Long run!

I must say that there is nothing quite like the mood of goofy exhilaration I fall into after getting home after a good long run.

I cannot write the incredibly long musing I would like to, I need to shower & eat something & get out of the house and en route to New Jersey for a family event - but a few miscellanous thoughts:

No shuffling this week, that is one of the mysteries of life! No knee soreness or calf stiffness to speak of, and best of all no foot pain. I was mystified by why my feet were so sore last week, both during and after the run, and then it occurred to me that actually (yes, I know I should log miles on shoes!) I have done probably about 95% of my run miles since mid-September in a single pair of shoes, and that it was not surprising that the cushioning should be totally shot. Zappo'd a new pair and wore 'em today and it was amazing what a difference it made - feet were like sort of blissful little pillowy things instead of strange bunion-shaped sore bony appendages!

3:24 total time for 18 miles, that is not at all fast but it is almost ten minutes faster than last week - I am glad that I can mentally categorize last week's one as an anomaly - today I felt at a comfortable pace throughout and picked up in the last couple park miles because I suddenly had the scent of home in my nose (food! hot water! blog!) ...

Upper 30s and sunny - in a way it is a pity I have not had more thoroughly Antarctic conditions these past two weekends, but it is probably just as well, I am under a lot of work stress just now (not bad, just busy!), anything that makes it easier to get out there and stay out there is good.

I feel that there was a whole other angle that I was eager to develop in this post, but it now escapes me! Oh - yes - (apt!) - I have completely misplaced my Polar HR monitor. So no lap splits - the Nike sport watch I used today is primitive, it just has stop and start but no laps!

I am still hoping it will turn up - I should check at the lost and found at the gym, that is the only place where it seems at all likely that I could have left it (i.e. in a pool locker) - but I had been wearing it for the last few weeks instead of a regular watch because the battery died on my real watch and I hadn't had time to get it replaced, so I suppose it is possible I took it off while teaching & forgot to pack it up again while putting things back in my bag....

I can get by without it for a while, but I hope it turns up again - if not, it will just have to be written off as a casualty of the insane multi-tasking lifestyle of the last few weeks. Last week I also misplaced three commented-upon papers (fellow teachers will be groaning in sympathy, there is nothing like losing a paper one has already written the comments on - those comments are written in blood!) and had to get the students to e-mail me clean copies and do them again - and then on Friday I found an interoffice mail envelope in my box, some good samaritan had clearly found them and returned them to me, only too late, I had already done the new ones - I think I must have left them inside the lectern in the lecture hall, it has a sort of cavity that often has surprising things in it (most disgustingly but also comically, in recent weeks, a nearly full and very cold cup of coffee!).

I am devoutly resolving not to set myself up for another stint like this anytime soon - at least not for another couple of years! It has been a real humdinger...

18 lovely easy miles