Mornin Running & Man-Panties Cont’d

As I wrote earlier, Kindergarten started this week. No, not for me, (I already failed that grade), but for the Grifster. It’s been a whole new adventure waiting to happen. Gone are the days of casually strolling into daycare a couple hours late. Nope, now there’s a new four letter word – “Tardy” – And it’s a no-no.

Sooo, what does that mean for my running. Welp, I have to get up an hour earlier on the weekdays than I was. I’m going to miss that hour. We had some dreamy times together. But I have to be home before the sun comes up.

Run Dun B4 Da Sun. Looks like I’m the only star on the track this morning.

It’s not so bad (once you get past the not being able to see the ground thing). The roads are pretty empty. The stars are there to guide me. And I come across the occasional cross country team in training.

Anyway you sickos, I noticed another fool found my blog with ANOTHER man-panty google search. I always get a chuckle out of that. People are weird.

2014, the year of the man panty. It’s about time they got equal rights.

Anyway, I’m still adjusting to the new sleep schedule (so are the kiddos), but it will be a good thing, I think. It is def nice to have them actually go to bed at a somewhat decent hour, I’ll tell you that much! An advantage of waking up early…you fall asleep early too! Boom!

How bout you? Has school started where you are? Has it changed your schedule (even if you don’t have kids – I know school zones always mess with my commute!)? How will you support the Year of the Man-Panty?

-Scott

Disney Dopey Training Week 8

Disney World Dopey Challenge – 4 straight days of races in Jan – 5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2.  On the Hal Higdon plan I’m following, his week’s start on Monday…er, ok.  Mine start on Sunday, but whatevs.  Going by his plan, it looks like this:

Mon – Rest, Tues – 4 miles, Wed – 7 miles, Thurs – 4 miles, Fri – Rest, Sat – 10 miles, Sun – Cross Train.  I also have a couple gym sessions in there, and still deciding on my cross – Def yoga, but maybe a little trail run too?  We shall see.

So Dopey indeed!

This is one of the “easy” “off” weeks that we are rewarded with after pulling a back to back weekend of runs.  This past weekend was a 6 miler followed by 16.

This morning’s run was kind of eerie.  Not many people on the roads, not much light from the crescent moon, very overcast, mighty windy (around 20 mph), humid humid – 90%, and 70 degrees.  So yes, my tank top was soaked.  The weird thing was that most of the run there was a faint smell of skunk in the air.  I hate coming across skunks on my runs.  I have yet to be sprayed, but I’d rather avoid any chance.  Believe you me you, I was analyzing every shadow to see if there was a white stripe in there (no, I’m not talking about Jack White).  Luckily, ole Peppy never revealed himself to me today.  Maybe he smelled my musk from my sweat and it was too much to handle, so he scurried off.

True words. It takes a lot of work.

My only dilemma this week is that I usually get up early before work to run.  If you don’t know, I work as a TV producer.  And the problem is that I have an early shoot on Wed.  So I’d have to get up extra extra early to get my 7 miles in.  I’d say I should just wait and do it in the afternoon, but we’re supposed to have a massive storm roll through town.  Don’t think I want to be running in hail weather.

Oh crizzap, I think I just convinced myself to get up at the butt crack of dawn.  I guess it’s good training, after all for the Disney races, we have to wake up at 2 a.m.  Yes, it’s an early check in and start time, so the alarm goes off at 2 flippin a.m.

How’s bouts yous guys?  Ever come across a skunk on a run?  What’s the earliest you’ve gotten up to run?

Morning Runner = Zombie

I am not a morning person at all.  Never have been.  I still don’t like it when people talk to me when I first wake up, and I usually don’t respond to them.  Jerky, I know.  But it takes me a while before my mind and body feel right. I feel like a zombie some mornings.  Which reminded me of a funny scene from one of my fave movies.  It’s the first shot in the trailer for Shaun of the Dead, where you think he’s a zombie, but he’s really just waking up:

That said, I’ve been getting up early to run for a few years now.  It’s pretty much a necessity in Texas.  It’s so fargin hot out during the day, and it’s still hot during the morning, but not quite as hot.  I’m still disgustingly sweaty after my run and have to let my clothes dry out for a day before they can go in the hamper.  BTW, one of the ways to know if you’re a runner is if you have two hampers – one for regular clothes, one for workout gear.

But running in the morning has other advantages that I do enjoy.  Most notably, you get the workout out of the way, and have the rest of the day to do whatever.  It is funny though that for me, the morning workouts always seem like they happened on another day.  Sometimes I’ll forget about them until I go up a flight of stars later on and wonder why it was more difficult than normal, “Oh yeah, my legs are tired from the run earlier.”

I do also enjoy the quiet in the mornings.  Less people up and about, so less traffic and noise.  Though now that school’s back in session, it’s less so.

Another advantage is getting to see the sunrise.  I don’t take my phone on runs, so you’ll probably never see a picture here, but I do see some pretty spectacular ones.  Especially in the park near my house that has a lake-pond.  It’s cool to see the sunrise reflecting in it.

And I do enjoy the times we get breakfast afterwards.

It’s also good to get the metabolism into gear first thing too!

Short story: One morning I was up early to run and must’ve checked in on social media cause a friend of mine who owns a bar/grill commented that she was just going to bed from working all night.  Which reminded me of a lyric from one of my fave singers, Mr. Jimmy Buffett:

“These days I get up about the time I used to go to bed.” – Coast of Carolina

It’s true.  I may not like it, but it’s happening.  And there are plenty of advantages to doing so.  But until I become a morning person, don’t talk to me right away.  I’ll just answer you with silence or grunts.