New Ground Rules

“Let’s take it back to the start…”
Coldplay, “The Scientist”

As I mentioned before, I’ve done a lot of thinking about the direction I want to take with my blog. This is the post where I’ll try to spell everything out.

In the interest of fair warning, this would be a good jumping off point if you’re looking for something related to training or racing, because you won’t find it here today. On the other hand, if you’re into long-winded dime store philosophy and agonizingly insignificant wrangling, feel free to plunge forward. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

By all measures, things have been fairly crazy for me and my family lately. I won’t rehash the details, but you can scroll back a few posts if you haven’t been following along. I came to the conclusion that blogging is one of the lowest priorities I have going on right now.

But I enjoy it. So I want to make it work somehow.

The reason I started a blog was very simple: I enjoy writing. It is a hobby that I practiced before this medium existed, and that I would probably continue even if the blogosphere hadn’t been invented.

Like most writers, I want people to read my material. I want to continually get better at the craft of writing. And I hold a tiny notion that one day somebody influential might read something I write and think it worthy of being published for a wider audience.

I still want all of those things. And having a blog suits those needs perfectly. However, there were other aspects of blogging that I hadn’t anticipated, which seem to perpetually distract me from the basic goals and clear boundaries I set for myself when I started (as I’ll explain in a minute). I basically underestimated the grip this whole “blog community” thing would have on me.

Unfortunately, those are the parts I’m going to back away from right now. I need to simplify things closer to my initial interests when I started this blog last year.

That’s why I’m going to try some adjustments here, and see how things work for a while. Here are some changes you may notice, beginning with:

1) Frequency of posts

Um … on second thought, this is a bad one to start with. I’ll come back to it.

2) Content: mainstream vs insider

There’s a theory of communication that describes how messengers instinctively change their style of presentation based on the format they use to deliver that message. (There are some great academic books about this theory – but since almost nobody reads academia anymore, the theory itself is greatly underappreciated. Kind of ironic, huh?)

Here’s how the theory applies to me: I noticed that the more frequently I wrote blog posts, the more my content became minutial and rooted in previous information. Consciously or not, my style of writing changed to reflect the wide-open, anything goes frontier of the blogosphere - which is fun in many ways, but can also reach a point of overindulgence.

My feeling is that if you want more people to read your work, it shouldn’t be too narrowly focused or too predicated on information that a newcomer can’t easily gather. A balance should be struck between personal expression and general appeal, and I bounce back and forth between these two directions a lot.

Ideally, I’d like to write more posts that can stand alone; articles that anybody could stumble across and appreciate because they are well-written and enjoyable to read. It shouldn’t be necessary to know that I’m really an idiot who is addicted to VH1 and preoccupied with a certain aspect of female anatomy in order to make sense of a post I’ve written. So I’m hoping to drift back in a more mainstream direction.

But you know what? I have no idea if I’ll make it back to mainstream. Or if I’ll even like it once I get there. I swear, I drive myself crazy with this stuff sometimes. And I’m just getting started....

3) Comments

Here is the change that everyone noticed right away: I turned my comments off. Believe me, it was (and still is) hard to do. It feels like I’m trying to kick a nicotine habit or something. But here’s my rationale.

Fellow bloggers may have noticed that I’ve pretty much disappeared from your comment windows. It’s one of the compromises I’ve made to budget my time a little bit better.

I calculated that I spent about half of my blogging hours composing my own posts, and the other half reading everybody else’s posts and dropping comments here and there. See all of those blogs listed to the right? I really try to keep up with all of them. And then I wonder where all the time goes.

Since I’ve already established that I can’t give up the writing, I’m going to give up the commenting instead. I’ll still visit your websites, but it’s going to be in a more cursory manner. If something really moves me, I’ll leave a comment to say “great job” or to give some encouragement, but the whole strategy of planting multiple comments all over the place to get noticed by other bloggers just seems like a game at times. One that I don’t have time to play right now.

I know this is a selfish move, so that’s why I’m taking the comments off of my own posts. I shouldn’t expect everybody to do something for me that I’m unwilling to reciprocate, right?

Besides, it’s not like I’m completely unreachable. If you’re itching to tell me something, just click on my profile and send me an e-mail. Several of you have done just that, and I’m very appreciative. I’d love to hear from anybody, and I’ll always get around to replying eventually.

Having said that … I really miss having comments activated. I keep finding myself wondering how my recent posts have been received. I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed seeing other bloggers give feedback in response to my posts. Or how much I would miss the instant-validation mechanism of collecting comments after each post. Or how much I relied on the volume of comments to tell me whether a post was a good one. Or … um … actually, I shouldn’t discuss this anymore, or else I’ll start twitching again.

On a related note, my wife thinks I should keep the comments open. And I’ve told you how she’s wicked smart, right? She also has much better foresight and common sense than I do. So go ahead and place your bets on how long I’m willing to hold out with comments deactivated, because it’s probably only a matter of time before I fall completely off the wagon on this one.

4) Links

If comments are the sustenance that gets us through our day-to-day blogging lives, then links are the currency that we use to buy those comments. The more sites you are linked to, more people will click to your blog, and more people will leave comments. At least, that’s what I learned from the Blogger FAQ/Help page last year.

The problem is, everybody’s criteria for adding links to their blog is subjective. Some people don’t link to anyone. Some link only to their favorite blogs, or those of people they know, or those who leave a lot of comments. Some are offended if a link isn’t reciprocated. There’s a whole code of etiquette associated with these things.

Except here. I’ll make this extremely simple. Do you want me to link to you? Just send me an e-mail and ask. That’s it. Unless you’re a racist or smut peddler or something similar, I’ll link to you. (I’ve never set exceedingly high standards for this page). Isn’t that easy?

All right, it’s time to go back to this one …

1) Frequency of posts

Honestly? I have no clue.

I’m going to aim for once a week, or maybe a handful of posts per month, but this will vary depending on how much time I have available, or many ideas are bouncing around my head waiting to get put on the computer screen. If work is slow and training is heavy, two or three posts per week might be a possibility again.

However, you should recall that I’ve made predictions before about how often I would or wouldn’t post here, which turned out to be wildly inaccurate. So your take home message on this point should be that I’m clearly incapable of establishing a predictable routine.

How about this? I’ll post when I can. Let’s leave it at that.

And in return, you should only visit when you want to. We’ll keep things nice and platonic for a while, and neither one of us will get our feelings hurt.

OK, that’s enough for now. There are a few other issues on my mind, but nothing that's worth wasting any more of your time. If you made it this far, thanks for hearing me out.

I’ll get back to regularly scheduled programming next week.

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Have You Seen This Statue?

When I moved to the Monterey Peninsula more than a decade ago, my wife couldn’t come with me. She had committed to finishing some obligations with her employer, so I traveled here by myself and crashed at my in-laws’ house for two months before my wife arrived.

I didn’t know anybody, didn't know of any local hangouts, and had lots of free time on weekends and after work. I figured I may as well get some training in.

Being unfamiliar with the Peninsula, I had no idea where to do my long training runs, and used a map to survey potentially scenic areas. Scanning such well-known tourist locations like the Pebble Beach Resort, 17-Mile Drive, and Carmel Beach, I knew there were a lot of fantastic options.

Then my eyes fell on a lesser-known, but seemingly more inviting name: Dennis the Menace Park.

The site was too intriguing to pass up. I drove my car to the 5-acre playground situated next to a paddleboat lake just one block from the ocean, and the park became my home base for several weeks of 2- or 3-hour runs.

Cartoonist Hank Ketcham was a longtime Monterey resident, and the park he designed (and named after his most famous character) is the kind of place where adults wish they could be kids again. Large climbing structures and steep slides are challenging and exciting enough for kids of any age. A bouncy, swinging, 100’ rope bridge traverses two hillsides on either side of the main entrance. A full-sized Southern Pacific steam engine parked in the sand is almost always swarmed with kids climbing over, under, and inside of it.

There’s even a snack shack that sells popcorn and snow cones if the mood strikes you.

Each week I filled my water bottle from the lion’s head drinking fountain, and headed towards the ocean and Monterey’s coastal recreation trail. Since I was a newcomer, whenever I passed by locations like Fisherman’s Wharf, Cannery Row, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I took them all in with the wide-eyed delight of a tourist.

The Peninsula’s coastline is quite convoluted, and it’s easy to get disoriented when heading inland from the shore. Consequently, I got lost on many of these runs. But whenever I asked somebody how to find Dennis the Menace, I was easily redirected to my starting point.

Those first long runs were exactly what I needed to get my bearings in my new home. And the more familiar with the area I became, the more I knew that the Monterey Peninsula was a place I would surely fall in love with.

As we became settled in the area, my wife and I frequented the park many times together. Each of our children has climbed on the locomotive and drank from the lion’s mouth. Our parents have visited the park as grandparents, and our daughter had her 3rd birthday party there. We’ve also bought a lot of snow-cones from the snack shack.

It’s one of those places that you hope can stay the same way forever, because there really isn’t any way to improve upon it. Which makes it very sad to hear when the park suffers damage like it did last week.

The lead news story in Monterey during the past week wasn’t the upcoming elections or the Iraq War or the Southern California wildfires. It was the theft of our city's beloved Dennis the Menace statue away from the park. It disappeared in the dark of night, and no clue was left as to its whereabouts.

I know, I know - as far as crime goes, this is completely juvenile, small-town stuff. But to the many people with a soft spot for the park, the offense feels like a collective punch in the stomach.

Local authorities are taking it almost as seriously as a missing persons case. They’ve put out APBs, interviewed potential witnesses, addressed the perpetrators on television newscasts, and – most morbidly of all – assigned scuba teams to drag portions of Monterey Bay in attempts to locate the statue.

(They’re also patrolling eBay and similar sites, but it doesn’t hurt to restate the obvious here: if you see a 125-lb Dennis statue up for auction somewhere, please contact the police!)

Everybody is hopeful that the theft is some sort of pre-Halloween prank, and that the statue will eventually turn up relatively unscathed. But so far there’s no indication that any of us will ever see it again. In the meantime, a lot of local residents with a lot of fond memories of the park will feel a little twinge of sorrow the next time they go there and see the empty pedestal where the statue once stood.

It will remind them that nothing can stay the same way forever. And no matter how much we want our beautiful places to remain unblemished, we can’t completely shield them from the periodic residue of human indecency.

But it won’t prevent my family or anyone else from using the park in the future. It will only increase our appreciation of places like this, and our desire to pass along such good memories to the children and loved ones around us.

(I’m still hoping it’s returned safely, though.)

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View From the Curb

Before I start today's post, I want to say thank you very much to everyone who has contacted us with prayers, encouragement, and words of support. They mean a lot to us. I'll post updates on my wife's condition here as events warrant.

Otherwise, I'm still working on my new blogging manifesto. And by "still working", what I really mean is that I haven't actually started it yet. But I'll get to it soon, I hope. In the meantime, Mike and I had to write a Monterey Herald article for this weekend's Big Sur Half-Marathon, and I figured I'd post it here for a space-filler.

Since I'm not running the race, the spectator's guide seemed like a good theme to write about. Here is the article we submitted for today's paper.

***

Running Life 10/26/06 “Spectator’s Guide to the Half-Marathon”

As much as the two of us love races, we realize that running doesn’t rank very high on the list of popular spectator sports.

Part of the problem is that races take place early in the morning. A typical 7AM start time automatically disqualifies at least three-quarters of the population from attending.

It’s unfortunate, because large road races are excellent places to find inspiration in everyday life. In fact, many runners first become interested in the sport after volunteering or observing a friend or family member in a race.

So if you’re one of those people looking for motivation to improve your fitness or shake up your daily routine, you’ve got a great opportunity this Sunday, as the Big Sur Half-Marathon takes to the streets of Monterey and Pacific Grove.

And to help you get oriented, we’ve put together a spectator’s guide for the race. Read on, slackers.

Tip #1: Wake up early

Unfortunately, this one is non-negotiable. You certainly don’t need to be there for the 7AM start, but the men’s winner will be done by 8:05, and the first woman a short time later. Most back-of-the-packers will be done before 10AM. If you take too much time to get rolling, you might miss the whole thing.

So you’ll have to drag yourself out of bed earlier than usual. We know this is asking a lot. But there are several coffee shops in Monterey at your disposal. Think of it as supporting the local economy.

Besides, when you’re at work on Monday and somebody asks why you look so tired, you can just say “I was up early for the half-marathon” and sneak away before they ask a follow-up question. If you’re clever enough, they’ll never know that you weren’t actually, you know, running.

Tip #2: Pick a convenient spot

The nice thing about watching a race is that you don’t have to be at the finish area to feel the excitement of the event. It’s more like a parade, in that you can set up camp anywhere you like. (Except that it starts at 7AM and there aren’t any marching bands or candy throwers or Shriners on horseback. But other than that, it’s JUST like a parade).

The race winds around Lake El Estero, down Alvarado Street, through the Custom House tunnel and onto Cannery Row towards Ocean View Blvd and Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove.

A long out-and-back stretch from Lover's Point to Asilomar Beach allows you to see the runners twice in that area. The race’s final miles are on the Coastal Recreation Trail toward the finish at Custom House Plaza.

If you live in Monterey or Pacific Grove, just enjoy the show from a spot close to home. That way, it will be easier to find a bathroom after all that coffee you’ve drunk to wake yourself up in the morning.

Tip #3: Watch for Olympians

Here’s a hint: they’ll be the small, skinny ones running in a pack way ahead of everybody else.

This year’s race features the best elite field ever assembled locally. If you watch the frontrunners, you’re almost certain to see some of the bodies that will perform at the 2008 Olympics. Americans Jen Rhines, Kate O'Neil, and Ian Dobson are among the top names scheduled to race on Sunday.

Reach out and offer them a high-five, and if they slap you, bottle that sweat – because you might be able to sell it on eBay someday.

Tip #4: Look for smiles

No, the Olympians won’t be smiling. Neither will the small percentage of amateur runners toward the front of the pack (usually including a couple of Herald columnists) who take the sport way too seriously.

But for the vast majority of runners, the race is a celebration. They’ve paid their dues with months of training. Race day is when they have fun and reap the rewards of their efforts. Many runners smile and talk to each other, and treat the event like a giant party.

Watch for the looks of pride and accomplishment on their faces. Sure, until runners reach the finish line, “pride and accomplishment” often looks a lot like “pain and suffering”, but almost every person on the course will tell you they are happy to be there. Really. Trust us on this one.

And we guarantee that you’ll get a LOT of high-fives from this group if you offer them.

Tip #5: Identify with somebody

No matter who you are, chances are you’ll see somebody in the pack of runners who could be you. There will be runners older than you, heavier than you, leading busier lives than you. The farther back you get in the pack, the more likely you are to find somebody who has overcome significant limitations to participate in the race.

Watch them and say, "That could be me. I could be doing that." Because there’s really almost no reason why you can’t.

There are plenty of people and resources to help you once you set a goal for yourself and make the decision to start training. The running community loves newcomers – we’re kind of cult-like in that regard. And we won’t make you get a funny haircut.

So do yourself a favor, and wake up early this weekend to watch the race and encourage all the people taking part. Who knows - maybe next year YOU will be out there in the pack, inspiring others to follow in your footsteps.

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The Rest of the Story

“Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back in.”
- Michael Corleone, from The Godfather, Part III

I’ve mentioned something in this space a few times previously which bears repeating now: quite often, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.

And so it is that I’m resuming this blog. It seems almost ridiculous now, but five weeks ago, this writing gig became such a low priority in my life, so quickly, that I didn’t think there was any way I’d ever consider it remotely important. I got caught in a bit of a whirlwind there for a while.

Remember all that stuff I wrote about my new job, my fellowship, life getting busier, etc? Well, that was all true - but there was a bit more to the story.

It’s complicated, but here it is in a nutshell: last month, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. A pretty bad variety. So bad that we spent a week envisioning a very different future for our family.

We gathered a few additional consultations and eventually saw an expert who assured us that her tumor wasn’t malignant, and a subsequent biopsy confirmed his thoughts. And lately we’re feeling much better – but we’re not finished with it yet. She’ll have surgery very soon, and a recovery that will be challenging, and we still aren’t 100% certain that someone won't come back and tell us that the more ominous diagnosis was really the correct one.

So in the space of several days, blogging seemed remarkably inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Walking away seemed like the clear decision.

But we're in a better place now. We're at peace with the course of action we're taking. We're very hopeful for a positive outcome. And after the dust of her situation settled a bit, my wife brought up the idea of reviving the blog.

We had a conversation that went something like this:

Her: So how come you’re not blogging anymore?

Me: I felt like I wanted to stop. Seemed like the right thing to do.

Her: You’ll miss your writing. It might be a good outlet for you to maintain.

Me: I don’t know … it's not really that important.

Her: I think you should keep doing it.

It surprised me a bit, in that things I’ve written here have made her uncomfortable at times, to say the least. (Put it this way: let’s say you’re married to a sociopath. Would you want that person running uninhibited all over cyberspace proving exactly how twisted he is – or would you prefer to keep him on a short leash and hope nobody notices? It’s not that different in our case.) But once she said the word, it seemed to make sense. And that’s when I wrote that interim post.

However, like I indicated there, I’m changing my methodology a bit, which I’ll explain more next time (and yes, the comments are turned off intentionally). Even before this whole deal went down, I had been contemplating ways to go about blogging differently, both in terms of content and style. What better time is there to try a new approach than after something gets turned upside down?

Here’s a snapshot of how crazy things have been lately: I haven’t watched VH1 for almost four weeks. That’s like a nun going for a month without saying the rosary. In fact, it was only thanks to last week’s rerun of Saturday Night Live that I realized the guy from My Name Is Earl apparently doubles as the drummer for The Killers.

(What’s worse is that nobody wrote to notify me of this. Can’t there be some sort of pop cultural Amber Alert system to tell us when a new Green Day video is released, when Jon Stewart is a guest on The Late Show, or when a celebrity has to withdraw from a reality show after finding out her husband is at home boinking the nanny? Don’t tell me you wouldn’t sign up for this. Sorry, I’m rambling again …)

I’m guessing that posts will be quite sporadic and even more off-topic than usual until I settle into some sort of groove. I’ll try to maintain the running/tri- related context, but consider this fair warning that the subject matter could be all over the map here for a while. In other words, you have no idea what you’re in for.

Even more frighteningly, neither do I. But I guess that’s what makes things interesting.

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Call It a Comeback

OK, I've had some time to think about it ... and I've decided I'm not quite ready to completely abandon this blog yet.

While this isn't exactly "Michael Jordan returning and wearing number 45" caliber news, I thought that anyone who still checks this space might be interested to hear it.

But here's the catch: things are going to be different. They have to be. And I'm still sorting through a lot of thoughts and ideas about what I want from this forum. It's complicated, but I'll explain everything in a future post.

In the meantime, just know that I haven't entirely given up here. I'll be back.

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Downsizing

This is one of those posts where I want to be very descriptive, without actually revealing too much information about people around me. So I’ll try to be careful here.

When I started this blog last October, I was as settled in my career as a guy could get. I had been working in my position for 10 years, with a kinda-sorta-pretty-much positive assurance of eventual promotion to a director position just by hanging around the department and continuing to do what I did.

Professionally, I was on cruise control. I was very well-skilled with my work, and didn’t dedicate any extra time to the job outside of work hours. That’s when Running and Rambling was born.

At the beginning of 2007, a different opportunity presented itself: a position with the same company, in an administrative role, but quite unrelated to the job I was comfortable with. It would require a greater time commitment and on-the-job training to learn new information and the politics of our business. Essentially, I would be starting a new career almost from scratch, and I was uncertain if the bridge to my old profession would be left standing once I crossed it. Needless to say, I was bit nervous about the decision.

However, the long-term potential for career growth and autonomy (and pay – definitely a consideration) was much greater than I had in my comfortable job. It was also a chance to work with people whom I liked and respected, which was a huge factor in my deliberations.

I took the new position, and everything worked out very well: I settled into my new role fairly quickly, and established a satisfactory balance between work, training, and family time. I even had time to maintain my blog.

Very soon my role with the company will develop further, as I’m taking on more responsibilities, and being promoted to an expanded role for the second time in less than 12 months. (Apparently, someone around here thinks I’m doing good work. Which sometimes surprises me, given that my job has nothing to do with running, writing, or watching music videos - things I consider to be my better talents.)

I’m going to be traveling a lot, learning a whole new set of administrative duties, and participating in a two-year fellowship program that will demand some independent study time. I won’t have nearly as much unstructured time as I currently enjoy.

And by now you probably know where this post is heading.

I need to re-prioritize the places where I direct my time and energy, and eliminate some of the things that distract me from that focus. One of the primary casualties of this reshuffling is my blog.

If you’re sad to read this – believe me, I’m sadder to write it. But I don’t need to blog. I need my career to earn money. I need family time to keep me happy. I need training time to keep me sane. And regardless of how much I enjoy it, blogging clearly doesn’t belong in the same category as those other things.

So this will most likely be the last post in this space for the foreseeable future. Possibly forever. It’s not that I’ve run out of things to say. I’ll just be lacking the time and attention I need to voice my observations and musings in the style I’m accustomed to.

Maybe at some point down the road you’ll hear from me again in one capacity or another. Obviously, I love writing, so I'll certainly gravitate back towards it. I'm thinking of trying my hand at different topics or formats, although those ideas are still very primordial. Who knows what the future has in store.

I’m going to keep my Bloglines subscriptions going, and I'll browse some blogs when I'm able to, and maybe even drop an anonymous comment here and there if the spirit moves me (don’t worry, I’ll identify myself). I'm also keeping my contact e-mail address open if anyone feels the need to stay in touch - for example, I'm more than happy to offer free advice for anyone coming out to run the Bug Sur Marathon next April. So you always know where to find me.

But writing this, I have the same kind of feeling as a high school kid saying goodbye to his longtime girlfriend before going off to college. Sure, there’s a chance that we could ultimately have a long-term relationship - but in the back of my mind, I know the odds aren’t great. It's sad in a way, but if we each move on to something more fulfilling, then it's the best decision in the long run.

Don't feel bad for me, because I'm really excited about the things that I'm doing. And if you've learned only one thing from this blog (um ... besides the fact that I'm an idiot), it's that I'll figure out a way to carve out enough family time and training hours to keep myself happy. It will just take some time.

Finally, it would be bad form to bail out of here without thanking everyone who shared this space with me over the past year. To everyone who left a comment, sent me e-mails, or linked to my posts from your own sites: thank you very much. Each contact was greatly appreciated. I’ve found joy and felt appreciation from a number of talented, passionate people in this medium, and I feel a connection of some sort to each one of you who put your stories and lives out there for all of cyberspace to see.

So thanks again for spending the past year with me. It’s been a lot of fun. I wish all of you health and happiness in the days to come.

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Hibernation

"Wake me up when September ends."
- Green Day


One of the downsides of reading a lot of blogs is the inevitable feeling that you’re never doing enough to keep up.

Nearly every day you’ll read about one person’s marathon, another person’s ultra, someone’s 80-mile training week, or somebody else’s hike to the top of some mountain.

And when you’re sitting at home (or – who are we kidding? – at work) reading all of these things, it inevitably makes you feel like your own training regimen pales in comparison. If left unchecked, those feelings can often turn to thoughts of inadequacy and hopelessness.

We’re in danger of becoming like an overweight teenage girl watching runway models at a fashion show on TV: after a while, we figure there’s no way we’ll ever be able to measure up to those standards, so we stop trying.

If that’s a familiar feeling for you, then today you’ve come to the right place. Because with this post I’m going to tell you about all that I haven’t done in the past two weeks.

It’s traditional for me to go into a hibernation phase for a few weeks following a big race, and ever since this month’s triathlon, I’ve been just about as lazy as a guy can get. I sleep in nearly every day, eat as much as I want to, and do almost no exercise while recovering from the recent event. Believe me - when it comes to being a slacker, I can compete with the best of them.

So here then is my workout log over the past 16 days:

Swimming: none
Cycling: 1 day, 20 miles
Running: 2 days, 9 total miles.

That’s it. That’s the list.

But I don’t stop at mere sloth. I like to add a heaping dose of gluttony into my post-race apathy phase. I’ve already indicated that I’m a good slacker – but when it comes to eating, I approach Hall of Fame caliber. Think of Elvis Presley circa 1976 (minus all the drugs), and you’ll have a fair estimate of what my life is like in the afterglow of a major race.

It’s no accident that I don’t keep a nutritional sidebar like some bloggers are apt to do. Otherwise I’d have to account for the vast amounts of brownies, muffins, lemon bars, Dove dark chocolate, ice cream, pizza and French fries that I’ve consumed recently. Not to mention, when I’m in feeding frenzy mode, I’m the Kobayashi of chocolate chip cookie-eating.

So if you’ve been feeling inadequate, rest assured that you’ve probably taken care of yourself way better than I have lately. You know how people say that you shouldn’t make yourself feel good by putting others down? Well sometimes, that’s a load of crap. In some cases you simply want to find comfort or reassurance through any available means.

I’m willing to play the fall guy this week, and for the remainder of the month. So go ahead - feel better about yourself on account of my laziness. It’s OK, really. I’m fine with it.

If you’ve run more than twice in the last two weeks, you’ve done more than me. If you’ve been out of bed before 7:00 AM, you’ve had more discipline. Heck, if you’ve declined even one cookie or said “no thanks” to a third helping of chocolate cake, you’ve shown more self-restraint than I have. Congratulations.

But don’t get too accustomed to all this, because by the end of next month, I’ll be back on the horse. And if you want to keep up once I hit training mode again, you darn sure better be running.

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