Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

This is not the best of Mondays.

1. I have a classic case of “runner’s knee” thanks to yesterday’s run – nice little stabby pains in the left knee. Made walking to work oh-so-much-fun (and stairs? don’t get me started on how much fun stairs are right now). Also almost guarantees no race next Sunday for moi. This after making it through the entire training season for the race with no injuries. Ugh. Looks like the post-running season gets to start early.

2. On top of the stabby pains on the walk, I realized halfway to work that while I had made a nice, fresh carafe of coffee and put it in the thermos to take with me, said thermos was in fact still sitting on my kitchen counter. Which means I am doomed to at least one cup of the substandard “Starbucks” coffee they have downstairs (at least the Starbucks branded stuff is better than the regular swill, but it’s still not anywhere close to as good as I make it at home, nor to how an actual Starbucks establishment would make it).

Blah.

Got up this morning totally Mr. Cranky Pants. Did not want to get up, did not want to go run, did not want to see anyone, did not want to do anything. Sat around, pouted, read the paper (they’ve been delivering it regularly since Tuesday), pouted some more, and was generally in a horrible mood. Was feeling like I’m tired of training for the marathon, I’m tired of feeling like I waste an entire weekend day doing the long runs, and a lot of, “Why am I doing this if it’s not fun?” Of course, I do it because it is fun, I do enjoy it, it’s just that I was feeling a total lack of motivation this morning. Was also missing MG, who’s been away for work this week. And, as I said, just feeling a big dose of the blahs. Must’ve had something physical going on as well, stress-wise, this week, because my eczema’s flared up as well.

Thankfully around mid-afternoon I snapped out of it as I did massive amounts of floor cleaning (yay swiffer wet), did laundry, even ironed (which is a measure of how blah I’d been feeling – I never iron). Feel much better now. MG’s headed back to town tonight, and will wander over. In the mean time I’ve lit a bunch of candles, popped in a movie, turned the lights off and am relaxing. It’s not quite meditation, but it’s much more restful than I’ve been of late. Hopefully the long run tomorrow will be better for excising Mr. Cranky Pants from my system.

In other news™, I had an unexpected surprise yesterday when I pulled up my leave and earnings statement. Evidently the beginning of the month was an anniversary at work because I went up a step for the paycheck that hits next week. Extra money is always nice, especially unexpected extra money. Oh, and my parents now know about the new neice/nephew, speaking of expectations, and also that my brother will be teaching sixth grade starting in the next week or so. Good news all around (which made the attack of the cranky pants all the more bizarre).

Started looking at dates for races for next year. Cherry Blossom and the Dismal Swamp look doable – CB’s about 2 weeks before DS, and a 10 miler would be a nice training run for the 13.1 miles. The Rock ‘n Roll Half is also doable, just need to decide if I want to sign up before the end of this month for the cheaper registration.

Upgraded WordPress last night, and fixed Live+Press this evening. L+P was having the same issue it did when I first installed it, so had to look up the fix. Thankfully I knew I could fix the problem, it was just a matter of finding the issue and uploading the errant file again. Yay for easy fixes. Had to upgrade not because I particularly wanted to but the comment spam was starting to become an issue again and that was something up with which I was not going to put. Leave it to security problems to force an upgrade. Thankfully someone put out an unsupported version of L+P so I can still dual post to LimeGerbil.

Along with planning the season I’ve been giving thought to the off-season. I think this year I need to hit the weights more and add some strength that’s been missing. I know I can add the cardio endurance, but I’ve neglected weights and that’s affecting the rest of performance. Plus I’m as vain as the next guy (moreso, many would say; after all that song is about me), and some pretty gym muscles would be nice to go with the other ones. I have pretty nice legs, but the arms are, well, lacking. And the swim would definitely benefit from stronger arms. Not to mention strengthening my back is going to be crucial to doing longer rides as I lengthen my triathlon distances. Nothing worse than coming off the bike with a back that’s ready to kill you (takes a couple miles to work that out, making the beginning of the run pretty painful).

MG and I went to the local BDSM club’s S&M 101 course last night, this one on restraints. Was remarkably easy to do the body harness once they showed us how to put it together. A useful skill, and one that I suspect will come in handy. Just need to get some cotton clothesline now instead of the thicker stuff I’ve got now (not long enough, and a tad too thick for this purpose). Glad we went, it was fun and informative. Looking forward to next month, impact play (smacking, hitting, flogging, etc.), even though I know I’m not terribly keen on that on the receiving end.

I decided to cut today’s run a little short, figuring that a good three hour run would be better than a good three hour run followed by a crappy two hour run (had originally been planning to be out there for almost 5 hours – ouch). So I cut it short on the first loop around Hains Point and headed home. It was actually a pretty good run, with the exception of two potty breaks I ran the entire thing, which was a welcome change from what has been the norm, breaking down and walking for bits after about 3/4 of the run was done. So, psyched about it, sore tonight, and glad it went well.

Still trying to decide what I’m going to do for races next year. I think I want to try to do the Cherry Blossom 10 miler (and see if I’m cursed again this year or not – third time’s the charm?), the inaugural Great Dismal Swamp 1/2 Marathon, the Rock n’ Roll Half, and past that I’m not sure. I’d like to do a late season 1/2 Ironman triathlon, and an olympic distance race or two, but I’ve not gotten off my butt and looked at which races are out there yet. Do need to do that soon as those things tend to fill up quickly (for example, every Ironman distance triathlon in North America is full already, and probably were right after they opened up – methinks they need more races).

Did get out of the house this evening for a nice dinner at City Lights with MG. He’d not been in a while, I am always up for City Lights, so there we went. Was good, as usual, and I’m glad we went.

Oh, and oddly enough (for me), I went to a DC United soccer match last night at RFK. And, surprisingly, I really, really enjoyed it. The action was fast enough to keep my attention, but my friend and I could still chat, and I understand the rules of the game, having played it in my (otherwise) misspent youth, so could actually follow the thing (unlike, say, American football, which has no real rules except that The Time On The Clock Is Not Real And Thus The Game Will Last For An Almost Interminable Age Before It Mercifully Ends). Unfortunately the home team lost (to yankees, no less – the horror!) to the NE Revolution, 2-1. But was nice to get out of the house (again), and to experience something new, even if it was kiddie appreciation night or something like that.

I’ve been avoiding my gym for a couple months now. I know, I know, bad fag. But with a pool at my disposal that was outside in the nice open air for the summer, why go swim inside? Thankfully my locker was still locked, my shoes were still inside, and all was right with the world.

There had been a bit of a scare a couple months ago that they were going to close the pool, but they had a huge outpouring of protest from the members, and instead had the members meet with them and suggest ways to make it all work for them. My montly dues will go up in November, but I’m okay with that, it’s not that large an increase. And I’ve now offset it by discarding my membership in the gym at work. When thinking over stuff, finances, etc., I realized that I had originally joined the gym at work so I’d have access to the showers for when I biked down from my old apartment. Now that I’m a mere 10 minutes away, there’s no need for it, so why pay? So I emptied out that locker today (more shoes – oy), cancelled it, reassured the poor guy at the desk that I had nothing against them, but that I didn’t need it now that I’d moved and that I needed my other gym with the pool more (as a triathlete). If I feel the need for a treadmill I can join the little fitness center here at the cult co-op for a third of what the work gym was costing me.

Speaking of the cult co-op, I had asked the general manager last week if I could get an extra door fob (for the towers) as well as an extra gate fob (for the outer gates) since the instructions for the gates allowed us to get an extra gate fob. She finally replied with the answer that I’d have to petition the board for one and they’d approve/disapprove it. Yeah, I don’t think so. I’ve asked, with a cc to the board president and the head of our security committee, whether we have an accounting of all the outstanding fobs and proof that they were all asked for and approved by the board (I’m certain the answer is no). Not going to let this one go – I want the extra fob because I want MG to be able to get in without having to either go down to get him or making him “sign in” at the front desk in the other building. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Okay, so today was most certainly the start of the last week of the fiscal year. Nothing quite like watching budget people wig out over other staffs’ mismanagement of their programs.

So I came home and did what I normally do when I’m stressed out. I downed a fifth of good bourbon. Since I’m not currently drinking until after the marathon, I cleaned.

Somehow putting things in order seems to calm me down, as I’m sure I’ve written about before (but I’m too lazy to look up any entries). The dining room table is clean, the desk is clean, my triathlon/exercise books are in order, and I’m about to tackle the cookbooks (those have been driving me to distraction of late as I try to find particular books and they’re in no order). The floor is clear enough (and was even before I started, honestly – this has been an effort to attack surfaces above the floor) that the roomba ran nicely around the whole place while I worked on particular areas, rescuing it as it ran into the bathroom or got stuck on the living room carpet. A nice, soothing scent’s been going in the burner, and I just closed up the house for the night, to shut out the noise.

It’s certainly a healthier reaction than the other usual one, and I do feel better for having cleaned stuff up, but it always strikes me as odd when I ‘come out of’ a cleaning fit and find specific spaces put into order and looking much, much better than they had at the begining of the evening. Neuroses are such fun.

I have my first sports injury of the season – on my right foot “the little piggy that had none” got a lovely matched set of blisters that made the last 2-3 miles a very unpleasant walk home. Hopefully they’ll callus over and negate the need for any serious ugliness, but it was an obnoxious ending to a long run. Yay for weird toes (this particular toe smooshes down against the one next to it, such that it has a little wedge-shaped callus already, in front of where the new blisters appeared today).

Did myself a favor this time, ran out about 5-5.5 miles on the Mount Vernon trail, turned around and headed back into East Potomac Park to do three loops around Hains Point, mostly because there’s a ready source of water in Hains Point (three public bathrooms). I ended up filling up my fuel belt water bottles twice, and drained them all each time (8oz x 6 x 3 = 144 oz water). Was only down by a pound from my weight in the morning, so that wasn’t too bad.

The knees have had their usual soreness post-run, but with the freedom of sandals I was able to make it to the grocery store and back without pain. We’ll see how the piggy does in shoes tomorrow.

Simple dinner of black beans (canned, zapped), saffron rice (from a bag, stove top cooked) and fried potatoes (fresh, again stove top cooked) with MG this evening, which was quite nice, satisfying, and blessedly simple. Going to try and make crock pot oatmeal this evening with the kitchen timer I bought a while back. Am keeping my fingers crossed that it works; warm breakfast with minimal effort in the morning sounds oh-so-nice, and the durned crock pot ought to get some play at some point.

Fall has hit DC with a vengeance. From temperatures in the high 60s at night, we’re currently at a lovely 53 degrees (up two from the low!).

This kind of weather makes running outside much more pleasant, not to mention being able to cut off the A/C and throw open the windows all night finally. And, bonus, I get to haul out the big, fluffy white bathrobe(s) when it’s colder than cold inside the apartment when I get up in the morning (I can so hear Margaret Cho channeling her mother, crying out, “soooo gaaaay!” right about now). I love the fluffy white bathrobes, but there’s really no need for them when it’s warm out.

The temps will climb back up over the weekend from their current lows, but them they’re back down again next week. I expect soon we’ll hear calls here at the cult co-op to switch the A/C over to heat (it’s an old all-or-nothing system, one or the other, not both). The BGA, which has the same sort of system, will do the same. Which will, of course, result in an indian summer heat wave which will bake us in our units for a week or two, but so be it. In the meantime, it’ll be fun to watch people scramble for portable heaters.

The new shoes have helped the knees. Biking up to get the shoes has also helped get me out of my “I’m walking to work” groove and back on the bike. I do like that it’s quicker, it’s the whole changing clothes at either end part that’s not particularly fun.

But it definitely felt better to bike in and back today.

Work’s still crazy busy. Wish I could talk about some of it, but alas, the cone of silence continues as I do like keeping my mostly-comfortable job. Two more weeks and we get to move on to the next set of craziness, also known as the continuing resolution period until after the election. It’ll go at least until then, and possibly later depending on which way the electoral pendulum swings. One house gets lost, they’ll likely ram the budgets through ASAP. If the current majority stays in power or gains, they may just punt the decisions to January. Either way it’s bad budgeting. Too bad the typical voter doesn’t care about whether they put a budget in place or not.

Otherwise there’s not much to report. I’ve become even more boring than I was, but most days that’s just fine by me.

I bought a signed copy of a memoir about breast cancer written by a lesbian this evening. I’m not sure why I did this, except that it sounds like it will be interesting reading (lesbian relationship drama!), and perhaps it might help me deal with my mother’s own survival over having had breast cancer a decade ago. An odd way to learn about it, but one does what one can.

No running this week after Tuesday morning’s run. My knees began to hurt, which is a sure sign that New Shoes Must Be Purchased, so I will do that this weekend. The race last weekend went well, despite evidently needing new shoes. I ran it under 30 minutes, as was hoped (28:10), but not under my PR (27:33). I did have to remind myself that the PR was set on a very, very flat course and that this one had two slight hills at either end, so that was some slight bit of consolation. That said, I was still happy with the results. If only the marathon would go so well.

Otherwise the silence has been merely busy. It’s the end of the U.S. Federal Fiscal Year, and since fiscal law is what I do for my Big Government Agency, it’s a relatively busy time of the year for me. I still enjoy it, thankfully, but it has kept me somewhat occupied of late. I also purchased a new game for the DS, Lost Magic, and am enjoying that thoroughly. It’s horribly distracting, but I have put it down every now and again.

Still seeing MG, and that continues to go well. He makes me happy, I enjoy the time we spend together, and I look forward to more time spent with him.