Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Fashion. Nailing it.


Today was another special day in my life. It was pajama day, which is normally my favorite day ever. Due to the snow closings earlier this week, it wasn't as publicized as it normally is. I became concerned that I'd be the one loser in pjs.

I got to work and discovered that not only was everyone else wearing pjs, but I once again didn't have heat in my classroom at it was 16 degrees outside. So now I was freezing, without feeling in my fingers, and uncomfortable.

Then, it turned out that my friend down the hall had brought an extra pair of pajama pants, and they were fleece and cozy and glorious. I put them on right away and spent the day as a gloriously comfortable professional, in someone else's red polka dot fleece pants, a giant men's fleece that I once won for free at the gym and keep in my classroom to wear during lunch because I'm a freak and can't eat without shivering uncontrollably, and my normal dress shoes. Fashion. I'm good at it.

When I got home I took a poorly lit picture to share this super cool outfit with the world. Instead of a fitted shirt imagine a giant baggy blue fleece down to my knees that says "Merritt Athletic Club".

Thanks Rachael! #ootd
My day was saved, and got even better when I finally started using my little baby mini work crock pot. You plug it in when you arrive, and then at lunch time you dig into some nice warm tangy black bean soup. This works out great because I have about 25 minutes to eat and my microwave is from about 1972, so just heating my food generally consumes the majority of that time. No longer, though.

Laptop in the background for size reference

Since I'll be spending the weekend volunteering at a race I was originally scheduled to run (the Lower Potomac River Marathon), I guess it's time for full disclosure on the running front. I have, sadly, officially requested to defer my entry for the C&O 100 mile race to 2015. I definitely still plan to complete a 100 mile race, but it doesn't look like 2014 is the year.

The good news is that I'm running pain free. Obviously, this is a bit too little/too late for training, but it's still a positive. I learned something about myself since I stopped training - I like exercising a normal amount. By normal, I mean an hour or so a day, not 50+ miles per week. Spending only 6 hours a week exercising aligns quite nicely with the 8-10 hours a week I'm supposed to be working on my grad project, learning the common core, and my favorite, SLEEP.

Long story short: high volume training isn't appealing to me right now. Therefore, instead of running 52 miles this Sunday (starting at 1am and running the race course twice), I'll be sleeping till the much less unacceptable time of 5am and handing out shirts and bibs. I'll probably be a bit jealous of the runners in the moment, but I can't say I'm too broken up about it right now.

And that's the story of the running. It's a good one, I know.

Ever just taken a break from a hobby for awhile? What made you go back to it?


9 comments:

  1. I take a break when I'm broken. Is that really a break then? This is probably about time for a Kit Kat joke.

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  2. While Kara's breaking off a piece of that Kit Kat bar, I'll answer your question. Yes, I also take time off from running when I'm broken. I've taken time off from other hobbies (sewing, scrapbooking) when I just didn't feel like doing them. When I picked them up again, I enjoyed them much more. I just finally felt like doing them again. It was a refreshing break.

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  3. Replies
    1. Just kidding, didn't mean to hit enter! And I totally get burned out on stuff. I have that absurd 14 mile-uphill-at 14,000 feet in elevation -run coming in June and I'm currently lucky if I put in 3 miles. But, I think I'm phasing out of the burnout so fingers crossed!

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  4. I am such a low mileage runner. It's sort of pathetic how little of running I can get away with and still get my long runs in on the weekend. Probably why I don't increase in speed a whole lot.

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  5. Everyday is pajama day for me and it really is quite glorious.

    It'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to get back to running after taking time off to have the baby. I'm pretty sure that'll be laughable to see.

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  6. I took off time for the foot to heal in the fall and it was a pain in the ass to get back into running. Maybe that's because it was also 10* outside and the we had the polar vortex, but I was seriously questioning my hobby everyday. But I don't know...after a while (once I got back in shape) I started to want to run more and more! It's a slow progression, I think...from 30min/day to total insanity/let'srun100miles.

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  7. I decided to take a break from running this week...mainly because I'm just sick of winter and being cold and it just pisses me off at this point. My next half marathon is 10 days away. I do things that don't make sense.

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  8. That crockpot is hilarious & spectacular. As are the PJ pants. Glad a colleague could help you out there. Would've been a shame to waste a pajama day. :-)

    Way to go on making smart decisions. I strongly believe that structured training shouldn't occur until a person is good and ready - especially for something ridiculous like a 100 mile race. So enjoy some more reasonable/sane running for now, and see what the rest of the year brings!

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Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.