Manaña

Manaña. Not today. Tomorrow.

Let's roll up the end of July and get started on August. Goodbye, adios, see 'ya. I'll mark up another goal for the month - tomorrow. Today is just a bonus day. A 'free' day, a do what you can but not more than you need to-do day. Why not? It seems like an extra day. It seems it should be Friday to end the week but it isn't. It seems the month should have ended but it didn't. An extra day.

It still is a day for the regular routine but it seems it should be turned on it's head in some way. How to use it the same way but find something different to do with it. But what? Keep an open mind and it will come. Keep a smile on your face and people will wonder. That alone is worth an extra day. GIve yourself a chance to wonder today about anything that might come up. No decisions, no plans, no promises but only thoughts that make you smile. There will be time for plotting and strategies later.

Manaña. Not today. Tomorrow.
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Spending Sunday

It's not quite 3:00pm this Sunday afternoon and I've pretty much done everything I wanted to do. I've kept myself busy. I got my run done first thing this morning. I managed to sail through the miles challenge I had set up for myself this month. There is still some month to go, but it's good to know I was able to accomplish what I set up as a plan a month ago.

The laundry is all done and even the ironing, so I went and washed the pillows off our bed. I figured it couldn't hurt and definitely help. Fresh everything. While that was going on I got all the ingredients for my whole wheat bread and made a small loaf. Then Jay wanted some shortbread to go with the strawberries I bought so I made some sweet biscuits. The entire house was smelling like a bakery. 

So now I'm searching for another book to read so I can stretch out and let the next hour wind down. Clean, fresh, done. Sunday afternoon! I don't mind spending it this way.

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Quitting - With Another Name

I was searching down a list of books that is offered free on-line from work. I was pretty much caught up with what I had to get done that day and thought I'd scroll through the selection just to see if there was anything even slightly interesting. Mostly, what this list has to offer are business, how to become a better this or that type of books I don't especially have any interest in reading. Then for some unknown reason while I was scrolling through the boring titles, I stopped and clicked into a book called the Mastering the Art of Quitting: Why it Matters in Life, Love and Work by Peg Streep and Alan Bernstein. Then I opened it and started reading it. (No. I wasn't interested because I was thinking of quitting my job - just for the record).

Everyone remembers the childrens story about the Little Engine that Could. "I think I can, I think I can..." If you keep trying, you will to accomplish what you set out to do, or so the story goes. "Winners never quit and Quitters never win".  Right? Well, not necessarily. This books talks about goal disengagement. (You see, it's not quitting - it's goal disengagement). It started with explaining how we think of quitting in a negative light. If you are labeled a quitter it is never a good thing. So you are never supposed to quit. Now it isn't talking about real quitters (everyone knows one - the person that is lazy, disappears whenever real work turns up, stops when it gets hard). It's talking about the situations or goals we put on ourselves that don't work out and are possibly making us unhappy by sticking with them. 

Why do we continue to stay a course at all costs? It gave some pretty good reasons like intermittent reinforcement, near-win situations, and sunk-cost fallacies. I could go into explaining each of these but it's pretty much, you hang in there because every once in a while along the way it seems like it's working out or you've put so much money into it you feel like you can't lose the money you've already lost so you put more into it. I mean, you can't quit now! But you should. Putting more money into a losing situation isn't going to do anything except lose more money if you don't disengage from whatever is going wrong with the original goal and find a new one. Thus, the concept of goal disengagement is in order to allow the exploration of new possibilities. It isn't quitting.

And here they wrote a whole book about it. 

That's pretty impressive. It's all in how you look at it, I guess. Or write it. I wonder if there is a goal I need to disengage myself from. Nah!  Everything seems to be in order.  I think I can, I think I can.

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Are you up?

The alarm startled me out of a complete slumber and I was getting up. I thought I was getting up but I must have closed my eyes and when I opened them again the clock said it was 35 minutes later. Oops!

"I can still go run," that voice in my head stated.
"No, I can't," I replied.
"You've left the house to run at this time before."
"But I'm not even dressed."
"So hurry up!"
"Hurry up?! I'm barely moving. And I'm not going out without at least one cup of coffee and by the time I make that and get dressed and go out and then cool down and..."

I packed my gym bag. After work, I will run a few easy miles on the wonderful invention that allows you to run in place in a temperature controlled environment. I will hit the locker room to pull on my running shoes and hopefully find an unoccupied machine to use. I hope the gasps from my unsightly running shoes aren't too loud. I expect they'll get a few glances because of their accumulation of dirt and dingy. You can always tell an inside runner from an outside runner by the pristine appearance of the inside runners running shoes. Ah well. Those looks are a chance I'll have to take for oversleeping the alarm.
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Stride, pace...gate?

I usually spend some time reading a few forums. I don't get into (or understand) social media, but if there is a running/health/writing blog/site/post that catches my eye, I will spend some time scrolling through what others might have to say.  I came across one the other day where the OP (that stands for original poster-yes, I had to look it up)! was asking for information since they were interested in taking up running.

The helpful bunch of commenters supplied different ideas to get the OP off to a good start. It was information I already knew, but there was one piece of advice about purchasing a pair of running shoes that caught my eye.  It stated exactly...
"Go to a running store so they can analyze your gate."

Wait a minute. Analyze what? Analyze your gate? Do you mean that thing outside I go through that is attached to my fence? How does a gate have anything to do with running? I stared at the word for a second and then thought, GAIT. But then, don't racehorses have a gait? Do people have a gait? I guess there is a running gait which has got to be faster than a snail's pace. Which seems to be the speed I have been running lately. I digress.

So, during the times I read these forums, I am inevitably stopped by the odd word use, grammar stumble, or abbreviated shorthand (things like using OP that I have to look up)! It's become commonplace and really only stops me for a few seconds while my brain tries to catch up with what it really should be. It never stops me for long and I continue to search up things to read.  Then I came across this bit on a writing site that made me smile.

Good ole' Weird Al has set a tune to Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" called "Word Crimes".  He pretty much captures all those missteps I see all over the internet that make me stop for a second and think, Wait! That isn't right. So go ahead and click the link below and enjoy...I did.

"Weird Al" Yankovic- WORD CRIMES

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Story time

If I spoiled my legs yesterday for not running, then I gave them a stretch this morning. Not too much of a stretch but a better stretch than I thought I would be able to give them. I mean, what with all the spoiling going on, you wouldn't think 6.5 miles would have gotten run this morning at all. It did.

I've also managed to get some shopping done, clean up the floors and kitchen, and even play with Mr. L for a while. All is quiet again now with no one in the house, so I think it's time to pull out the book I started the other day and see where that story goes. That's what Saturday afternoons are for, aren't they?
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Spoiled legs

If I gave my legs a rest yesterday, then today I am just plainly spoiling them. No run again this morning. It was that early morning rational that figured out it best to skip another day. I mean, there were thunderstorms with my phone buzzing insistently about the flash flood warnings I just had to know about at 1:15am in the morning. I didn't give it a nevermind at that time. I thought I could go to the gym and make up a short 3 miler. Nothing doing. By the time the real get-myself-up time rolled around I decided to complete the vacation week mode for running even though I am actually going in to work today and worked yesterday, too. But my running got a short vacation.

I know what has put a pause in my training. It was a little too aggressive. I might need to take a more realistic look at my schedule and make some slight revisions. The fact is, I was zooming in on a race in late August I thought I might be able to get ready to run. This past week I realized the distance I am currently at and the distance I need to go aren't going to coincide by the established date. I thought I would motivate myself by saying it's an August run and I would do it for my Daddy-O. It's his birthday! Then I thought...no it isn't. The race is on 8/24. Dad's birthday was earlier in the month. The 8/24 birthday belongs to someone else entirely. So then I ping-ponged the idea of using that as motivation anyway but it didn't really matter.  I knew I was too far behind from getting to my distance destination by that date anyway. This wasn't a mental game but truly physical.

I will keep the option open. I will also take a look at my training spreadsheet and see what other plans recommend and make adjustments. I will have a run tomorrow and Sunday.  I mean, I haven't dropped out the race entirely, just maybe this one coming up sooner rather than later. No loss.  Adjustments are always needed at times. Spoiling yourself (or your legs) sometimes can be a good thing.
TT

Better hurry

Did I miss this mornings run or just take a short break to give the old legs a rest? I could go back and forth with this debate but I've decided it isn't necessary. On my last few runs I've pushed harder than necessary, so if I have been feeling a little stiff and at a loss for energy I know it's because I've been going at it a little harder than I should. This mornings run isn't going to make or break anything. It could probably help that I didn't push.

It's back to work to close out the week with two days. Should I have taken the whole week? Nah. I'll save the time for bigger and brighter. Besides, it's only two days and then another weekend. And it will all be at home sweet home. No traveling, no packing, not a thing to plan or calculate. Mornings I can get up and run whenever I finish my coffee instead of Oh, my! Look at the time, better hurry...

Like now.
TT

No trouble in Paradise

 We had a flat tire on the way out to the coast. There seems to be a line of demarcation that we can't cross without something going wrong with our car. This isn't the first time we have had problems at about this same spot while traveling.

Luckily, it wasn't a big deal. We heard something that sounded like small rocks hit the undercarriage of the car and then a loud grinding sound. We pulled over and the front passenger side tire was ka-put, flat, and with an L shaped gash in the side.

"Hello, OnStar?" We were only delayed about an hour or more by the time they sent someone out to change the tire for us. No. There was no way we were going to try and do it ourselves. No way. It was a good thing. They did it all in record time. They came with all the equipment to do it and knew how. We would have torn ourselves up, sweated out blood, gotten frustrated, and still not have had enough air in the spare to get anywhere. They did have all that and we were on our way again without any wear and tear on our bodies or mentalities. Once we arrived at the coast, we were even able to buy a new tire, and stow the lowly spare away.

So, the escape began and was well played from there. A night out, a morning run, a great seafood lunch, hours of fishing and reading and relaxing. It was all it should have been.

A flat tire couldn't come close to putting a damper on this time off. It couldn't even come close.
TT

Working on a Sunday

I've been getting some bookwork done this Sunday morning. Doesn't everyone complete a quarterly sales tax report at that time? Or make sure the business and personal bank accounts are up-to-date and showing real figures. How about writing up that deposit and a few checks? It's all normal stuff around here. And today especially, since I always go through what needs to be done before leaving town.

Yes - leaving for a few days to my personal paradise!  A year since I've been there! How did I let it go for so long. No matter. I'll be there this afternoon. I'll get my run in now before pulling all the gear together, stuffing a small bag, and saying adios to the city for a spell. 

Can't wait until I'm on that ocean road so I can lower those car windows and breath in that salt air. A little bookkeeping on a Sunday morning is nothing when it pays these kind of dividends.

TT

What's your number

If you put down the numbers that have some connection to you, which would they be? I could mark these numbers.
It's been 41years since I graduated High School. I will be married for 35 years in November. My oldest son will be 33 in December. And my youngest son is 29. I'm sure I could come up with more.  I was only a month away from turning 55 the year I completed a half marathon. It's been a year since I've been out to my personal paradise. I checked and it was 7/7/13.

41
35
33
29
13.1
1

They are all just a bunch of numbers. If you looked at them all in a row, they don't look like much. Or they look like a lot. It doesn't change the fact they are all only numbers and some we had more participation in than others. Some just roll around every year without any help from us. Some we worked hard to get them there.

But each one is a cause for celebration. Each little tick and mile marker is a party in itself. It's time to start the party for each number we can put up on our imaginary bulletin board. There is a lot of strength and joy that went into making the list and how curious it feels to be able to look it over. All those numbers connected to you, branching out it ways we didn't think about. What does your list look like? It's not such a bad list, now is it?

It's cause for celebration.  Where's the cake?!
TT

This side of the glass

I was going to say I didn't know where my time was going. It seems I haven't hit this page in a while and it's becoming more and more (or should I say less and less) that I come up here and spend a while. But the mornings I used to spend dawdling in front of the laptop has been used to gear up and run a few miles. It's taken my morning time and the only reason I'm not out there this morning is I updated my training spreadsheet and I am precisely on track. Well, of course, that is if you hit every marker listed on a spreadsheet you devised yourself. I will say it was devised based on a couple of other 'real' training plans I had or researched. And I haven't gone in and revised it during any time just because I wasn't exactly up for a run. So there. I'm on track.

It seems odd to have the few extra minutes to sit; to be able to watch the sky turn from dark to gray to light looking through the glass of the window instead of out on the pavement. It's nice to have the two different perspectives of the same thing. Both are really nice to experience and even better I can pick one or the other on any given day. Outside/inside. Today, after many other days, happens to be inside and since it's seems like such a long while since I've noticed it from this side of the glass, I can appreciate both.

A rest day was in order and on track and now it seems I don't know where the time has gone! The sky is lit, the clock is ticking forward, and I have to run! Except, it's only to work, and not running down the road...
TT

Remember the cherries

I was reminded of a song my Dad loved as I was pitting an entire bag of fresh cherries last night. It isn't unusual for us to have all kinds of fresh fruit in the house and you will find cantaloupes, pineapples, peaches, bananas at any given time, although it was a first for the cherries. Jay bought an entire bag! Since I don't care to put anything in my mouth I have to spit out, I thought it best for me to eliminate the pits. It was also so I can stew them up and put into a pie crust.

But I couldn't help that song of Dad's going through my head. It's a pretty old song but the lyrics are kinda awesome...

Life is just a bowl of cherries; 

Don't make it serious

Life's too mysterious.

You work, you save, you worry so,

But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go.

So keep repeating it's the berries;

The strongest oak must fall.

The sweet things in life

To you where just loaned

So how can you lose

What you never owned?

Life is just a bowl of cherries

So live and laugh at it all.

Way back when we used to sing that song, I never took the lyrics very seriously but it turns out they are pretty accurate. What bold statements for such a simple ditty. Dad had some pretty good reasons, other than it was a popular tune, for liking this song. Who knew?

So it was going through my head last night as I pitted a big bag of cherries. So live and laugh at it all!

TT

YouTube: Judy Garland: "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries"

Flashing July 4th

July 4th flashed by at an amazing pace. I think I might have blinked and here it is July 5th with most of the morning flying by at seeming the same speed as yesterday. Whew!

I started out the day with my 4-mile race.  CC (Dante's girlfriend) picked me up and the both of us headed out. What a great morning! It was weather perfect and the race organizers promised to start promptly at 7:30 am and they did. The chips were secured on our shoes and we hit the blue mats to activate our timers and ran. The first mile had the biggest incline with the reward of making the first turn-around and heading right back down again for a little added speed. We weaved in and out of the giant area including the last mile running across the sidelines of the grassy, and in a few places, wet and slightly muddy, soccer field. It was a quick up-the-pace sprint to the finish after that and it was done. CC was waiting at the finish and we hung out, grabbed some water, and checked the listings for our times before leaving. It said I finished the 4 miles in 38:18. What? It really was an amazing pace. I don't run that fast but my tracker said pretty much the same, so I'm not sure if it was just July 4th flashing by or what the answer might be. I'm good with it. CC managed an excellent 36:12 or close to that. The official website hasn't updated yet but good race, wouldn't you say?

This morning I went out for another run.  It was unofficial and in my own neighborhood with all of it's glorious inclines. I might have bit off a little more mileage than I should but it seems it felt a little much then and not so much now. I ended up with a good little run of about 6.5 miles. It wasn't at the amazing pace of yesterday but then, well, so?

Now, I've got some regular things to do. The tub needs to be scrubbed. A few groceries need to be purchased, and I might want to check out some new running shorts. Yeah. that.  Good idea. I should do that before the entire weeks flashes by.
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Past is past

When I looked over to the right of this homepage I noticed this: Blog Archive - 2014 (99). It means I've rambled on this year with 99 posts. It isn't as much as other years when I was posting one every single day but it's still a substantial amount of rambling.

And that seems to be a constant with me. I didn't just notice that particular number (99), but I realized I have a tendency to keep all kinds of statistics, numbers, tickers, journals, notes, and some type of way to see how I've measured up.  And it isn't only here. Let's face it.  I have a device that has tracked and stored my runs ever since March of 2010. That's a ton of running information. My iPod has all kinds of music and can tell me which are the top songs I've listened to, even if I don't think I listened to certain songs that many times. I use free appls to food journal. Of course, I do - doesn't everyone? Isn't it important to know that three weeks ago I ate like a Clydesdale and I'm still maintaining the same weight for that same amount of time? How about checking myself on the last time I wrote on a certain story and calling myself out for how long it had been? It's all interesting information that I seemed to think was important as a weight and measure.

It isn't really. If I have figured out anything about all the stats, numbers and tickers, is the numbers are great but as soon as they are entered, they are old data. Too much data can sometimes hold me back. Oh, look - I did so much more back then, why aren't I hitting this harder, longer, faster, smarter. More recently, I've noticed something else. I'm on the same track as some of my best past stats. I'm going at it as hard, fast, and just as long and smart. So all my tickers, and trackers have come almost full circle and I haven't really been thinking and checking them all that much. I'm doing my 'things' without noticing precise measures.I guess it's great to have all that past information, but what really counts is what I'm doing today and plan on doing tomorrow.

So when I noticed the (99) on the right hand side of this page, it was a moment of Oh, look. But, that was it, without a thought of how much better, consistent, longer, and smarter it should all be. I had some pretty fine food that day I ate like a Clydesdale. Maybe I DID listen to that freaky song that many times. As I think about it now, it isn't 'measuring up' like it was before. All that old data is only that - old, and not what I can do today or plan to do tomorrow. Doesn't that matter more than everything else in the past? I can change it all, simply by doing something today.

Oh, look - (100).
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All Set

"We ready?!"

This was the text I received last night from Dante's girlfriend. Let's stir up some excitement for the 4 Mile Freedom Run we both signed up to run tomorrow morning! She had just picked up our race packets and will be picking me up in the morning so we can go out to the run together. Let's start off (another) long weekend for me by running 4 miles on July 4th! It never hurts to build up some excitement and I'm looking forward to the race.

Now, I realize it isn't the way most would start out their July 4th. If anyone was going to get up early it would be to fire up the grill for some low and slow smoking. Okay. So, my low and slow might be my pace but the time spent will be smoking. What better way to start out a holiday? Besides, if I wasn't going out for an official run I would be running anyway. This way I can start the whole celebratory feeling right out the gate. Right? Tons of people, everyone hyped, ready to expend some energy and kick off a three-day weekend. It sounds like a real good plan to me. So I'll have some coffee ready, a bit of banana (for Dante's girlfriend) and head out for 4 miles on July 4th.

And my reply to her text?

"Oh yeah ready!"
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