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June 2, 2006
My Crazy Life
The summer tourist season has settled upon us like a massive lead weight, heavy and sudden. The nature of my work is always, shall we say, steady. When tourist season drops from the sky, my workload volume instantly rockets into outer space. While I do love my job (that's why I do it), its long hours and arduous nature grind slowly away at my little free time, mental and physical strength, and any attempts at sleeping adequately. Let the fun begin!
I had no free time today! Okay, I had 5 hours to sleep and 45 minutes to run, and that's it. Literally. On these days, it's a toss-up as to which will be better for me mentally and physically, a little more sleep or a run. Today, it was a run.
My run was pretty uneventful, aside from the heat and throngs of tourists everywhere. When I run through the Mammoth developed area, I move faster than the traffic, no kidding. The sun was strong and it was warm, though I didn't feel all heat-melted like I did yesterday. I was tired, so I took it easy. But still moved faster than the cars.
I do crazy things to myself. Tonight, a night shift. Tomorrow morning, a bit of sleep. Saturday afternoon, a long drive to the race site. Sunday morning, a half marathon. Sunday afternoon, a long drive home. Sunday night, a night shift at work.
Silly girl. This is my crazy life.
Posted by Meghan at June 2, 2006 8:54 PM
Comments
Good luck in your half-marathon (even though you are not racing!)...or...if I already missed you...I hope it went well! Can't wait to hear about it!
Posted by: Beth at June 3, 2006 7:25 PM
SUNDAY WORKOUT
It really started at dinner last night at Luca and Daniela's, my quasi-neighbor friends, when - after a 1h10mins walk, I ate 3 bowls of pasta "alla Norma" (Norma style) with eggplant, straccetti (thinly-sliced, marinated beef panfried), salad, reasonable amount of Morellino di Scansano wine to accompany flavors, tons of bread and fruit crust and grappa to end...
My wife and children are off to the beach with friends because I am working this weekend. This morning I call up Luca, and say that I was going running. And he said "I don't feel well but I want to go." It wasn't food related he said. He had a pain in his hip. And I said: "Don't go running if things hurt." He said: "Ok go without me." Oh no.
So I ran over to his house and he was in p-jays and Daniela was ready to bolt out with their son Leonardo. And I said: "Let's go walking. See how it feels. I have to go my mother in law's anyway to mop up the floor of the function room (kinda big damn function room built like an old country barn with terracotta tiles) from my son's 3-year birthday party on Friday," (mayhem.)
So we started walking briskly up and down the hilly part of Villa Pamphili park, about 2 miles to my in-laws, and everything felt ok. So we went and mopped up the room. Well, I mopped up the room, Luca moved the furniture out of my way. And I did it so vigorously (fond mopping memories at Toscanini's Ice Cream in Cambridge after closing time) that I was thoroughly "wiped."
About 50 minutes had gone by since we started walking and mopping. Now it was time to run. We went back to the park and ran loops opposite directions because I wanted to run fast and Luca was testing things out but was feeling optimistic. So it turned out I was so warmed up, so warmed up, but so warmed up, that I ran a wild, like unpredictably wild fartlek. It's the only term that comes to mind but it was more like a headless chicken run, or maybe feeling like WB's roadrunner. I was cutting in and out of the loop, in&out of the woods, back next to the lake, up by the perimeter. Until finally on the last stretch I just pelted one nice progression until my lungs thundered. Yeah. Yes, it felt great. Weather was sunny fresh.
There were hundreds of people out all doing something: kids learning to cycle, all sorts of running, walking, whatever. Luca ran for 40 minutes and was really happy that he went out took it easy but still got a run in, a long walk and lots of resh air. Then we walked another 1.5 miles back to my in-law's because I remembered I left the windows of the function room opened to let the floor dry.
Beyond the evident moral of the story i.e. that one-day evidence says mopping the floor is an effective way to warm-up, question is:
how do you log all this?
Enjoy your crazy life. Corrado
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at June 4, 2006 10:48 AM