I Love October

Does anyone else have BPD (Bipolar Posting Disease)? I've noticed that the more of these I write, they get postitive for a while, then really really positive, then negative. Oh the pain. then pain heals and the postings get positive again. What a roller coaster! LOL. But I guess that's how life is, sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you (name that movie).

October has always been my favorite month of the year. We're mountain people who have to live in the foothills to find work. That means we only visit the beach every 4 or 5 years usually during the winter but head to the hills about once a month. We even have a vacation house http://www.booneinv.com/ in Banner Elk NC that we're trying to sell right now. So when the temperature gets over 80 degrees it's just another excuse to stay inside where it's air conditioned. Once last year I was working on the siding of the mountain house in a short sleeve t-shirt when it was only 26 degress outside and was completely comfortable. it's a dry cold up there sometimes. So screw the heat, you beach people can have it. it's also why I don't like to race in the summertime.

But the Glory of October sweeps in and the heat is gone, finally. Baseball moves to the postseason (and my Mets blew it again). College Football gets into full swing. NHL hockey starts the regular season again finally. And the NBA starts towards the end of the month. I'm not a huge basketball guy though. Halloween is awesome, moreso now that we have young kids to dress up. Bigun has really gotten into the decorations this year too. Pumpkins everywhere. And the high temps are usually in the mid 70's. We can leave the windows open most days, and the fresh air does this desk jockey good. Plus it cuts down the heating and a/c bills (which i had to pay this morning... ugh. so glad we're not in a recession? wtf?) which is always nice. Especially when you have to pay utilities on two houses. And it's finally comfortable enough to run and bike outside more often. Being a cold weather person, I sweat a ton in the heat. Seriously, I've had sweat show through my shirt walking from the parked car into the grocery store in our summer 96 deg heat. Then last saturday's long run sweat didn't show through until I was over 3 miles in. Awesome, I Love October.

So that's the high part of BPD. Now for the mood swings (haha, wait, what do you mean mood swings? screw that). Ah, the pain. Work caught up with me wednesday so I didn't get my cross training in. Actually, I was solid coding until about 6:30 that evening. No lunch or anything. It was crazy. But my boss made the first sale of SDF yesterday, so it was worth it. I"m hoping he comes back from the show with 10 contracts. I did get my 5 miler in yesterday, but it was fairly painful. My usual 10 minute pace was down to almost 13 minute miles. This is all leftover pain from monday's recovery run in the old shoes. There was a fairly sharp pain in my left knee, severity 2 (of 10). and the big boy is in the shins. Bone(?) pain on the interior part of the shin, and muscle pain on the outside part. on both legs. severity 6 or 7, enough to add 3 mins to each mile on my normal course running from my house. any idea where that's coming from? Recovery suggestions? any help here is appreciated, this has been building for a while. I should also mention that nicotine levels were about a 9 of 10 severity, so i was already pissed off at the entire world and nobody could do anything right on that run. Cars passing by were painted the wrong color, the sidewalks were full of leaves and acorns ripe for slipping... but at least that shitty run made the cigarrette demons go away.

Today's supposed to be a rest day, but I think I will make up the missed cross training instead. Being a tri guy, I like the cross training better than running alone. But no impact! The dude abides. Saturday's long run is only supposed to be six miles, so I don't think it will be a problem. Still looking for a route though. If I can find a route with minimal hills (tough here in Greenville), I might try to break one hour.

and the best part: MY FOLKS ARE KEEPING THE KIDS FOR THE WEEKEND! Ah, this is going to be fun. I've mentioned before that I love organic gardening. I spent my summers in college working for a landscape construction company, which might be why I hate the heat so much (I went to Appalachian State University, average summertime high temp 82 deg) but worked for a landscaper here in Greenville (average summer high 96 deg) during the summers. So without having to worry about my chainsaw or lawnmower or tiller or power saws waking up the babies, I am going to rig up a TV outside for football and spend the entire weekend working on the yard and house. Except for the 6 miler on saturday and 3 miler on sunday. I can even set up a tent and camp in the backyard if I want to. Oh, I love October!