"It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright"
October has been one BIG balancing act; between family/work/running…I’m about to fall and hopefully there’s a safety net! I’ve been working every Saturday and Sunday is my only day home with the kids. It’s especially important to spent as much time with them as possible because they grow so fast, as you get older you don’t notice the years pass but when you have kids you witness the transformation a year makes…it’s amazing, from being an infant to walking, talking and forming there own little personality. My son who is 19 months already enjoys teasing his sister; he likes to turn the TV off while she watches her Disney movies and enjoys her reaction when he takes her toys especially her Hello Kitty makeup! That’s why we have two of everything =) He’s a wild rover…always into something and needs to do everything his big sister does. We're enjoying fall around here, especially with the warm weather it’s this time of year that reminds me why I love New England!! It’s also a very exciting time for my daughter with Halloween and her 3 year old birthday approaching next month. She’s really into the whole princess thing and wants to have a princess party but most of her cousins are boys so I guess we’ll have a bunch of knights and one princess??
With the weekends cut short because of work I’ve been trying to get my long runs done in the wee morning so I have the rest of the day to spend with the kids. Last weekend I got up at 4:45am and ran for 3 ½ hours around Cutler Park in Dedham, the sun didn’t come up until 6:30 so I was in the dark for a while, I really don’t enjoying running in the dark especially when I wander into a family of coyotes at least that’s what I think they were. I’m moving along the trail with my headlights guiding me through the forest off to my right and left is sheer darkness with this very narrow perspective I encourage myself to just keep moving the sun will be up soon and as I climb over this little hill my headlamp catches three sets of eyes peering at me in the distance, my heart starts pounding at first I think it’s just a few owls in the trees, not a big deal but as I approach I realize these things are not in trees there smack in the middle of the trail. I stop dead in my tracks…we have a staring contest for a few minutes, these crazy eyes looking back at me like I’m the next meal. As they pace around I can barely make out there silhouette through the trees, now my mind starts going and I picture a family of hungry wolfs..hey everything looks bigger in the dark, not sure what the hell to do I YELL, this only makes the situation scarier realizing how bleak and desolate that sounded, then I pick up a stone and throw it near them, they stand there ground obviously I’m not a threat and if there not scared of me I best be scared of them so I high tail it back to where I came from, not daring to go back in that direction until sunrise! I’m almost positive they were pack of coyotes after doing some research it’s not uncommon to see coyotes in and around the suburbs of Boston especially at dawn. I guess our paths were bound to cross at some point, I can’t even image if I was in New Hampshire and they were bears! Maybe I’ll stick to the roads for a while =)
On Sunday I couldn’t drag myself out of bed at 5am probably in fear I would run into those wily coyotes again, but I did manage to get a short tempo run in…I ran at a 5k pace for the first ½ hour and then the second half at my long run pace it gave me the same sensation as if had been out there for three hours so it must have been good! It’s my new crunch-time workout, go out at a 5k pace until you need to stop then maintain a long run pace for the remainder of the run…I’ll let you know if it works!!
Speaking of roads, October is a big month for marathons, especially this weekend with Greater Hartford marathon in Connecticut, Baystate Marathon in Massachusetts, Mount Desert Island marathon in Maine and the Toronto marathon in Canada. Since we don’t have many ultras in these parts I was thinking of running a marathon this weekend or running with Dean Karnazes when he comes to town. It’s still up in the air...I think this would be a fun way to do my last long run before Stone Cat. We shall see....
Happy Trails
