Anniversary

Well... It must be Monday. Seriously, today was a total clusterflubber, I hardly know where to begin. I suppose this particular manic Monday started off when I woke up an hour late. WTF? Where the heck did my alarm go? I set it last night for 6:00, and lo and behold, 7:30 rolled around and I felt unusually well-rested until I glanced at the clock and the four alarm fire started me out the door (late)! With nary a minute to grab my now routine cup of fresh brew from the Keurig, I made a Indy car style pit-stop at the savior of all things dark roasted to snatch my fix. Ten minutes away from work, I took the first several (and all-important) sips of my Sumatran Reserve before ripping through the work parking lot and sliding the car into a tight little spot made just for me in just under 6 minutes flat. Hoo-rah, a new PR.

Most people are used to me walking in late to meetings - I call it fashionably late - so it was not a big deal to show up at my 8:00 this morning at 8:10, strolling in with that quintessential, triathlete, cocksuredness style (wet hair, scruffy face, deep dark cup coffee in hand). Sorry folks, I suppose we can begin now.

The day continued to roll along the same trajectory when I made my way to the pool for my early afternoon swim. A quick dip for active recovery today never felt so good... Until I got out, was about to take a shower, and realized I'd forgotten my shower bag that has my soap, deodorant, lotion, hair stuff and, oh yeah, COMB!

Breathe deep. Breathe deep. Nothing makes me forget about my Alfalfa hair like a good lunch. Too bad the credit card machine at the caf was down today and I didn't have any cash on hand. Put the giant salad down. Go out the door. Get cash from the ATM (at which 20 people are standing at). Feel stupid because your hair is a complete mess, you stink like chlorine, and your skin's as dry as an alligator's. Get cash (and get charged $2.00 service charge). Go get your now-soggy salad and pay for it. Oh yeah. I never had it so good.

Lucky for me I had another meeting right after lunch which, yup, I was (fashionably) late for. This time, no coffee in hand, but a huge bottle of water which, if anyone ever saw me without, would hardly recognize me. It's pretty rude to eat your lunch in the middle of a meeting, so I decided to wait until it was over... Not really. Actually, I'd forgotten to get a fork at the caf because I was so disgruntled over the credit card machine issue. Turning around the room to look for anything I could stab lettuce with, I found nothing but inquisitive co-workers asking: "What's up with your hair Joe?"

Thankfully, the day ended shortly after my 2:00 lunch. Nothing left to do but relax on my recovery day, have a bowl of cereal, and update my blog. But believe it or not, this is the second time I've written most of this post because of Ehf'in Blogger being on the fritters. Thanks Blogger... How many years providing blog-service and you haven't yet implemented an auto-save feature?

Anyways, yesterday was Sunday and I ran another half-marathon. This time, I had fresher legs and was supposed to do the first half at sub-tempo pace and the second half at up-tempo pace. The result? A sub-1:38 13.1 miler. At the half-way point of the marathon last year, I posted a 1:44. Last Sunday on tired legs I posted a 1:40 and yesterday, a 1:38. Good to the last drop. And yesterday marked my last "long" run before the Tinman, meaning that I'm going into my taper with some serious confidence.

Finally, the picture at the top of this post was taken just about a year ago at a local off-road triathlon. It was the first really hot and humid weekend here in the Northeast, and a real ass-kicker of a race course. Amazing to think that it's been one year since then.

On a final note, it's taken me to 6:02pm to finish (and finalize through blogger) this post tonight. Two minutes ago I heard my alarm clock go off upstairs... Oh right, that should have been set for 6:00 *am*. Well, that explains it.

Keep it easy out there, and thanks for reading.