Gloomy Day USA

What a gloomy day it is today in Northeast Ohio. Generally I turn on a few lamps in the office and let the window shine (even on cloudy days) on my workspace. Not today. I had to turn on the fluorescents. And they’re sucking out my will to live.

Not that I need another excuse for being lazy. It’s springtime, baby! And I’m ready to start training. I started this new season with Saturday’s race and really kicked off my training with—what else?—a recovery run on Monday.

I realize the recovery should have been run on Sunday, but I was busy doing a whole lotta nothing on Sunday. Between naps, snacking and watching basketball tournaments, I was swamped! Monday would have to do.

It was the usual, slow run around the hood for 25:00 at 10:00/mile. From the time I finished my race warm-up until last night, my calves were tighter than the doctor ordered. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday doing yoga and just kind of hanging out in downward dog, hoping for a calf-stretching miracle. That tightness continued into Monday.

And went away about three minutes into my run.

Recovery runs, believe it or not, are much-disputed territory and much-practiced in the sport. While some runners and trainers swear by the lactic-acid and muscle-repair theories about recoveries, others think they’re just slow, wasted miles. As if any miles could be wasted miles!

Considering the success of my own recovery run, I’m leaning on the side of the recovery-run believers. Not the haters. It's been nice doing yoga that focuses on something other than my lower legs and getting out of a chair without sound effects. But for your own opinion-setting, check out this fresh perspective on recovery runs.

All day Monday, I was eager to get home and take to the road. Until I realized weather.com was blatantly lying to me. The site claimed it would be 52 degrees—FIFTY TWO!—after work, and I was ready breathe every available molecule of springy air. Only when I arrived home, it could have been higher than lower 30s outside. Yuck!

For the next several days it’s going to be somewhat chilly and wholly rainy. So, I’ll have to find my way inside. Somehow.

Good news is I’m making room for more training time: Neil and I are closing in on purchasing our first house. Yeah! We kind of started the process yesterday and waited about 3.5 seconds to start looking for respective dogs. Any suggestions? Neil's leaning toward schnoodles; I want a pound puppy that can run! (Hence the puppy-spirited post.)

While I’ve gotten used to the commute (doing some lower back exercises at home and on the road have eased the physical pain), it will be super nice to have back two of my three hours commuting each day. And I thought my birthday already passed!

Plus, I’ll get back some of my sleeping hours and shed excuses for replacing activity time with naptime, eh? Or maybe I’m just getting old. Tonight, in fact, we’re skipping the Mike Doughty show at Beachland because a) opening act starts at 9 p.m.; b) we won’t get home until it’s time for me to head back to work; and c) it would put me in post-work nap mode for the rest of the week. Someday we'll have social lives again (it's really not that bad)!

This six hours (or less) of sleep each night just isn’t cutting it. But I’m glad we’re changing things before it becomes a problem!