What Time Is It?

Those bells remind me of....

Cupcakes. There are three times for me to run: When I want to run, when I don't want to run, and 5:15 am. My brain thinks about running differently at different times of the day, and if I listen to my brain, all kinds of trouble comes my way. So I need to run when I can, and the most open time of day is early morning. It's optimal for weather, open schedule, and empty streets. It is not optimal for mental preparation. All I want to do at 5am is sip coffee, watch SportsCenter, and critically review yesterday's Daily Mile submissions (No effing way could Adam have run that fast!!). My brain craves running at around 2:30 in the afternoon and again at about 8pm. Neither of those times ever fit into my schedule. I go out early anyway and feel fine after about ten minutes of learning how to run all over again.

This year, I set a goal to run with a partner and/or group. Suzanne has been meeting me for most of the morning runs. We used to run almost the same and she was edging ahead of me on just over half of the runs, but lately she has been plagued by cardio, calvio, and other legio problems. Plus I have been pushing myself a bit and I'm faster than I was 6 months ago. The past few mornings, we have started at my driveway, but I pull away after the first half mile of warm up and run at my pace. I finish a few minutes ahead of her which gives me a chance to pee in her gas tank get water and pop a nitro pill. Afterwards we talk about gardening and European economics (will their outdated shadow pricing policy ever come around to the 21st century? Dirty-footed peasants!) So while we don't trot along together at a 7 minute pace chatting like Paris and Nicole, we do retain our commitment and accountability - and that is partner running. Running with a group has not happened consistently, though we have gone out a few times with the Runners Den group. They go out each Saturday at 6:00am and run in a variety of distances and pace groups. Good times, and I'm going to go with them more often.

This summer we plan to stay around Phoenix most of the time with one vacation planned to the metaphysical crystaline hills of Sedona. We got a great deal on a house up there (eff R double E), so there will be a couple of weeks of creekside runs with Norman the dog (and others from the valley who invite themselves up) and some cooler weather. The rest of the time will be spent trying to force the geometry of our office/computer room into a nursery. Baby girl coming in August and we still don't have a name picked out. I like Nitmos, but Maria wants to 'keep thinking about it'. The nursery is little room in an already little house, and I'm not sure how we are going to make it work without me setting up camping gear in the back yard.

I enter the 45-49 age bracket Monday which means increased head-shaking shame when looking at race results. Those guys are fast. There are almost always 3-4 guys from that bracket in the top five, and usually many more in the top 20. Inspiring!

Are you signed up for the SYTO 5K? Get your info in to Adam, we need some fast runners this year to replace the current champ. There will be shared loot giveaways for those who show up in person and a heck of a good time!