A Good Day

I woke up this morning at 5:15 to my alarm, and decided that 10 hours at the office was too much (plus the boss is out of town). So I threw my surfboard and running stuff in the car and drove out to Bolinas. I just kept feeling calmer and calmer as the landscape became more rural, with the orangey sunrise light and the cows grazing and the big old Doug Firs along the ridge. Per usual, as I drove I kept trying to figure out the perfect job where I can earn city money while living in the country.I mean, there is a reason that cooped up executives put pictures of Nature on their office wall, right? Maybe they havce more taste than I give them credit for (though the experience is mediated...uh oh, that's grad school talking).
I got to the beach and it was breezy and the waves were crumbly. I saw a man and his teeny daughter all bundled up and toddling, a couple people camped on the beach near the edge of the cliffs, a flock of pelicans cruizing over the water. There were 2 guys out messing around in the whitewater and another guy was about to paddle out. I didn't see anything that inspiring.
I drove out to the Bird Observatory at the southern end of Point Reyes National Seashore, and decided to test my knee out. I saw a bunny in the parking lot as I put my shoes on. I only jogged for a half hour or so, but holy cow the views out over the ocean were sweeping and incredible. My knee still feels achy, but I mentally planned a huge run for this weekend out at Point Reyes. We will see. I drove back feeling refreshed.
Pops drove me to BART, and I rode BART to work, attemping to help an Indian woman figure out how to get to the consulate. I managed various things at work, and helped out the kids next store by finishing some analysis I said I would do awhile ago.
I had a spinach salad and some microwave lean cuisine pasta for lunch. The diet is still going well enough, keeping my eyes on the prize as best I can.

Back to blogging?

It always amazes me how much information about me is stored somewhere online. I mean, Amazon can tell me which books (such as the Roadside Geology of Baja) I bought in 2002. I can barely remember what I did last week. Anyhow, this blog appears to still be here, as am I, so I figured I would give a quick update.
Got back from New York on Sunday night. It was a rough day. I ran 9 miles of the Wineglass Marathon (the first 1/3rd) as a relay, but I had intended to run the whole thing. But around mile 6, my right knee started killing. I made it to the relay transfer point (running 8.5 minute miles, happily), but was super disappointed. Enter cry #1. Afterwards, II and I drove back to drop me at JFK, but my flight was delayed which made it so I couldn't catch the midnight Airporter back to Marin. So my options were attempt to navigate public transportation at midnight on Sunday, to sleep on the floor of my office in Oakland (which also meant braving downtown Oakland at 1am), or calling my poor generous father and asking for a ride. Enter cry #2. Luckily pops was kind enough to make the journey- I don't think I could maintain this life without II or my family.
I have been babying my knee ever since with ice, heat, ibuprofin, and topical/oral arnica, but I'm still nervous about it. I tried to jog this morning and turned around immediately because it hurt. Instead I did an hour of elliptical training and 45 min or so of kickboxing at lunch, just trying to keep my overall fitness up. I have signed up for my first 50k at the end of the month, and I want to get in as much training as I can before it's time to rest. Now I am trying to figure out whether I should head to the Sierras this weekend with R and his buddy- I am leaning towards sticking around the Bay Area and being able to move on my own schedule. Maybe do a run with the Luna Girls or out at Point Reyes, eat some yummy pizza at the Bovine Bakery, and meditate out at the Zen Center all sounds pretty good right now. Of course, I would rather sleep under the stars any day, but my body doesn't seem to like the idea all that much at the moment.
Oh, this isn't my baby. I just thought it was the cutest thing in the world. No insinuations here either- I got a lot to do before I start breeding...