Motivated to Succeed

9:00 AM - Sunny and humid this morning. Was already 79 degrees by the time I started my run, 82 afterwards. Going to be a scorcher today. After coffee and a small piece of carrot cake with my dad (He didn't have any last night since I wasn't home) I got changed and went to the school to run on the nature trails. My legs were a bit tired and blah. A little soreness from the Vibrams yesterday, but tomorrow is a rest day so I can rest then! Felt pretty good. Just sweat a ton! Drained my water bottle before halfway. Felt better towards the end, including a couple strong hill surges at about 7:40 pace. Splits were:

• Mile 1: 10:48
• Mile 2: 10:24
• Mile 3: 10:16
• Mile 4: 9:19
• Mile 5: 10:25

Total Time: 51:49 Total Distance: 5.07 miles Average Pace: 10:13

Emmy is out in Boston this weekend with our friend Missy who is looking at apartments and job interviews for a nannying position. I guess they were out last night and were going into a store while a nice gentleman held the door for them. Turned out to be Collin Quinn from SNL. I guess nice guys do exist :)

8:50 AM - Temp was 78 degrees at the start and 84 degrees at the end. Sunny with blue skies. Super humid. Last night I went to the drive in movie place at Malta with my youngest brother Harry, his friend Sam and my friend from work, Tara. It was a lot of fun. We brought some pizza and candy and saw Distric 9 which is a really great action/ sci-fi film. Jonny saw it earlier in the day with his friends at a regular theater and said he didn't like it, but I thought it was really great! Only bad thing was it was too hot and muggy. The windshield kept fogging up and I was sweating so much and I didn't know why. Only thing I could think of was that I didn't get to go running yesterday because it was a scheduled day off so maybe I had extra sweat stored up. I was too tired to stay for the second movie so we headed home and I got to bed. Slept pretty well, as I was exhausted from being on my feet all day at work. Woke up this morning at 6:30, had some coffee and then went to the nature trails.

Hit the nature trails doing circuits. Started with 5 short loops, then 5 long loops, 5 short, 5 long, 5 short, and then 3 long to finish at 10 miles for the day. I have work tonight at 4 and then tomorrow is a day off from running and work so I am going to drive to Emma's house to see a cool Indian dance performance! Today's run was good. Drank a liter of water on the run, but probably sweat about eight more haha. Saw a ton of mushrooms! Red, yellow, orange, white, brown,  you name it! All different sizes too. When I told Emma on the phone she said, "um were they real mushrooms or lsd mushrooms?" haha. Crazy girl.  Got home and relaxed with a cup of pink lemonade and a thirty minute cold ice bath. Now time for lunch! Splits were slow today, as I only ran in the nature trails and not on the track or roads.

• Mile 1: 11:52
• Mile 2: 11:12
• Mile 3: 11:39
• Mile 4: 10:55
• Mile 5: 10:16
• Mile 6: 10:52
• Mile 7: 10:41
• Mile 8: 10:07
• Mile 9: 9:42
• Mile 10: 10:08

Total Time: 1:47:30 Total Distance: 10 miles Average Pace: 10:44

11:00 AM - I was at Emma's today. It was blue skies and hot and humid by the time we started the run at eleven at the Lanesborough entrance to the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. Temperature was 78 at the start and 85 at the finish. Phew! We saw a bunch of bikers on the trail and saw the scooter man as well as the grandpa with the jogging stroller with his granddaughter. Emma is such a trooper. She wasn't sure she was up for a longer run but she made it and we ran very consistent miles. Afterwards I had to run to drive to work as I worked the evening shift tonight, but not before I watched Usain Bolt slaughter the competition, running a 19.19 200m new World Record! That guy is insane and so young. (He turns 23 tomorrow.) Thankfully I carried a water bottle out on the trail, as it got hot hot hot! Both of us were sweating and burning by the end. Splits were:

• Mile 1: 10:37
• Mile 2: 10:52
• Mile 3: 10:46
• Mile 4: 10:46
• Mile 5: 10:29
• Mile 6: 9:57

Total Time: 1:04:01 Total Distance: 6.06 miles Average Pace: 10:34

Yesterday was a troubling day to say the least. Had to get work on the car done, oil change, tire rotation and inspection and then went and got a hair cut, bought some clothes for student teaching and a couple other errands. Was worried my car wasn't going to pass inspection because there is a crack in the headlight for the high beams which equated to about an inch of water seeping in during the last rainstorm. Not sure how the crack got there but it looks like someone hit it, perhaps backed into it at work?! Anyways it passed inspection, but after leaving I realized it still had the August 2009 expiration sticker in it and I was like wtf mate? So I brought it back and they apologized, etc. etc. Thankfully, driving to see Emma made the day a whole lot better!

So Wednesday night at 6:30 there was a free performance at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, MA as part of the Inside/Out 2009 Festival Season there. We drove to the lot and walked through the grounds which were very pretty. I want to go back there to explore the buildings and maybe see a show and grab a bite to eat!  Wednesday's free performance was at the outdoor stage amongst the stunning backdrop of the western Berkshires. It had rained pretty bad the hour before, but as we got there the weather cleared and the crew was squigying the stage off. The performance was done by Dr. Janaki Rangarajan who specializes in Bharatanatyam (South Indian Classical dance form). She has been dancing since the age of four and has toured the world performing and instructing others. Her dances are representative of those that were done by women that danced in the temples in the 1930s in India. Her performance consisted of three separate dances, Ranganjali, Swarajati, & Keerthana. It was really fun and she was a really great dancer. She had a cool dress and was doing these sweet rapid eye movement and facial expressions. I was actually surprised at the number of people that showed up for the free performance. There were a lot of older couples and also young fathers/mothers. Most of the kids couldn't keep still and were allowed to run around and play on the rocks in the woods. A couple of kids kept climbing on the rock Emma and I were sitting on and this one girl sat next to Emma. A lady up front turned and looked at us from her seat and kept saying, "Emma there's a seat down here for you. Emma come here." And Emma was puzzled and trying to figure out how she knew her. Turns out the girl's name was Emma! What makes it even freakier, later during the last dance a boy came up and sat to the left of me and was just chilling with his mom near by. He had crocs on like me, though his were real with the cool little monster creature additions in the holes. Turns out as he was leaving I heard his name... Benny! No joke! How weird was that?! After the performance there was a question and answer period and then we made our way back out to the car and then to Emma's work at the CIP program. Helped Emma set up her office. She is such a diligent worker! They are going to be so happy they chose her as Social Thinking Coordinator! Can't wait for the next date on Saturday when we go tour Copake Country Club, hopefully where we're getting married!

8:45 AM - Overcast. It rained a bunch last night but it did little to alleviate the relentless humidity! Temperature was mid 70s and sticky. Had a good night of sleep last night. First night over 8 hours in quite some time. I headed to the track after a cup of coffee. My right calf muscle was bothering me yesterday so I didn't run. Plus I worked until nine at night so didn't feel like going to the track in the dark. Calf muscle felt alright during the run though was the good thing. I kept it slow at first to test things out, hitting up the nature trails which were exceptionally dark today given the overcast skies and thickened foliage. I suspect that might be the cause of the super slow time. Did a .8 mile surge on the track between loops @ about 7:00-7:15 pace per mile. Felt good! Cooled down and stretched. Splits were:

• Mile 1: 11:44
• Mile 2: 11:08
• Mile 3: 11:58
• Mile 4: 7:53
• Mile 5: 10:53
• Mile 6: 8:55

Total Time: 1:02:35 Total Distance: 6.01 miles Average Pace: 10:25

After a shower I am off with my mom, sister, her boyfriend, Emma, Emma's mom and our friend Missy to Copake Country Club to get a tour and have dinner. This is the place where we might have our wedding! Emma has been there once and loved it. I can't wait to go to check it out!

Also, I am in need of advice! I am particularly worried about strengthening my left leg. It is the less dominant leg and has always been weaker than my right. I think that all the biking I have done has made the right leg even stronger at the expense of my left leg. I have contemplated doing squats or lunges or something to try to build up my left leg. It is both my quad and my hamstring that are less developed. I have heard of differences of an inch or so, but as the numbers will show, my left leg is essentially nonexistent! In addition, even Harry and my mom could visibly see the differences. Help! What do I do?

Left Leg: 16.5" just above knee, 21.5" mid thigh, 23" upper thigh

Right Leg: 17" just above knee, 22.5" mid thigh, 25" upper thigh

*P.S. Calf muscles are almost identical at 15" (L) and 15.25" (R). Note: This is the biggest my calf muscles have ever been too! Woot!

6:00 PM - Rainy, torrential rain on the way from Emma's hosue to Copake Country Club with mom, Mary Rose, Emmy and Missy. Su and Rocco met us there. We went for a walk and the rain started to clear. We walked about .25 miles out to one of the greens on a hill overlooking Copake Lake and I was sold. This is the place I want to get married!! It is so beautiful, and I know that when I am standing there watching my gorgeous fiancee walk down the aisle that I will be able to say that I experienced a once in a lifetime moment. We had dinner reservations for 6:15 so we walked back and went inside. Ended up spending about two hours having a very nice dinner. There was a live band playing and actually almost all of the tables were full! In addition they had fireworks which we stayed for that started at 9:20. Su and Rocco were going to leave and so were we since they were starting about an hour later than we initially thought, but then we walked back and watched them and found out Su and Rocco stayed in their car in the parking lot and watched them too! Haha! We drove back to Emmy's house and made coffee before we headed out to drive the hour and a half home at about 11:30. Got home at 1am and then passed out. Copake Country Club is absolutely amazing though!