeling where I just want to slow down that has plagued me this year. Today I'll run, I think that's all I have time for.

It's been hard planning for this and Deals Gap at the same time. Today I have a meeting at 11 and plan to ride my motorcycle to it so that afterwords I can go to Sport Tour and check out some tank bags. And then also maybe to Honda where I will have them listen to my noise the bike makes now.

A new week.

I'm ignoring last week. It doesn't do any good to dwell on it, so here's to a new week!!

- cheers! -   clink  - 

I didn't do anything over the weekend. No biking, no running, no swimming. I did help work on a car. We've started our next LeMons race prep. I helped Casey take apart the head. It was really fun! That's the most I've ever done on a car I believe.

I rode my motorcycle up the shop and back. It rained coming back, so that was an experience.

Sunday I walked some in Waynesville. Looked at old stuff and antiques. It was exhausting, but I'm pretty sure the shopping aspect is what exhausted me, not the walking. I went to bed early, couldn't sleep, and here I am now.

So. I swam after a meeting this morning. It went ok. It was hard, as swimming is. Meh. I got the yards in and felt like I worked hard. It's a new week and I'm going to stay focused and productive and stop worrying about training so much. I'll get it done. I could do a triathlon right now if I had to. I'm fine. Soon the pressure will be off and I can figure out what I want to do next.

Man triathlon training is hard.