Saturday, December 29, 2012

Didn't do three loops

We slept in, we had to pack up the car and leave PA.

We went to NY, and walked for hours in NYC one day...that was it for exercising in NY.  It was delightful exploring more of NYC, this time mostly the lower west side, including my new favourite street, and we stopped and ate a few times, and met up with friends, and woke up the next day with sore calves.  My husband thinks we walked about ten miles.  I'm not really sure.

At any rate, I didn't feel like running in NY.  The area where we were actually staying, about an hour from the city, isn't the best to run in.  Steeply cambered curving narrow roads and hasty unobservant drivers.  Plus I finally got "glutened".   It was a slow process, not a single debilitating meal but a titration of tiny bits of wheat here and there over ten or so days away from home.  Then, bam!  I hurt, I took a three hour nap (in my running clothes!! I was actually steeling myself for a run! thwarted!) and I spent the rest of the day slowly getting swallowed up by a sofa.  Running in NY was not meant to be.  But it's rarely satisfying in that area anyway so I didn't mind much although I was curious to see how the biggest hill nearby compared to the big hills in Kansas.  I think they're about the same, about a mile of uphill.

Sometimes, when faced with several days in a place unsuitable for running, and without training obligations, it's best to simply take time off and retrench in prep for the next place, instead of getting annoyed.  Thus is the wisdom gleaned from a very lazy year.  Take a break, wait for things to improve.

So now we're in the next place and things are greatly improved and there are no more excuses.

We are on Emerald Isle and there are miles and miles of beach.

I woke up to a dim blue fog and while thinking it would be really cool to run in that, I fell back asleep.  An hour or so later, I woke up to rain.  Probably cold rain.  We are in NC, not Florida, and temperatures are in the 0  to 12C range, perfect running weather except for cold rain.

I reminded myself that this was the Next Place, and there were no more excuses.  I had gloves and a hat and a windbreaker that was not waterproof but a good heat-trapper, and I set out with the dog.

The visible rain was mostly water rolling off the roof, and the real rain was small, and the air was moist, but humid and not clammy.  I felt surprisingly warm.  While we jogged, just two miles, the rain became mist and then nothing as the sun came out more and more forcibly, and we ended with a short pleasant stroll.  I told my husband about the change in conditions and we went out an hour later.  I wore the same clothing I had before, but by this time it was way too much, and I ended up taking off my hat, gloves, jacket and long-sleeved shirt.  Another two miles. 

We have eight more mornings here.  This vacation is also a potential reset: better eating habits and better exercising habits. 

The koi are still all alive though they are slightly sluggish right now--the water here is vastly different than the water inland and they are still getting used to it.  It's been interesting comparing the water from Kansas, PA, NY, and here, not to mention that from waypoints such as Missouri and Ohio and Indiana and Maryland (this has been an exhausting trip), even though I've been testing only the pH and amine (NH3/NH4+) levels; the latter determines how much CloramX I put in to treat the water.   I think the koi preferred the water in NY most of all. 

2 comments:

Fran said...

Farewell, Kansas!

cs said...

Kansas doesn't feel real anymore!