Wow, so.
Turns out I am a horrible blogger! I knew it had been a while, but it’s apparently been literally two full months and then some since I last posted here. Shameful.
Coincidentally, the last time I posted was just two days after the half-marathon that wasn’t. You know, the one I stopped blogging about training for back in MAY. Obviously the steep drop-off in posts was connected to the steep drop-off in training. And obviously I did not run the darn thing. I am famous for my stick-to-it-iveness, did you know that?
Anyway, so what have I been up to the last two months, while not running a half marathon? I have been running some other things. After I fell off the training wagon, I stopped running almost entirely until after the half-marathon date had passed, so I could start over with a clean slate (the exercise version of those people who eat ice cream for lunch and then figure, screw it, and eat like crap the rest of the day too). But then I very quickly got back on the wagon and it’s been good. I actually ran a 5K in August, and today I ran a 7K. Baby steps. In general, my plan these days is to try to become one of those people who exercises for fun. So far, it is kind of working thanks in part to having bought a bike. Turns out biking is really fun. And not that scary. My first ride after buying it was to Ocean Beach with Ace and Alice, and that was actually somewhat scary/frustrating at times because first, my tire was already flat (notice how I said it was my first ride after buying it) and second, I apparently could not figure out how to shift gears so at some point I shifted wrong and the chain fell off. Had I been alone, I would have panicked and walked home. (Actually, later on that day it did happen when I was alone, but I was luckily only a few blocks from home.) But yesterday I went on the same ride with Alice, and it was much less stressful. I think this is partly because just a few blocks from my house, I totally crashed after riding into a Muni train track (the bane of all SF bikers; also, something I know to avoid, but found impossible to avoid in the moment). I emerged with bruises on one leg and a gross scrape on the other, but I also felt a lot better about biking somehow, like, I’d gotten one of the scary things over with already and survived. Even biking back on the wiggle, that one steep block on Page, which has historically been utterly terrifying, was actually a little fun. So that is good.
This is somewhat of a brain dump because I’m not in the habit of writing here anymore and I have nothing particular to say. I’m just sitting on the couch nursing the aforementioned scrape on one knee and finishing the beer I got out of the fridge in the 8th inning of today’s Giants Padres game, which is probably the most nervous I’ve been watching a sports game (reason why could be a long story but is also an obvious one). I had this epiphany that this is why sports and beer go together, because the beer helps calm you down…
People I rarely see who are friends but not regular/close/around-all-the-time friends always complain when we try to meet up because my schedule is always so jammed and I never know why. It’s true that my Google Calendar is a frightening thing, and it always seems to become that without my realizing and before I can control it. I have this sense, though, that fall will bring with it some more sanity. Does that normally happen? Am I deluding myself? (Quick look at Calendar.) I might be. But it seems like fall allows for a few more moments like this one — sitting around in PJs in the twilight catching your breath. And seeing movies, and maybe roasting a chicken. The summer in SF was truly awful this year, and so I don’t really welcome cold weather out of principle, but I have always been a lover of autumn so I can’t really help myself. There are some upsides. Perhaps the fall will mean it will be less than two months before I next post here… let’s cross our fingers.
