Take me away!

These posts are still short on substance as I get used to blogging and find my own voice in the blogosphere. Life seems to imitate my blogging today, as you’ll see below…

an old calgon commercial from the 1970's perfectly fits my mood right now:

Take me away!

...after the first 15 seconds you'll see what I'm talking about.

Ok, here I am sitting at work and all I can think about is getting away from it all. I haven’t had a day off in two weeks, but Friday I’m off to the beautiful beaches of Petoskey on lake Michigan for 5 days of much needed rest. 

During the week I plan to:

Look for rocks

Swim

Hike

Trail run

Sit around doing nothing 

Read a book on the beach

Be not at work.

Just be

 I am hoping this will be like hitting a reset button and revive my training motivation. Its not really that I need the motivation to train its just that I need the motivation to make the time in my life for training. I suppose that lacking the motivation to make time to train is the SAME thing as not having the motivation to train. If I wanted to train bad enough, I would make the time.

A lot of things may be causing this lack of motivation. Having recently switched shifts at work, dealt with my sons graduation party and all the out of town relatives, and being sick I just haven’t been able to find a groove to fit into.

Just because you can move does not prove you're alive

Finally I feel better. Last night I had doubts whether I would make it or not. My throat was so swollen that I could not swallow, and I was scared I might have to go to the ER to get an epi-shot. Well, I took some allergy pills and Motrin and that seems to have fixed it! Turns out I may not have been sick at all this week, my allergies just flared worse than I have ever experienced.

This last week make me think about verse 148 of the Dhammapada:

All decrepit is this body,
Diseases’ nest and frail;
This foul mass is broken up
For life does end in death.

Explanation:  This form - this body - is fully broken down. It is truly a den of diseases. It disintegrates easily. Out of its nine orifices, putrid matter oozes constantly. It breaks apart. Death puts an end to it. (Taken from buddhanet.net)

So anyway, now I feel good enough to start training again (or at least what I call training)

ugh...

Well, looks like that scratchy feeling in my chest was a big nasty cold brewing. I haven’t had any energy for a week. This cold is just bad enough to be annoying, yet not bad enough for a doctor visit. I thought it was almost gone yesterday, but I was just pausing while it changed gears. Now I have a runny nose and a “productive” cough.

  I haven’t trained in almost 7 days now and I think that is what is bothering me the most right now. The weather has been so nice and there has been so little to do around the house that I have had plenty of time to get out, yet here I am, in the house trying to calculate when I can take another Dayquil.

I managed to get to the library on the way home from work and picked up “the non-runners marathon trainer"the non-runners marathon trainer” by David A. Whitsett. Could be an interesting read. Just in case it isn’t as interesting as I hoped, I also picked up “the man who ate his boots” by Anthony Brandt. This book is about the history of Britain’s search for the Northwest Passage. I have a thing for nautical stories. My wife, however, is not as much a fan. She says I talk in my sleep about “being at sea” when I read/watch nautical stories.  Better to be talking of being at sea than the hacking I've been doing the past two nights...

This entire weeks distance:

0.o

back to bike

 Graduation is over, open house went well. Relatives are on their way home now. What do I do? RIDE YOUR BIKE!!

Started out nice and slow. I was feeling a bit tired but, I took 2 water bottles with me and a pack of Honey Stingers thinking maybe I would go farther today. Ended up going much farther than I anticipated, but I was feeling good and missed my bike so I figured "why not?"

today's ride:

distance 13.79 mi
time 1:00:43
pace 4:24 /mi
speed 13.62 MPH

Not too bad for me. I have a scratchy feeling in my chest this evening though. I think I may be getting sick. The bike ride probably didn't help much either.

you call that running?

went out to run today. haven't had much time to devote to training this week as we are getting ready for my sons high school graduation and open house. lots of family coming to town for the event and the house needs to be ready.