Two myselves

An alien abducted my body and mind this morning and got me up and out of bed for my run at 5:30 am. It's the only explanation for my strange behavior. Often I say to myself: "okay. I'm going to get up early and run. Get it over with. Be a morning person. Really start out the day productively." I truly believe myself the night before when I say this to me. I am gung-ho. Then the morning comes; it comes really really quickly. The alarm clock rings awfully early. The real me admonishes the morning-person-wanna-be-me. "What are you doing? You are SO comfortable. You can run later. You're tired. You need sleep." So generally I listen to this wise morning self and keep sleeping. Later in the day, I've not yet showered, because I'm still waiting for that opportunity to get the run in. It's summer now, though, and later= H O T. So I really need to reinvent myself, or rather get myself to listen to myself. It's the same two myselves that spar with each other over the snacking after dinner (i.e. ice cream). Me just doesn't listen to me.

The alien abuction this morning helped! I hit the snooze button one time, got dressed, trying not to think about the silly thing I was doing, and headed downstairs for a small cup of joe. 10 minutes later I was outside at the beginning of my 7 1/2 mile run. Ahhh. Beautiful temperature at 6 am for running. Much better than the humid afternoon heat. Go figure. See what you've been missing, me? Very few cars on the road, deer here and there....no sun in my face. Mornings are niiiiiiice.

Yay, me!

I had a fantastic run... The first 2 miles are mostly uphill, and I found myself at the top of the hill thinking: "huh. Usually I'm really exhausted by now from the hill, but hmmm. I feel pretty energetic." So I picked it up. All the training books say when you feel good, go for it. So I did. I ran the next few miles at 7.5-minute miles, seemingly effortlessly. huh. There's something to this morning running thing, me.

I finished my run with unusual gusto, did my silly drills (today's was running with high knees, two sets of 20 seconds each, and "bounding" - like the first few strides of a long jump? - two sets of 20 seconds.) There were, unfortunately, a few vehicles passing me by 7 am, but I plastered the big L on my forehead and did the silly looking drills anyway.

I went back into the quiet house, bumping my top-notch, sleeping German Shepherd "guard dog" out of the way as she slept up against the front door so I could walk inside. (ooh... scary German Shepherd... NOT). Yeah, excuse me, Soph? Do ya think you could move so I could get in? And did you happen to hear a NOISE at which you might have barked? What if it weren't me, Soph? She looked at me, yawned, and moved over to a different corner to resume her nap.

All proud of myself, I yelled: "Good morning, family!" to my sleeping family members. The boys were still out like a light, though they needed to be at school in an hour. The husband isn't usually out the door until 7:45. I walked into the kitchen with another hearty: "helloooo, family! Good morning! Everyone up!" and my husband, in the kitchen already, scared me to death with a "well aren't you the hero?" Bubble burst. Sails without wind. Unbeknownst to me he had arisen unusually early to take the car in for a servicing. Yeah. Um. Husband? Next time I'd like to order a "good for you! I'm proud of you!"

And there WILL be a next time!