Amendments

My last post, Four by Four, seemed a bit heavy on the food mentions and light on the originality - who doesn't love the smell of bakeries or freshly washed clothes? And though I love California, it's a frequently visited state that probably appears on most people's "states I have seen" list. Where has my creativity gone? I feel like I used to be able to manufacture interesting and unique answers to routine questions, but now my head is so clouded (and exhausted) all the time that I just type some garbage and call it a post. I'm going to attempt to amend some of my responses to the survey -

States I have seen: Arizona should have made the list. In the summer of 2005, the sticks and I went there to hike the Grand Canyon. Our two day adventure began at 4am in the dark when we headed down the South Kaibab trail (steep!) stayed over night at Bright Angel Campground, and then hiked back up the North Kaibab trail (longer and steeper!!). Our original plans were to hike back down and up to where we started, but we had to scrap them due to the realization that we had done enough (and perhaps the fact that our itinerary was stamped "Dangerous. Do not attempt." had something to do with it). But, blisters, soreness (quads get wrecked with this kind of activity!), and fatigue plagued us..it was supposed to be fun, not a death march. So we packed up shop and drove to Las Vegas for a little pampering and some nights out on the town.

Grand Canyon, July 2005

When thinking of smells I love, it's hard not to rush right to the food category. But if pressed, I could come up with a number of good smelling things that aren't edible. Brand new school supplies come to mind. After teaching for many years, you start to associate the scent of freshly sharpened pencils and unopened composition books with new beginnings. Each year is a chance to start over and do a better job. Even though for most people, the new year starts in January, I will forever think of the year as September to June (with the summer being "free" of course ;))

first day of school

I'd also add flowers to my list. I'm particularly fond of lilacs - few things announce the spring season like recently blossomed lilacs. Plus they're purple and a gorgeous shade of it!

As for goals, I pretty much exhausted my list. I don't set too many goals, and the ones I do aspire to achieve are usually pretty attainable. Though I did once think I could spend a whole year living on a sailboat - I probably could have, but on one of our first sailing expeditions, I realized I am not cut out to live the boating life for too long a period. A week or so is plenty. I do think it's possible that we will someday sail the windward islands; if we do, we might have a decent sized "crew" of kiddos to help out on deck!

the Grenadines, March 2010

The TV show category is just a waste. I was already hard pressed to find TV shows to list that are worth spending my limited time viewing. So I won't add any more. 

Anyway.. running. That's what I'm supposed to write about. Last week was a good one. Another 27 miles. I ran five days and had a nice mix of longish runs (7 on Monday; 8 on Sunday), recovery runs (2 on Tuesday; 4 on Thursday), and even some speed work (6 miles on Friday with 6 x 800s at 8:10 pace). I did two ab workouts and some yoga as well. Writing all this makes me feel like I'm already off to a lazy start this week. I only have one 7 miler on the books from yesterday. Perhaps I can muster up some motivation to strike some poses later today..the sun is out and could use some salutations, haha.