Eat and Run

Sometimes people can get a little crazy when it comes to exercise.   I've been there in small bursts before, but overall I am far too lazy an individual to get addicted to too much exercise.  But sometimes you have to do strange (or some might say crazy) things to get in that run or workout you planned on doing.

This weekend I had planned to run twenty-three miles with my neighbor.   We planned to do an early departure on Saturday morning so I could get back and showered in time for a birthday party at our neighbor's house.   That was the plan.

Twenty-three miles is a long way and if you don't eat a lot the day before, the run is much more difficult.   It's not fun.   You do this thing called, "bonking" in which all sorts of strange visual or mental things can happen to you.   I'm not kidding about this, look it up.  

So to prepare, I did the thing called, "pigging out" on Friday.   And then the rain started.   The cold and the rain.  The rain that rained all afternoon, night and was going to still be raining in the cold during our running time.   During the only time we had on Saturday we could run.    So we cancelled.   We thought about running, but we decided we weren't that crazy.  I think Uncle Jonathan knows what I'm talking about here.

We moved the run to Sunday, only there was a problem because my neighbor had to go out of town for a gymnastics meet her daughter had.    I thought she had to leave later but I said we could do just sixteen or eighteen miles as we were ahead on our training.  That sounded like a good idea so I did more eating in preparation for the long run in the crisp, morning cold air.

Then, when I was out last night, eating everything in sight at this party one of my husband's customers was giving, I got a text.   My neighbor had realized she needed to leave much earlier in the morning to go to the meet and would I be interested in—and she would totally understand if I wasn't—starting to run at 4:45AM because she had to be back at eight o'clock.     That's right, 4:45AM.

It was so crazy I said, "what the hell, sure."  Then I did the thing I'm now going to call, "eat and run" and ate more food because I was going to be working hard in the cold in the morning on that  run.    I got home, went to sleep as quickly as I could manage and got out on the street at four-forty-five.

We made our sixteen miles.   I was glad I ate a lot.

The Big Boy Update:  Remember my son's pocket knife cut?   We looked at it today to see how it was healing.   The pressure we put on it helped the flap to re-adhere and it's looking very good so far.   My son was happy about how things were going.   He told me as he was looking at his finger, "part of my boo boo looks like ham."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  After getting dressed for bed in her pajamas, my daughter saw the laundry pile on the bed.   She climbed up, selected the big pastel multi-colored tutu, and put it over her pajama pants.   She is sleeping with it on as I write this.   She's not normally into tutus, but this one is a new fad.  That, or she just re-discovered it in the back of her drawer.

Fitness Update:  16.2 miles today, ten miles shy of the marathon distance.   It's strange to be out in the dark and know there's no reason to even pull out your phone to look at what time it is because the sun isn't even close to being up and you have an hour of running to go after it does come up.