so did we wake up feeling better?

today is feb 13th. in 1960 it was a saturday and officially i became a man that day. shalom!
am still way behind on my emails, but will catch up. and life goes on.

anyway- got up really early and headed out into the fog and frost and about 26 degrees. road was slippery for awhile, but after 3 unexpected slides forward it all settled down and i went about running up and down the thames and the oxford canal for about 10 miles. was funny at first hearing the crew people practicing and not seeing them.

coming down the river the fog was heavy and the trail barely visible, but in the distance i could hear punts waking up and ducks quacking. some pretty swans were out and later down the trail i saw a hawk come in for a closer look before settling into a tree and waiting. then more swans playing and i really got a kick out of them. passed by two sleeping homeless people in makeshift tents. i joke that living in our house is like camping in, but it beats being homeless by quite a bit even on the days when there is no hot water.

legs were ok for awhile and one of the things you learn as a runner is that the more distance you do, the longer it takes the body to warm up and get going. there is some scientific theory about this and once i knew them all, but not now. now i am old. something about the brain's alarm clock system telling it that you are running again and you'll be out there awhile. it is one of the reasons i like to stay out-who wants to spend the entire run warming up and then stopping before you start to feel good? remember the chant-relentless forward motion. although lately i have come to sing the song-i get knocked down, but i get up again - when i am a little tired and it helps; also you throw in a few pickups to see if that gets you going and soemthing ususally works unless you are just dead tired.

was nice out though and i like watching my breath smoking as i run. steams up the sunglasses which i wore despite the fog. keeps the midgies out of my eyes. little bugs.

79 miles in the last 10 days is not bad. need to get back mon the track but need better weather and/or more disicpline. lacking both right now.

off i go- phone is dead and need to buy time and then have to go to the bank and pay bills. we don't write checks here-they just take the money straight out of your account. back later.

out in search of the bear of balance. thanks alan.