Motivation Monday: Avoiding the Plague

A run in Rhode Island, February 2014

Today is Day 78 of the run streak. Last week I took advantage of warm weather and ran outside several days, getting a few 5K days in there. But mostly the streak has been one mile at a time. This morning we met some friends for a hike. I started out ahead of everyone to run a mile then meet up with the group. Mike carried an overcoat and over-pants for me because even after the run I was going to need another layer to stay warm on a hike. Yesterday I ran a mile on the treadmill then drove to farmers’ market instead of running or walking the mile to the market like I usually do. I discovered a couple weeks ago that the running to the market part isn’t so bad in sub-freezing temperatures but walking around and shopping at the market in my sweaty running clothes when it's that cold is not amazing. (It really sucks, honestly.)

I haven’t felt great for a few days. I’ve had cold symptoms that never seem to fully materialize into an actual cold or flu. As long as I don’t have a fever, though, I’ll continue to run. When my body tells me to sleep, I’m sleeping. I’m trying to drink a lot of water and eat fruits and vegetables for vitamins. But there was a day I ate nothing but muffins and I’m okay with that. (That was probably my sickest day, when I slept from one in the afternoon until seven the next morning.)

It's that time of year when New Year's resolutions, or new healthy habits, or whatever you want to call them, become endangered so soon after trying to make them because of the winter weather and all that comes with it. It's so much easier to run through the winter in San Diego than in Rhode Island. I'm going to listen to my body and rest when I need it. I'm going to listen to my experience that tells me not to brave icy sidewalks because I've fallen twice in the past year (and not even on ice, just regular sidewalks) and each fall took me out of running for a couple weeks. I can't make those decisions for anyone else, though. It's a time to get creative with treadmills and home workouts. It's a time to invest in some good gear in order to stay warm if you choose to go outside. And, really, I can't over-emphasize the importance of some good rest.

There Was a Naked Man Walking Down the Street and Other Issues With My Run

Yesterday was one of those runs where a lot of things got me down. Mentally I just wasn't there and it proved to be a difficult morning in India as well. Every day for the last week I'd been waking up naturally at 5:30, but with Mike being out of town I was spending my time enjoying early morning quiet time rather than going running because there was no one to stay with Muffin (and she was miraculously sleeping until nearly 7:00 each morning -- I didn't want to wake her up for a stroller run). Yesterday, though, when the alarm went off at 5:25 I rolled over and fell asleep for half an hour. Not an in-and-out, thinking-of-getting-up sleep, but full-on totally conked out. When I did get out of bed the sun was already up. I quickly pulled on my (stupid) leggings. As I tip-toed past Muffin's room I heard her saying "MOM-ee, MOM-ee," and I ignored it with a twinge of guilt. I had to get out the door before she knew I was awake.

I opened the front door to a wall of heat. It was hot and dry, a bit like a Santa Ana day in Southern California. I looked at my watch. 6:15 am. I had planned on 5 to 6 miles but if it was already this hot and sunny I didn't want to be outside an hour later finishing up that last mile. I decided to test out a new route to see if it was in the 3-to-4-mile range for the easy runs of my upcoming training plan.

At first I was amusing myself pretending I was running in San Diego on a Santa Ana day, not running in India. I ran through the back roads of my neighborhood. There wasn't too much traffic yet. I approached a busy intersection at the main road where the traffic was surprisingly light. I crossed the intersection easily. Then, on the sidewalk of the main road, right out there for all the early morning traffic to see, was a guy walking along with his loincloth pulled up, fully exposed, scratching himself. Not just for a quick second, but several minutes. And I lost it, mentally. No one is yelling and honking it this guy for walking around fully exposed, yet if I'd been wearing shorts I would have been the center of attention. And that is not fair! I was really mad at India for that. I stormed along for awhile, fuming over the sight I'd been forced to see just by trying to enjoy a public road. (As I wrote that, I realized maybe that's how people feel when they see me. Blerg! Twist! I stand my ground in that double standard not being fair though.)

I entered the park and jogged between two parking lots, then exited for a different route home. By my Garmin, it looked like the route was going to be just three miles by the time I got home. Hilly, but not too bad. It's impossible to completely avoid hills here. I turned onto the last road before my street and wondered why everyone was driving so quickly. Then I realized the road had been paved recently, so instead of having to drive slowly to avoid potholes everyone could speed along and lay on the horn to alert everyone else to get the hell out of the way. I was so crabby at this point I did one of the most provocative things I've done on the road here -- I gave the evil eye to an auto-rickshaw full of people who stared at me as they drove by.

And a few minutes later when that auto stopped near my house, I booked it to run past and avoid those people. (It was thankfully only an old woman who got out -- and she gave me the evil eye back.)

My run was only 2.86 miles, which was the last straw of the day. How hard can it be to find a stupid three-mile route? Why are they all either over five miles long or just short of three? Why can't I just open my door and go for an easy three-miler? It's the cornerstone of every stupid training plan and I shouldn't have to spend an hour driving back and forth between treadmills or parks just to run an easy three miles.

When I went inside and heard Mike talking to someone on Skype, I immediately went to my room and cried. Stupid video phone where you have to look as cheerful as you sound if you want to convince the person on the other end that everything's fine. Muffin found me in my room and cheered me up. She brought in her bottle of milk and we laid on the bed together. Mike got off his call and joined us. I told him all about my run and said that I should have continued sleeping and then stayed home to drink coffee with him and Muffin. I didn't feel accomplished to just be out there. He said the distance didn't matter. He said any one of those obstacles, either physical or mental, would have kept a lot of people home but I ignored them all and went out there anyway. It didn't immediately make me feel better but I appreciated the words.

I will not be braving the streets today. I decided to hide out with the treadmill at the gym today rather than hide out at home and not run at all.

Travel Photo Friday: Joshua Tree National Park, California

From the archives:

Joshua Tree National Park, California, June 2005

When Mike and I first met he was living in Twentynine Palms and I was in San Diego. His house was close to one of the Joshua Tree entrances. We spent a lot of time in the park, even after he joined me in San Diego. This was our last trip there, just a couple weeks before we moved from San Diego. A friend of ours from Germany went with us; he took these photos.

Photo Friday is hosted by DeliciousBaby.com.

A hazy shade of... September

There's a wildfire out near the Nevada state line that's sending smoke into the East Bay, particularly as far east as we live. It finally cooled down enough to have open windows instead of the air conditioner, and now I'm torn between opening the windows for cool air and closing them for smoke. Right now we can't actually smell the smoke, but you can see it's there, and we can feel it in our throats. The cats aren't sneezing yet, so I'm not too concerned.

This is the closest we've been to a wildfire since the 2003 San Diego fire. Adjusting to earthquakes had been bad enough in moving to Southern California from the East Coast. But waking up one morning wondering why it smelled like a campfire and why it looked like it had snowed (inches of ash covered everything) is probably something I'll never forget. We weren't ever in any danger, but what a bizarre few days, as we breathed the smoke and felt the heat of a huge fire burning just 10 miles from us. The smoke and haze today is just a tiny portion of how bad it was those few days. For us, anyway. Once again we seem to be the ones who just happen to be in the right place. But I spent all last summer and fall glancing up at the dry grass covering Mt. Diablo, and I'm doing it again this fire season.

(Image from EON.)

San Diego

Can someone please confirm if Ron Burgandy is based on a real anchorman from San Diego? The so-called news anchors in San Diego are so dopey and flakey that there's no way Ron Burgandy is an entirely fictional character.



News idiots aside...

On our first day in San Diego, after wandering around Ocean Beach and having dinner in our favorite Mexican restaurant there (where after 2 years the waitress recognized us and remembered my usual order) and wistfully thinking about how much we loved that neighborhod, we walked down the pier, over particularly high waves splashing some spray up onto us, and we saw dolphins. It was the first time I'd ever seen dolphins in the wild, in their natural setting, away from an aquarium or zoo. It was so awesome. It was like Ocean Beach was telling us to come back, showing us what we're missing by not living there anymore.

The rest of the trip was pretty great, but nothing beats dolphins.

My head's all stuffed up.

I think my hotel room is stuck in some sort of time warp. Some of the cable channels are running on their East Coast schedule. You expect that from the live news channels like CNN and MSNBC of course. But Comedy Central? TBS? I know that up until a few years ago TBS didn't delay, so the East Coast shows were on 3 hours early here on the West Coast. But, these channels play shows on the "regular" schedule at home in Walnut Creek. And when I lived in San Diego, they were fine. What's up with the cable provider this hotel uses? How come the networks don't control it so it's the same all over the West Coast? I feel like I'm in the Mountain Time Zone, where it seems like nothing is ever on at it's regular time.

I was all ready to watch the season premiere of South Park last night at 10. But the Daily Show came on instead. I thought, "That's weird, it's an hour off." But some of the commercials they had were definitely Comedy Central's very late night commercials. Was it the 1 am rerun I was watching? This morning I woke up early and was going to watch the news while I lounged for a bit, and turned the TV back on, still on Comedy Central. It was about 5:45, and Colbert Report was on. It's usually rerun at 8:30 am.

Between my stuffed up head and the TV schedule being off, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I feel a little out of sorts.

Yay San Dog!

Where in the world am I? I'm in San Diego this week! I'm working in the office for a few days. It's great to be back, even though the trip down this morning was hellish. I missed the BART I wanted, had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. Caught my transfer BART just in time, but then had to wait forever for the shuttle to the airport. Checked my bag in no time, but then the security line was so long... I Missed My Flight. Luckily I got on another one to San Diego that was leaving just a little bit later. When I got to San Diego, it took forever to wait for the rental car shuttle, then forever at the rental car place to actually get my car. Then, out of habit, instead of getting on the highway near the rental car place in downtown, I went back to Rosecrans in Point Loma. Luckily I remembered where to pick up the highway from there, and so I was finally feeling like I knew what I was doing.

It was a good day in the office. Good to be back.

Tonight I am exhausted. I'm in my Super 8 room ("super" because it has free wifi!) after a long walk to get some food. I was so sick of planes, trains, and automobiles that I did not want to drive to a restaurant or a grocery store. I'll take care of my real food shopping tomorrow (snacks and lunches for work, plus I have a fridge in my room so I can keep real milk and half & half).

One weird thing, my ipod wouldn't shut down this morning. Eventually the battery wore down and it shut off, and now that it's charging I can turn it on and off in the regular way. Despite all the warnings about turning off your electronics during take off and landing, the plane did everything it was supposed to just fine with my ipod on.

I made a list of all the outfits I wanted to wear this week, for minimum packing yet maximum wearability. But I forgot my list at home! I think I remember which skirt and/or pants to wear each day, so I should be able to figure out the tops and jackets/sweaters. I didn't quite finish sewing all the garments I wanted to before I left, but I was able to bring quite a few pieces that I made from my fall list, plus things I made last year. I'm proud of myself for that.

I'm going to watch my new favorite show, Heroes, and a show that I really want to love but it hasn't quite earned it yet, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and probably fall asleep before they are over.