QUOTE OF THE DAY (OR MORE): "No, no. You don't understand. This is an '89 Calico. I'm pretty sure that exceeds the Kelly Blue Book value. The cat's totaled." --A comedian whose name I forget talking about a vet who presents a $3,000 bill for a 12-year-old cat

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

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!

9 comments:

  1. Good for you indeed.
    Tomorrow morning don't take any crap from that night owl pretending to be your morning self. She's feeding you a line of "stay-in-bed" bull.

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  2. I have a slightly different inner monologue that goes something like "do you want a chai from Starbucks or are you just in the habit of a chai from Starbucks?" And then I say to me "aww fuck it" and steer toward Starbucks.

    Oh, and yay you! I love being awake in the early morning. I am just physically incapable of it.

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  3. I've heard of this "early in the morning" and that it is beautiful. Next time you see an "early in the morning" will you please snap a picture and email me the jpeg?

    Good job, um, being yourself on the side of the road...
    :)
    (seriously - good job!)

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  4. Congrats! The thought of a morning run has never entered my mind, or anything with the word morning really for that matter, but that's awesome! Next time the hubby goes to burst your bubble remember the only important rule, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
    p.s. love the whole dog monolouge!

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  5. I don't trust a morning person.
    End.Of.Story!
    Mornings are the devil!

    Tomorrow hit snooze 6 times, that's almost an hour of extra slumber, bark at your kids "time to get up, we're late" as you walk to the kitchen for your morning coffee, snarl at your Hubby as he kisses you all chipper for work and you'll know what it's like to be me!

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  6. Good for you! I usually dont listen to me either.

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  7. My preference is to run in the morning. Oh wait, my preference is NOT to run--but when I do I would rather do it in the morning.

    I ran last night and ran longer than usual because I was thinking about your post last week about the hills and felt a bit inspired so thanks! (For the record I was not running hills.)

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  8. hooray for you--I'm an early early morning person, I usually go to bed at about 1:00 a.m!

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  9. I have a serious question for you (which is weird for me cause i am usually not serious)

    I cannot run until after I have eaten. Which means I have to eat at least 1/2 an hour before running. Forgot to mention that I cannot eat for 1/2 hour after I take some med's. So one hour tacked on to running time.

    The question is: do you have tips on what works best to eat and maybe would get into my bloodstream quicker? I'm thinking about power shot type things; but wondered if you have a recommendation. There are SOOOO many varieties.

    Whoa, way confusing question. Maybe you can make sense of it.

    And...I thought maybe your husband woke up early for a different type of servicing. See, I'm not always serious.

    What an inappropriate comment. :)

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