2 words - hotel treadmill

It's squeaky. It's jerky. The linebacker on the stair climber beside me is wearing a weight vest, huffing and puffing, and sweating like a pig. And somebody stole the tv remote. It is far from ideal, but it's right downstairs and it does the trick for a mindless after work run. On really lucky days, I get to run by my lonesome, with some delightfully bad tv on the flat screen. On bad days, I get to exercise with some jerky stinky schmo that wants to watch PTI at a thousand decibels - and talk to me while I'm running.

But, thank goodness for the hotel treadmill. My two week stint in this just-off-the-interstate, backwater HIX wold be unbearable without it.

blog schmog

Well, I may have taken a prolonged break from blogging, but I have not stopped running. My weekly totals are waaaay down due to a race-free summer, but I have managed to keep up a modest routine. Since the marathon, I have managed to run an average of 3 times a week, usually 3-5 miles each time. I even ran on the Hermosa strand while I was on vacation!

As far as my reason for not blogging - laziness. On top of the stifling summer heat that makes me not want to move, being on hiatus from grad school and not having a rigorous training schedule have actually resulted in me being less productive. It's counter intuitive, but I have recently come to the conclusion that I actually get more done when I have more to do. I use my time better when I have less of it.

But, productivity can be overrated. I have to say that the slow summer evenings filled with cold white wine and fresh-from-the-garden meals with my sweetie have been - if not 'productive' - really, really lovely.

They have not done much for my waistline, though. Which is why I will be using my next two weeks of working out of town to cut back on the calories and hit the hotel treadmill as much as possible. Who knows, maybe I'll even get motivated to start speed training to work on my race time. My next 5k is 9/11.