The exuberance from my morning run has faded and I’m at the tail end of a busy weekend with more to-do-list than time left. I feel like I live in a gigantic puzzle, you know the one where there are 16 slots and 15 pieces of the puzzle and you have to move everything to get two of the correct pieces to be next to each other? And not just my pack rat self and small apartment either.
Its 16 spots with one empty and I’m standing in it. I just laughed to myself as I read what I typed and it seems so much more dire than reality. Lots to do, but worth doing and the results and some fun in the doing will be more than enough reward.
Back to that morning run: it was gorgeous in Central Park this morning. Everything was lit up by that warm sun, and I even took the bridle path south. I normally take the paved road. It was a bit more scenic and the Lake was partially frozen over. I saw a motionless turtle that I hope was just lethargic. The little boy in me wanted to poke him with a stick, but the parent in me resisted just enough.
On the way back, I passed the dinosaur topiary in front of the Museum of Natural History. It wasn’t bad, even compared to the ones in that documentary I saw recently. Armed with that knowledge of what it takes to create one, I gave the green dino a bit more respect. I’ll try to bring a camera with me next time.
A couple more tasks and off to bed. This shortened week might just be what I need.
personal, run
dinosaur, run, topiary
- Is it really “man created in God’s image”, or god created in Man’s image?
- Is it a fools errand to seek God, or rather to find god in us?
- One person’s dogma, is another’s myth, blind faith is so dangerous
- I’d like to take snippets of song lyrics and make a play – not necessarily a musical
- [this is a stream of consciousness- and my focus is that fleeting]
- entrain, entrain what is my perfect rhythm, my natural melody?
- who to dance with?
- I think that was the market bottom for the year
- it be nice to have a dog again, but the responsibility is daunting
- 40 days left? Can I hit that goal? Have to ramp it up.
- if only we took the literal figuratively, and vice versa
- where is the beauty?
- the park in the morning was beautiful
- have to do those morning pages
- fire up the new computer
- move the zune over
- setup the laptop for the morning pages
- subscribe to that drawing site?
- netflix?
- enough
Rants, SoC, personal
Rants, SoC
The phone call was errant but well timed. To go back to sleep or not, that is the question. Suddenly I remembered the new running schedule that I planned on implementing… that is one of the new schedules that I was thinking of implementing. Still, I was awake and enough so to pull on one of the not-so-new running shirts and tights that I start to grow familiar with.
I stopped asking myself if I look funny in these black tights, somewhat due to repetition mostly due to being thankfully warm during these last few runs. It was 70 degrees 7 days ago, wasn’t it? (I might still ask a friend if the tights are …)
Some lessons learned for winter running:
- I need about 1 layer per 10 degrees F below 50F
- Lip balm
- Head and ear cover in the form of a cheap cap from the local 99 cent store.
So I headed out and woke quickly in the 15 degree’d wind-chilled air of a crisp New York morning. I decided to go into Riverside this time…incorrectly thinking that it would be less windy. I tried to focus on nasal breathing, to help the air warm and humidify a bit before hitting my lungs like sandpaper. Also all that jazz about nitric oxide being good for you (another upcoming article).
My face burned from the wind before I got too far. I pulled the black cap down a bit further and dealt with feeling good that my ears didn’t freeze like the other night. Thoughts strayed to my late dog Lena – a Samoyed that never truly lived in the moment unless she was out in the park on days like this. The thick white fur coat and huge smile that she brought everywhere with her still makes me smile every time I think of her and the nickname I gave her. “Hostess of the park” I used to call her as she would grin and greet almost everyone that happened across her path.
Those reminiscenses got me through the first mile – as I turned by the empty tennis courts. I looked out over the Hudson and saw the white breakers – if memory served that meant winds in excess of 12-15 miles. Somewhere in my past there was a NYPL book that outlined little signs of what milage windage caused what. Light leaves rustling? 2 to 4 miles per hour. Branches moving? then 5-7 miles, etc.
The wind chill and frostbite table would have prepared me better, as I didn’t know till much later that it was “feels like” 15F. I did decide to cut the run short as I got winded trying to pass a young coed that raced past me. She was finishing her run as she circled the Dinosaur playground and exited. I fed my wounded ego by running past her and back up the hill towards the north. Thankfully it wasn’t windy in this section. I could see my breath as I worked my way up the little hill.
A few minutes later I was home and warmly under my most comfortable comforter. The post run nap was splendid.
personal, run
cold, run, running, wind, winter
