It’s either the suddenly warm temperatures or this upper respiratory nonsense I’m currently dealing with, but I cannot seem to get to sleep right now. In keeping with the time of day I figured I’d talk about something that happened to me a few weeks ago during a similar time of day.

I stayed late at work two weeks ago to ensure a deployment got out the door, and when I finally left the office in the early hours of the morning I noticed, off in the distance of the parking lot, the blinking lights of a car. I thought: Man, someone’s broken down over there, and this late? Poor them, maybe I can help. As I approached closer I noticed there was something wrong- the car was suspiciously close to where I’d parked.

So I tried this for the first time- my goal is to get under an hour for this run, which I think will be difficult because I have to go through downtown with all the red lights and whatnot. Still, it’s good to know that I can maintain that kind of speed at least on average, with the added bonus of passing some of the slower bikers out there. I ran into (Or rather, ran by) Sarah and her beau going the opposite direction on the Jail Trail both ways, which was kindof cool (I don’t think she was expecting me), and then promptly had an almost-face-first collision with a traffic sign on the intersection of smithfield and the boulevard (oopsey!). But now I’m stinky. And still at work. And I have homework to do. WOOT!

Yes, I know the doc said stay off the shoulder and don’t do anything to exert yourself. Technically, I didn’t, right? 45 minutes of blading only uses the legs, after all, and I was very careful to not do much with the shoulder. Overall a success, I think, and lemme tell ya: The endorphin rush was worth the risk.

So, yesterday started off with a comment in my inbox from Terri and a reciprocate post of hers in her own LJ that totally started the day off right. The side effect of this is that I now feel like I should post more… though I really don’t know what to post about. I mean… apparently I “relieve creative urges”. Seems almost like I’m a rather drastic medieval solution to relieve biliouos humor or something like that, kept on the shelf in the supermarket right next to the discount thumb screws and the Heinz Brand Boiling Oil (“Now with guaranteed flaying!”).

So, a little chill didn’t prevent me from taking on the Jail Trail today. I figured, after a couple of months of constant blading I’m about ready to push my endurance up a little. 3 miles during lunch just wasn’t doing it for me, a limit imposed by my lack of office shower (Gee, ya’d think that any distance that wasn’t enough to make you break a sweat wasn’t challenging… duh). I got off at the first street station, put on my blades, and happily started down the trail.

The other class I’m taking for the first half of this semester is called Creativity & Problem Solving. It’s taught by Thomas Saaty, The Guy who wrote the first book in Operations Optimization Processes. He’s older than dirt. He cracks dirty jokes. He’s in Mensa. You can tell.

My sister ran the Boston Marathon, finished 130th in her division with a 7:21min/mile pace out of 5089, 2600th out of 20K runners. While sick! Woot! Go sis!

• Day one I was a bit unsteady on my feet, and the blades were obviously not yet broken in. I was still playing with the bindings to find a good fit, and ended up having the top buckles way too lose, which was nice but ultimately lost me a bit of control.
• Day two was better, I loosened the laces a bit and that helped with the breaking in, but as I left the top buckles as loose as previous I ended up having to guide via the center velcro strip.