The Enchiladas made us sick, but that's ok

A day that has seemed like it's gone on forever. It started with a 5:30 wake up. Since I'm still staying up to date with how everyone is running in Charlotte, I've been paying attention to the weather, the humidity, and the dew point. Having read how stifling and muggy it is, I am somewhat blessed that in DC it's not that bad. I checked the dew point for my area this morning and it was 65, I'm not really sure how bad that is, but it didn't feel anywhere close to what Charlotte is like this time of year.

As for the run, it started out pretty well. I went onto the C&O trail to get some miles on the gravel. I kinda realized that the distance that I was running was going to be catching up to me when I had to turn around. At the 9.5 mile mark I turned around and realized the daunting task that was ahead of me. To give a description of the trail it's like Old Bell, if Old Bell was 5-10 miles long. It's just flat and straight. I took comfort in knowing that I had the canal on one side of me and the Potomac on the other. At least it was something different. I wasn't feeling great, and what I like to think is a small breakthrough is that I soldiered on. I really wanted to take a long break or hope that there were cars that would cross my path, but it never happened and I eventually was able to muster what I had left and got back to my place. The route that I take isn't that bad, and the trails provide much more scenery than what I get in Charlotte. After the run I took my first ice bath in a long time. I think I'm going to make it a Sunday tradition.

After doing some core and stretching I was very much in the mood to get some brunch, but after getting dressed I realized I really didn't want to walk half a mile to get some food. So I decided to stay in and make some pancakes and scrambled eggs. At the same time I was walking the tour de crash. Even though most of the riders are probably doing some sort of cheating, I'll still watch it regardless. After the race was over I decided to take a nap. I woke up at 1 and was going to read the lesson plans I received, but on a whim checked to see what was up with the soccer game. Needless to say I watched a pretty good game and while I wasn't thinking as clearly as I could, coming up from a nap, I was enthralled by what I was watching.

Some other highlights included a half hour fire alarm in my building, where myself and the other residents waited outside till the fire department came. Nothing really remarkable happened, so we went back inside. I figured that for my Sunday dinner I was going to try cooking up the enchiladas I bought a week ago. I put them in the oven and was a bit disappointed by how small they were. I took about 45 minutes to prep them and 5 minutes to eat them. Not my mom's enchiladas, so if anyone has any suggestions for a Sunday dinner for me to cook I'm open to it.

Going to get a good amount of sleep in, probably going to disregard watching Leverage and Curb tonight to do some last minute prepping. But tomorrow is going to be fun and excited. I would like to say that I'm nervous, but I don't feel it right now. I kinda have the impression that I'm an actor onstage preforming. But what I'm doing is something that is important, so I'm not diminishing it what I'm doing. I guess that's the analogy that I'm looking for. I am glad that I can leave at 4 tomorrow and don't have to worry about being there till 8 or 9.

This past week has lead to some eye opening revelations about myself and really how much better I can be at a lot of things. I've been thinking that this pd was something that I should have done when I was coaching. For the school to help me out and for myself to work with my assistants. It's something that could have been done in half a day, but it's something that provides cohesiveness, structure, and clearly expressed expectations. When I got handed the head coaching position it was like, here you go. No training in how to deal with anyone, no training in how to deal with conflict. I could coach the sport, but there were so many other little things that go into it. We did have a meeting of all coaches at a bar, but I felt that it was something that was a waste of time, and really glossed over things. I feel extremely confident in myself when it comes to returning to coaching that on the side of managing the business side I'm better prepared. I also feel that being away has given me a new perspective when it comes to learning new training styles, so I'm hoping that eventually that will come back. And it hit me today that right now in Asheville running camp is starting. One day I'll be back there. That's what I'm telling myself. I've got a lot of things to make right and I'm repairing them one day at a time.

The blog post isn't in reference to my dinner, but a line from a song a Bouncing Souls song. The same song that I took to title this blog!

Cultured

I'm going to give today a perfect grade. It was nothing short of a rather relaxing day, doing and then folding laundry. Then ironing my work clothes. I was able to watch the beginning of the tour and the women's final on tennis. One thing that I like about the tour is how it reconnects to me the feeling that it's the month of July. It harkens back memories for me of watching the tour during the month. There was the time I watched a replay of it with Death* at running camp in 07. It was the first time that I really hung out with my roommate that week and I knew that this was a guy I need to hang out even more!

*Not his real name.

But the tour also allows me to maintain on my learning of the areas where it's been held. It's a refreshing course on history. I'm able to stay up to task on certain areas that I'm not sure if I know well. Also the fact that I can view in HD helps out a lot. The fascinating shots of the European countryside is another reason why I enjoy watching it.

The title of this post comes from the fact that I just got done reading the Washington Post (WaPo for short) and let me tell you, other than being the only individual who reads an actual newspaper on pages and not on a computer, that the writing is top notch. It's always humbling to read something someone writes and go, damn that's really good, theres no way I could do something like that. I noticed the language and the way the individual authors wrote their stories that I was getting something a bit better than the Charlotte Observer. Not to say that Charlotte is a stuck in the mud hillbilly type of town, but the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia area) is a higher media market, and thus attracts those from the upper echelon. I guess if you want to make a name for yourself you go to the place where your voice can be heard and where a mass audience will read your voice. I also don't think it hurts that Woodward and Bernstein wrote for the WaPo either. With that in mind I feel a certain sense of enlightenment right about now, although I wonder how much of my mind is turning to mush from the repeated viewings of Inception on HBO. I've probably watched bits and pieces of the movie about 10-15 times right now. It's a movie where I can watch it at any point and immediately get hooked.

With all that being said it's looking like another relaxing day, filled with a long run. I've explored the area a bit and will try out the C&O Trail tomorrow. I'm glad that this area is so conducive to running. I can go out from my place and within a half mile be at a trail. I really don't have any excuses for slacking off in training, aside from my job getting to the point where I reach a breaking point. But I have found methods to prevent that: reading and writing daily. Withe the abundance of trails I have areas to go out and just do my long run. I haven't reached the point where it gets boring, which was the case from time to time running at McMullen, McAlpine, or any of the roads in Charlotte. Right now I'm feeling good about a lot of things, but know that I have to be grounded in my approach. There's going to be a lot of obstacles that will in front of me, and I have to handle myself in the appropriate light. I feel that I have mellowed out a bit in the past couple years, and that I'm no longer tightly wound up. I still am super critical of myself and am already replaying instances where I fudged up. Also my interactions at some points and ways in which I could have handled it differently have come in to play. But other than that I'm getting into a groove. I'll probably have to wake up earlier in a week, but that's not to terrible. I just need to reinforce a line from one of my favorite movies:

"Everyday in everywhere were getting better and better"

Chief Inspector Dreyfuss

Although I don't really see the irony that this line was said in a mental hospital by someone who was put there because he tried to kill Jacque Clouseu. Of course putting "does your dog bit" doesn't have the same ring.