Confused and Dazed

After re-reading yesterday's blog post, I realize that I wasn't quite clear on my activity from yesterday. I meant yesterday to be a dream sequence. Kinda like that season on Dallas when Bobby wakes up. (OK, I didn't watch Dallas, but I remember the endless press details of the bizarre episode.) Anyway, my activity yesterday was very much like the 2 1/2 weeks before, zippo. Sorry if I confused.

That was yesterday.

Now, the following is a TRUE account of today's activities. This is not a dream, it is real. Any confusion with something that might have happened, but really didn't happen is merely coincidental.

First of all, I finally caught up on all of my regular blog reads last night. One read made me feel particularly guilty. I've been following the pursuits of Emil, who had been having tremendous success dieting and running. About four weeks ago, Emil was told that he had a stress fracture and couldn't run. In the interim, he continued to lose weight, despite curtailing most of his exercise regime. Turns out, Emil didn't have a stress fracture, and he was immediately back at it. I'm very happy for him and know he is en route to tremendous success battling the bulge through diet and exercise.

It got me thinking, though, how I had done diddly (other than whine) in the past few weeks (exercise wise) and had let a few opportunities slip by when time was on my side. I needed to get back on the horse, since I'm still a few good weeks away from running again.

My eldest plays basketball every Saturday about a mile from home. My first activity was to walk to and from the game. With #2 riding his bike along side, I walked to the game and met Deb there. As our team (Penn State) was beating Notre Dame to go 3-0, I mentioned to Deb that I was thinking about a ride this afternoon since I knew my Sunday ride would be rained out. Go for it, she said.

With temps hovering around 35 and winds of 10-15 mph, this would be my first cold weather test.

I double layered every where that I could, hoping that I'd be warm enough to get home from where ever I'd go to. Then, there were the new digs from Nashbar: skull cap, baklava, no, no, sorry, I didn't mean the Greek pastry, I meant a balaclava and of course wool socks. On top of that were cold weather tech mock shirt and running pants. One more thing: toe warmers.

Finally, at 3:15, I was out the door. I had no idea how long I'd last. I hate the cold, so if I made 10 miles, I'd be happy with that. 20 would be fantastic, but I realized that 20 would be tough with daylight ending sometime shortly after 4:30.

Turned out to be a really nice ride. I was doing very well, on a 15 mph pace for the first 10 miles or so, but some big hills into the wind after that really hurt me. In the end, I rode 16 1/3 miles in about 1:15, including one brief stop when my chain came off (again!), but that was about it. The cool air felt really good sucking into my lungs. Not sure I like the balaclava -- when I kept my mouth covered, my glasses got fogged up -- not really advisable for riding!

When I got home, my toes were absolutely frigid. Poor little guys needed some relief. I hopped in the hot shower and holy moley did they hurt! I've gotta believe it was some kind of rush of blood back into the toes. Had to get out and dry those puppies off.

Anyway, today was a great day for riding and walking. It felt good to be back! Thanks, Emil, for the bit of guilt I felt (not to mention the jealousy for not being able to run!)

L'Chaim!