A beautiful people morning

Last night's dinner party went well but there was the matter of going to sleep a little late. I rely on my body and mind to wake me up. I avoid alarms. So when I woke at 625 I thought I might be late for the Sunday run.

I made it.

It was a damp morning with overcast skies. Rain had fallen sometime earlier. At least it wasn't as nasty as Dallas had it (freezing rain in the low 30s). It was a balmy mid 60s out. The sun eventually came out.

I sensed myself in a communication-less bubble. Last night at dinner I was sitting there with one of my guests and I felt some awkwardness because we had nothing to talk about. This morning, on the first two miles of our run when all the gabbing goes on, I was running by myself while everybody else was matched up talking about something. I was aware of it but it didn't bother me. When the run boiled down to me, Chris and Bob going long, we did manage to connect and talk a little. I came to find that Chris spent many summers of his youth in a beach house in Quonochantaug, RI, just miles away from me and Susie doing the same thing.

You may remember me bemoaning one of my Christmas gifts: a tome on running about 1,000 pages long. It goes so deep into analysis of biological and chemical factors that it brought back flashes of the many times I changed majors in college.

Yet, I still was sucked in by some passages yesterday afternoon about fueling while running, to maintain necessary glycogenic levels. So today I practiced my new plan. First of all, I have forgone Gu and adopted Cliff Blocks as my in-flight fuel. I cut them in half for convenience and carry them in a baggy. Works better than Gu for me.

I drank a bottle of water just before I started and popped a half-Block every 30 minutes. I found my stamina was consistent throughout the run, minimizing the pits of fatigue. Towards the end of my 16.5-miler I went with a block at 20 minute intervals as I sensed a sapped strength creeping in. It all worked today. We'll try it some more next week.

I covered the distance in 2:39:35, a 9:43 pace which beats last week at a mile shorter distance (by six seconds/mile).

After I stretched I changed clothes in the car trying not to offend the eyes of Sunday morning's beautiful people out for a stroll. I took a two block walk down to Starbuck's and used a gift card to buy a scone and tall Americano. I grabbed some newspaper and caught a prime seat outside on the sidewalk to people-watch while I refueled and read. I had finally gotten my act together to join the beautiful people on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in Florida.

Thank you. Thank you. Life is good. Especially Sunday mornings with long runs and the beautiful people. (Track workouts come in a close second).