Cold, Wet, Rainy

 

Today has been a day of rather strong, heavy rain, cooler temperatures, and general dampness.  It is only 63 degrees Fahrenheit (~17 C), and the heavy rain is cold.  Trying to work on things, but not feeling overly motivated.  I had a fair number of interruptions today (both unplanned and planned):

• A former undergraduate research student of mine who I helped get into a rather prestigious medical school happened to be back in our region and she stopped by to talk.  It was a very nice conversation, and it was great to see her.  Yet, at the same time, we talked for nearly an hour, which ate up a fair amount of my time.  Do not get me wrong, I chose to talk with her, she was a great former student, I wanted to continue to encourage her, and I was glad to hear she was progressing well.  But, it was also a bit challenging on my plans for the day.  She gave me a hug at the end of our conversation and told me how thankful she was for my guidance, and help.  
• Today is a Holy Day, so I needed to fit Mass into my day as well.  I went across town to a parish that had a convenient mid-day Mass.  It was a very nice and meaningful celebration of  of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Surprisingly, the Mass was longer than typical (1.5 hours) and with the drive time, it consumed a surprising amount of time.  
• At Mass, I ended up inadvertently getting spotted by a friend I had not seen in quite some time, and we ended up talking for ~1/2 hour after Mass.  
• And, after Mass, and after talking with my friend.... a young lady came running up to me and asked me if I was "Dr. PipeTobacco".  Of course, I said "Yes, I was." even though she knew that.... she just wanted to talk to me.  And, she proceeded to talk with me.... explaining that she was a student at the U and that she wanted to tell me that she was in a class I had substituted in for one of my ill colleagues..... if I remember correctly, it must have been back around February or March.  She wanted to tell me that she loved my lecture style and that she and a lot of the others in her class found my lecture to be exciting and motivating.  I was a bit surprised, having only been in that class ONE time, but I thanked her.  She said that she just wanted me to know that so many of the class really appreciated it.
• I got back to the U, and tried to do some work.  What little I got done, took longer than I would have liked.  But, I did accomplish at least this one thing.... a survey to some novice instructors I oversee.  
• My wife called me, sad, with news about my SIL.  She is having another amputation of another toe.  Not only am I very worried about my SIL, I am very worried about my wife, because she is heading down a similar path of symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes.... just a few years behind my SIL.

I have to admit I was rather tuckered out yesterday from my very long (at least for me) run.  Unfortunately, my wife had her second sleep study scheduled for last night, so she had to go to that in the mid-evening.  So, I was home alone again.   

I REALLY had wanted to have a beer (or two or more), but in the end I decided against it. My "logic" if that is what it can be called was.... with my big run yesterday, I was suspecting I probably built up a fair amount of lactic acid in my muscles because it was a longer distance than I had ever tried.  Lactic acid is a waste product that cells can produce when using energy.  Ethanol (the beloved molecule that helps to make beer enjoyable beyond just its flavor) is a waste product that prokaryotic organisms (like yeast) produce when when they are using energy.  So.... my concern last night was that I was thinking there might be a possibility I would have made my muscle soreness more intense if I had drank a beer or two or three.  

So, I closed out my evening last night by watching an episode of "Cannon" that I had previously recorded on the DVR from MeTV.  It was a wonderful episode from 1972.  A guest actor in this episode was Mike Farrell (who is mostly known for the character he later developed on M*A*S*H... B. J. Hunnicutt).  In this episode, Cannon was "noodling" a bit on a bar piano in two different scenes, and it looked like Cannon (William Conrad) actually may have actually been playing the instrument.  And, there was one scene where Cannon was smoking a full bent briar pipe.  Sadly, the pipe smoking scene was too brief for me to identify the actual brand of pipe he was smoking.

• But.... I think I may have actually overthought the lactic acid/ethanol idea.  I was surprised that this morning.... I only had some MINOR soreness... not really significantly different than other longer runs of much shorter distances.  I think I probably should have risked it and enjoyed a beer or two.  
• I awoke this morning feeling tired, but pretty good overall.  Because of the damnably heavy rain, I let myself sleep in until around 6:15am before I forced myself onto my feet.  I knew I was going to run on the indoor track this morning instead of outside.  
• When I got to the track, I forced myself to hoof out 10.1 miles (~ 16km).  The first two miles, even though I wasn't SORE, per-say.... I WAS feeling stiff as hell.  Feeling so stiff made for some slow going on those first two miles.  But by the time I started mile three, I felt pretty normal.  I do admit to just having a more casual run speed this morning, however.   

PipeTobacco