Monday and inspiration

This is Asa’s last full week of summer vacation. He starts preschool next Wednesday. This coincides very nicely with the mileage ramp-up for Javelina, but I will miss the little fellow. It’s early in the morning and the house is quiet, so I can notice these feelings. I was not noticing them — or feeling them — yesterday afternoon around 2:30. It was in the low hundreds (again), Eliot had been at the office since 9am, and I was not I was not meeting firefighter dress code. (No! You have to wear your helmet when you’re in the fire engine!!) (Is this true real firefighters out there? Helmets whenever you’re in the engine? I feel like I was right and the 4 year-old Mussolini was wrong.) This morning though, I am thinking I will be sad next Wednesday. Maybe all the way to the car in the parking lot…

I’m feeling a bit groggy. Do instant coffee crystals lose their potency as they get older? Now that I am back to one cup a day, I might have to drag out the coffee press. I ran with Chris at 7 last night on flat trails. Eliot went mountain biking in the morning at Government Canyon and I realized as soon as we dropped him off at work afterwards that it was going to be a struggle to make it out the door for an evening run unless I had company. Thanks Chris. I’ve had a lot of good conversations on the trail lately. I get to give a little talk next month (hour-long) about running. It’s supposed to be interesting, fun, and inspirational. I’ve got good stories to cover interesting and fun, but inspirational is a tall order. I’ve been talking to the guys a lot about it. Who’s inspired their running? What’s inspirational for them? I still have a lot of conversations and runs to have. What do you all think? What makes for an inspirational runner? Do you have a particular runner who is your touchstone? Are there any speedy-and-in-the-magazines runners out there who inspire your training or racing? I would guess that would be the exception rather than the norm. Our group was inspired by people they know. I’ll post the speech for your feedback as soon as I get it together. What’s gonna work? Teamwork! (I am inspired by the Wonder Pets.)

Here’s a Tedx talk by Krissy Moehl that I saw recently.

Well done, eh?

And here’s what my friend’s son did to her couch cushion yesterday while she was checking her e-mail.

Running: 40 minutes

Push-ups: 6,6,4,4,5 (So weak.)

Nutrition: in a bit