Blog

Slowing it down

First off, congrats to Matt on a great race at Kona!

I’ve been in Southern California since Saturday morning. It’s been a really nice and mostly relaxing trip and until this afternoon, I hadn’t spent much time on the computer (that’s a good thing!).

New York has been stressing me out recently. A large source of that stress has been the fact that I’m not able to “enjoy” New York as I’m used to doing. After a bunch of years of treating NYC as my personal party playground, I’ve spent the last few years treating it as my personal training playground. And, as I’ve written, fall in NYC is really for running. The whole city and a bunch of friends (including my Blogger friend over at Love of Shoes) are training for the NYC or another fall marathon. And I’m jealous. The weather has been beautiful training weather – cool mornings and evenings, not a ton of rain or wind. But as I have to keep reminding myself, I’m doing this in order to enjoy next spring and summer. It’s tough.

I’m also feeling a little harried by the NYC pace recently. Every so often when I’m walking through the City by myself – running errands, going to or from work, going to meet a friend – I’ll notice that I’m just flying down the street. It’s rarely because I’m in a rush or that there’s somewhere I need to be. It’s just because that’s that “pace” of the City. I’ve been feeling it more and more recently. When I notice what I’m doing, I try to slow it down, just a pause in my stride or a slight hesitation is often enough. I feel myself slow and notice the street and the rest of the people around me whoosh on by. The City just moves that quickly on its own. The pace doesn’t need me to keep going and I’m not sure I need the pace anymore to keep myself “going”.

So it was a nice time to get away. I don’t like traveling. I don’t hate flying like some people do and I love being in other places, but the process of traveling really destroys me – to the point where I often re-consider taking the trip over and over again throughout the entire process of packing, heading to the airport, checking in and even waiting for the actual plane. But once I’m on the plane, I relax and start breathing a little easier. And I’ve been breathing easier ever since the plane took off.

This trip to Southern California (LA, then San Diego for a day, now LA again) has been just what I needed. The weather’s been beautiful, I haven’t had a whole lot that I had to do, and except for wondering about how Charlie’s doing, I’ve barely thought about home at all. I’ve done some easy running and went for a nice swim in the outdoor pool at my parent’s Y (I love love that pool). I spent most of today sitting in the sun by the hotel pool in LA. Pretty nice life.

The highlight of the trip though was our Sunday in LA and San Diego. This trip was partly due to a prize package that Elizabeth and I bought at the CAF Gala back in June. We started Sunday at Fox Sports’ studios to watch the taping of Fox NFL Sunday. After the taping, we hung out in a little room (with 12 TVs) and watched the early NFL games. At various times, the Fox NFL crew came into the room to hang out, eat some food or chat. This was Elizabeth’s highlight:

It was sick. I’ll write more, but the guys were surprisingly engaging. After the early games, Elizabeth and I drove down to San Diego to see the Chargers whoop the Patriots on Sunday Night Football. It was a great game. Then, finally, we had dinner with my parents. I have a bunch more pictures from the day, but no USB to upload them until I get home.

Swim – October 8
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 31 minutes

Strength – October 8

Brick – October 9
Indoor Bike
Time: 40 minutes
Average heart rate: 125
Transition: 2:30
Run
Distance: 2.75 miles
Time: 24 minutes
Average heart rate: 149
Course: West Village, Washington Square
Conditions: Sunny, warm, mid-60’s

Swim – October 10
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 30 minutes

Strength – October 10

Run – October 12
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 26 minutes
Average heart rate: 139
Course: Beverly Grove (LA)
Conditions: Sunny, high-50’s

Swim – October 13
Distance: 1,250 yards
Time: 30 minutes

Run – October 14
Distance: 3.75 miles
Time: 34 minutes
Average heart rate: 148
Course: Hollywood/Hollywood hills
Conditions: Warm (low 70’s) and sunny