On This Early Friday, with Regular Routines Looking to Weekend Opportunities (and Storms)

 I have already slept most of the night, and the next day (Friday, May 8th) is about to unravel before me.  We're approaching the weekend, and part of it has me set up to try out yet another Depot aparkrun 5k,along wtih around 100 or so participants, including many seniors and a lot of young folks.  They like to proclaim that this isn't a competition, but you wouldn't know it if you saw it!.  To me, finishing it

with energy to spare is my overriding concern.Tomorrow it will be primarily a matter  of taking things lap by lap,restraining myself from letting my overcautious and comfort-seeking mind from prematurely deciding to quit too early, when my body still has plenty of juice to conquer the course.  Well, this morning, a couple of hours or so before dawn, I mentally wrestled with the idea going ahead, getting up, going to the bathroom, and getting started running in place in the living room while waiting for the coffee to brew.  I finished my mini-workout and am now writing this out.  Then I'll kick on the air conditioning and go back to bed, stirring up Peewee Daisy's excitement. today there should be some baseball action to follow on TV, and I wish you all a wonderful, fulfilling time as we head into what promises to be a rainy and stormy Saturday...

Fresh New Day Lies Ahead, Possibility for new Routines

 This early morning I woke up between one and two, finally making it official with some fresh coffee and ten minutes of living room floor running in place.  Along this journey I missed about recovering my ability to cover 5K distances, most preferably through light jogging.  Will I be able to do any of this during the approaching Saturday morning?  Dunno, will have to see what comes.  My progress will need to come in small, humble steps without anything overtly ambitious.  Ultimately I want to return to a habitual routine of doing weekly 5K Parkruns, and maybe down the line an occasional race of longer distance...I'm talking Florida Track Club  or US Road Running.  A few weeks ago I was experiencing some difficulty staying vertical during shopping and medical visits, and asphalt-surface walking was markedly limited when I noticed how taxing lifting my feet and legs was during these attempts.  Anyway, this coming Saturday I'll see if I can't get myself up early enough, show up...and follow through!   in the meantime, growing a reasonable routine during the rest of the day, including watching what I eat, reading and studying, will determine my success level.  once the day gets going earnestly in a few hours, I'll have chances to take some personal initiative with my life.  That will include trying out the white Camry, to see if it runs properly, and maybe spin it a little down my neighborhood streets.  The plan includes intentionally avoiding the excessive media news/politics/war/opinion coverage plaguing us over the last few years and weeks...  

Stumbling with Routines During Multiple-Holiday Season

 I've been working on getting through this annoying head cold I've been suffering from during the last few days.  With the sinus congestion working on overdrive along with sneeze-triggering irritation in my sinuses and throat, life has not been very enjoyable...especially during the late-night, early-morning hours when I am accustomed to be asleep.  Now we're entering the highly-hyped holiday season, so naturally I feel that the expectations are for me to abandon all of the routines I have established, because Thanksgiving and Christmas, after all, are  "special events" and I'm presumably guilty of something if I want to do things regularly and responsibly, albeit on my own. Tonight on Thursday Night Football, the Buffalo Bills are at Houston to play the Texans.  I don't feel anything approaching the confidence I had in this team to win games as in years before, so I won't be surprised if Houston prevails.  Maybe I'll do some "rock-running" exercises while watching a NYC Marathon virtual YouTube video, or maybe I'll take a break from it all.  It sure would be nice for me to be in "reset" mode whereby the future is open for me to make responsible progress in distance running.  Let's see if that can't happen in the next few weeks of "holiday wonderland":guilty as charged...

Skipping Today's Parkrun 5K

Last night my sleep was fitful, with my FitBit watch registering the experience at a "poor" 53.  Had Melissa and I arisen at the same general, normally-early time and concurred on attending this morning's Depot Parkrun 5K...just a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville...we'd have suited up and walked the event's four laps, getting our barcodes scanned and finishing (walking) times posted online...to view them click HERE.  To be sure, I was already outspokenly confident that I could easily cover the 3.1 miles...it was just a matter of "how fast".  Well, we skipped it and enjoyed breakfast together at home.  Later I checked the posted results, noting how similar they were to previous trends even with today's much cooler temperatures in the forties.  We just came back from our neighborhood walk: 2 laps totaling 1.4 miles in 26:23 (not that I was racing).  Earlier today a registered nurse doing physical therapy visited our home and we sorted out the facts of my ongoing condition.  Hopefully, by early Saturday morning on the 8th, Melissa and I will be ready to resume our weekly Parkrun adventures.  In the meantime, I'm stuck with overhyped college football games on TV: I don't care who wins or loses, but I'm sick and tired of the loud, overemotional hype and stupid commercials presented in hip-hop.  This evening, baseball's World Series finishes with the deciding Game Seven between the LA Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.  I have nothing at stake with the outcome, so whatever. Later on this coming week, my scalp's staples should be removed, allowing for a tighter sealing of my skin on my head.  My appetite's good, digestion seems to be working, and I'm very happy to NOT be expected anytime soon at work. I would just like to enter a phase in my life in which I can establish some regular routines without "special events" imposing themselves on me and interrupting my initiative and actions. Oh, one other thing.  The Democrats in my Gainesville area installed a ballot initiative for voters to decide on whether the local public utility should be locally-run instead of by the dictator-DeSantis-controlled state government.  The fascists sued to keep it off the ballot (they don't want my vote to count for anything), but this Tuesday we can go down and vote on the measure, for all the good that will do if it passes.  When I walk into the voting room, I expect to be thoroughly scrutinized and harassed by hostile, partisan poll workers...

Back from Cruise, Routines Returning

I am a creature of deliberate routine, having normalized several different daily habits over the past months and years.  That's not to say that I'm going to stick to them all for the interruption that a three-day cruise creates, and this is good to know in advance.  For example, this past weekend I let go of my routine of listening for set time spans to different languages as well as doing writing exercises in them.  I relaxed my exercise workout standards as well, along with the limits I usually place with my eating.  After all, I'm focusing on the cruise experience, right?  But today is the second full day back and the old routines are returning to form, and that is a good thing. And what do you know, in only the span of one week the front and back yards look like they're ready for yet another mowing: back to that routine...      

Our Medical Storms

Three years ago I underwent open heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm and replace a congenitally defective heart valve.  Instrumental in the successful outcome was Melissa, who cared for me and was my advocate.  Now it is my turn to be that caring advocate as she is undergoing her own medical/health issues in the ensuing days and weeks.  As such, my ordinary routines and schedule are subject to interruption and change...necessary under the circumstances.  Please be with me in my prayers for her successful treatments and quick recovery, and for my ability to be a positive force in her well-being throughout this unfolding process.  As for this blog, it probably would be a healthy discipline for me to try to continue coming out with something fresh each day, but there may still be some gaps here and there...

Neighborhood 7.2 Mile Run/Walk Successful But Sometimes Annoying

Since the Wednesday before last I have changed my training routine a bit, inserting outdoors road running (alternated with walking) for Wednesdays and Sundays.  The mid-week outing by necessity takes place in the morning before I go to work in the early afternoon, while on Sunday it looks to be more in the early sunset period...like today was.  I had already run this 7.2 mile course, which is an extension of the 3.3 and 5.0 milers I ran the last two Wednesdays.  It was 81 degrees with 36% humidity when I started out around 6:40 PM...not bad at all.  But what was vastly different from my mid-week runs were all the people out in the neighborhood...especially the children with their street games, remote control car toys and bike riding, although toward the end they tended to thin out as the evening shadows increased.  And I wasn't too happy to have to contend with the weekend traffic around me, either.  All in all, though, I felt good with my venture, alternating the running and walking at two minute intervals...my finishing time was 1 hour 21 minutes 3 seconds.  To help me along the way I asked Alexa on my Amazon Music to play a mix of Kasabian songs...that's a British alternative group I've followed for the past couple of decades.  My plan is to keep increasing the distance covered...at least on Sundays when I have more time at hand...while sticking with my 1:1 run/walk ratio.  Hopefully the brats wonderful kids will stay out of my way... 

Making Wednesday a "Neighborhood Run" Day

Keeping in line with my desire to expand and structure my running and walking to encompass set courses around my neighborhood, independent of "official" races, I did a mid-week walk-run in my northern Gainesville home subdivision of Northwood Pines, along with the adjacent Northwood Oaks.  I've done this course, which amounts to a 3.3-mile loop, a number of times.  It's the closest thing in my mind to the old Davie, Florida 2.9-mile looped course that encompassed my old elementary school (Nova Blanche Forman), junior and senior high school (Nova) and junior college (Broward Community College).  My plan is to either run this course each Wednesday or speed-walk it, as I gradually increase the distance.  Since I work through the weekdays and report in during the early afternoon, my Wednesday outings are late in the morning.  Yesterday the average temperature during my run-walk was 75 degrees with a 65% humidity.  I split my run:walk ratio at 2:1 and finished with a time of 33:40. I also am thinking of going out, when circumstances allow, on Sunday afternoons for longer run/walks.  Should be interesting...

Work or Vacation, It's All Good

Sometimes it's a good idea to just sit here and write some free-flowing stuff.  Right now, it's midmorning on a Monday, my workweek ahead of me before I begin a two-week vacation.  But I have found that, within my daily normal routines...and that includes going off to work...I can find a sense of purpose, balance, relaxation and refreshment in my life that many tend to believe can only happen with an absence of structure and accountability.  For me, a vacation is a break in my routines, time to experience something new and different, and possibly go on an adventure.  Whether I'm traveling or not during this period, I am content with the time off, as well as when I return to the "old grind" when it ends.  Structure's good...but so is adventure.  Things like this blog, foreign language study and an assortment of other daily routines I'm engaged in may take a brief break during that time, but there is also fun living in that present moment and experiencing whatever gets thrown my way.  It's all good...