What A Difference A Couple of Weeks Make!

Wow, it's been two weeks? Thought it was less. I suck.

Big news related to my Fred's Team run is coming. Can't talk about what it is just yet, but I am so excited for it to happen!

And yes, I am officially registered for the Team!! I have not yet begun actively soliciting funds for my Fred's Team run; in fact, I haven't even personalized my official Fred's Team webpage yet (still waiting for permission to post some things) but if you want to make a donation now to help kick-start this year's Honor Roll and my Fred's Team effort, click here!

As of right now, I am the first member of the Honor Roll, with a donation of $100, which was the money I would have spent on opening night gifts for the SUITE SURRENDER and TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE companies and crews.

When I last spoke with y'all, my runs were going horribly, and I was wondering if it was because of the super-humidity or if there was something else going on. I had been sick just before leaving NYC and didn't run for a week, and I didn't know if I had somehow destroyed my endurance in that week off. Well, I got fed up and tried an experiment: I got up extra-early and ran at 7:30am (okay, maybe not early for most people, but I didn't need to get up early that day.) Lo and behold, a planned four-miler turned into almost seven! I'm no doctor, but there was my diagnosis. And luckily, this past week there's been a cold spell, with temps in south Florida hitting the mid-60s. Heaven! I've run every day this week so far except today. I should've run today, but I was staying home waiting for the delivery of my parent's new Lay-Z Boy recliner. It came before noon, but I had already committed myself to a day of sloth. And laundry. I am so relieved to know that it's only a matter of getting more used to the humidity. Of course, I haven't been running real distances, so that part of my endurance IS probably shot, but that's what the summer is for. Maybe I'll try to do a little distance training here before heading back to NYC, nothing too crazy.

Now, if you look at the sidebar you see that I ran seven miles on the 14th. My Nike+ has been acting strangely. First it wouldn't remember my running history, even my last run, although it would have the info and upload it when I sync'ed my iPod. When I look at the runs on the Nike site, they, how do I say it, look funny. They don't dip and curve with the different paces, even though the paces are recorded. Now when I turn to it, it takes forever to load. The Nike+ forums had a bunch of people with the same problem and it was suggested to reset the iPod. Now it seems to be working OK, but the calibration is weird. It was spot-on for the other runs, but the 7-miler I think was more like 6.6 miles. Strange. Anyone else have this problem? I'll pretend like I did a seven-miler at an 8:13 pace, but I think my time is more like 8:30 - 8:40.

All that aside, did you see my run on the 16th? Check out that time. Part of it was the wind. There were sections of the run that were really Marcel Marceau-y, it was that gusty. But on the way back from the run -- a real tailwind! Running with a tailwind is great, it sort of gets you under the armpits and lifts you up a little, is the way I describe it. I think that's why my time was so good. But I was also pushing it a little; I was running a little late and had to get ready for work.

Lastly for this post, and certainly not least, my dad was here this past weekend. We had a lot of fun. Our big task while he was here was to replace the green chair in the apartment. When my grandparents (on my mom's side) passed away a few years ago, we kept their apartment since it was bought and paid for and cost peanuts to maintain. I stay in it when I'm in Florida working. When my grandparents first moved down to Florida from NYC in the 70s, they brought their furniture with them. And never replaced it. After they passed, we got rid of a lot of it, like the blue vinyl garden chair they kept in the den (the metal feet had rusted through to the floor) and the record player / 8-track console. But for some reason, we kept this hideous green chair and ottoman. It was extremely lumpy and uncomfortable, and I don't think anyone actually sat in it for years. My mother finally gave the clearance for my Dad and I to throw it out and replace it. Being that the apartment is on the second floor, I was looking forward to a lot of unintentional comedy as we got the chair out of the place and down the stairs, but since we used a dolly and the elevator, I had to settle for winging the cushions at my Dad from the second floor walkway.

There's a 10K down here next weekend, now that I know I can run in the early AM without too much trouble I'm going to sign up for it (it's at 7:30am next Saturday.)

More anon!