Staycation, week 2 starts Wednesday. I'm a bit dismayed about the flying of the time and such, but who am I kidding? I knew that would happen.

Yesterday we went to the local driving range and hit a bucket of golf balls around. Let me be clear: I do not golf. I never thought of golf as an actual sport, Tiger notwithstanding. I could see that it took a bit of skill, certainly, but pure physical prowess? Not so much, judging by the legions of fat old men putting around the nearest course. But jeeze-o'-pete, my whole right side is somehow both stiff and jello-like now. I was getting pretty into it after awhile - making sure both feet pivoted just so - and by the end, my arm was kind of rubbery, so I knew this was coming. I will not make fun of golfers anymore. Their clothes, however, are open to ridicule.

I just slogged home from a HOT, HUMID three mile fartlek with the wee one. He can successfully complete three miles now, so it's a matter of getting in the one distance run (3+) a speed day and a strength day until the 5k in August, and shortly thereafter indoor track season. But DAMN it's hot. All summer it's been mild, rain, low 80s.... then I spend two weeks at home without air conditioning and suddnely it's all, hello, 90 with 85% humidity! How are ya!

Anyway, I'm spending the day in the cool, clean Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tomorrow is the Bronx Zoo (free day!) and Thursday is some beach far away on Long Island, not the city but not quite the Hamptons. Woot!

Aaaahhh, staycation. Yesterday entailed a fun track workout with little Duff, during which I ran a 9 minute (!!!!) mile. We then showered and went to play mini golf, after which I got my hair did. Today, my long run (13 today... 16 next week in the park with NYRR) a street fair in the neighborhood called the St. Theresa Festival (it ain't no San Gennaro, but fried dough!) and possibly venturing into the city to see "The Hurt Locker" later on. Tomorrow, the movie if we don't do it today; driving range? Batting cages? Trail run? Probably all three. I've agreed not to make my family go into the city on the weekend when everyone else is there if we can avoid it, and indeed, we can. Monday? I don't really know yet. Maybe the Met. My days have taken on the distinctive cast of childhood summer vacations, wherein I woke when I wanted and immediately commenced activities involving my bike and a pool/ lake/ ocean or other large body of water, if not a fair or other fun thing. Perfection.

PS... We picked up "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail" on demand last night and watched it with Little D. Is it wrong to commit your child to a lifetime of dorky humor? Because he really dug it. Nee!

Staycation = ON

Today: Dentist, Union Square Greenmarket, six miles, possible track fun with little Duff, and tasty vegetable oriented dinner cooked by yours truly.

Mama got her a shiny new PR! Two minutes three seconds off my last best time. Oh, and (wait for it) my last mile started with a "9". That never happened before. Exciting news. Also, McMillan seems to think I can come close to a 5 hour marathon. Sometime, anyway. Not this time.

Tomorrow is the Central Park Conservancy race, and I was pleasantly surprised when picking up my race kit yesterday when I found that they were giving away tech shirts! Again! Like they do sometimes, but I didn't know it was for THIS race! Ka-ching!

Mama wants a new PR. But I have to remember my watch this time (I forgot it for the Colon Cancer 4m and missed my best time by less than a minute). Happily, it's a late start (9am) but sadly, it's likely to be hot, humid, and possibly rainy. Stupid nature.

Well... travel to my Grandpa's funeral went off without any significant hitches. I have family members who are definite fuck-ups, but so it goes. I did my part and made my peace, and now I'm moving along. I have an amazing amount of good memories and feelings about both my grandparents, and there were definitely light moments over the few days I was out there - like the time my ever-so-slightly senile grandma kind of loudly mentioned that the spray of roses on my grandpa's casket looked like the ones that Michael Jackson had... during the eulogy. It sounds morbid and sad but it wasn't. It was perfect.

Anyhow... running. I did, in fact, do the long training run on Sunday before my sister came to town. I did eleven miles, and I was really phenomenally pleased with my effort. I had intended to run with the 11 minute + pace group but to fall back if necessary to keep my long run easy. That went as planned for the first few miles, but at some point - a water stop? I don't really remember - I wound up passing them and never really looking back. I went about nine miles feeling fantastically light and strong, and decided to pick it up for the last two. I ran mile 11 in about 10 minutes, which for me is kind of a big deal (we're talking about a girl whose 10k PR is 10:45 per mile, people.) It was fun and a nice way to get my miles in, since I had already planned on doing some long runs in CP and venturing out to the Queensboro Bridge at some point or another, just to get a feel for it. I'm hitting the Central Park Conservancy 4 mile on Saturday, and then on to my husband's 20th High School Reunion that night. Dear God. I'm married to someone who has been out of high school for 20 years. What happened? I don't know.

I guess I am getting out of the city for a minute, although the circumstances could have been better. My 88-year-old Grandpa passed away Friday afternoon, so I am driving up to Maine tomorrow to stay for a couple of nights for the family viewing, funeral, and so on. It is sad, of course, but I think we were all mentally prepared because he's had some serious health problems this spring, and, well, 88. I have a lot of great memories of him taking me fishing for sunfish at the lake house on Narrows Pond in Winthrop, Maine, that he and my grandma owned for years, picking blueberries in his garden, camping in New Brunswick, Canada... he was a smart, wonderful man with an extremely successful career, a large family, and a marriage that included hand-holding and snuggling for well over 60 years. Moreover, he and my grandmother served as a stable center in what was not always a stable childhood for my brother and sister and me. My little sister is driving into the city from Buffalo tomorrow, and she and I will head north together in the afternoon.

Addict that I am, I will still be participating in the NYRR long training run #1 tomorrow morning, and I'm already scoping out running routes in Augusta, Maine on RWOL. I told my husband last night, "You go to therapy. I go running." Not that everyone couldn't use a little of both, but you get the idea.

News flash: stretching works, but only if you actually hold the stretch for a little bit, and don't just half-heartedly dash through a series of stretch-like poses.

New flash 2: Staycation is ON! July 22 - August 4. Prepare for a deluge of posts about how I'm having more fun than you. Or, not.

I just finished a crappy 4 mile run. My leg felt crampy, I thought the plantar faciitis was flaring up again, and I was generally bedraggled and lacked energy. Bad after work running. Must always go before. Hungry and tired after work... ready to rumble before.

I also have raging summer allergies, which isn't helping. How did that happen? All my life I had no allergies, nada, made fun of the sniffly dorky allergy kids sneezing in the corner. Then karma strikes and boom! I can't breathe for six months out of the year. Actually, a few weeks in Spring... and now, apparently, July. Maybe it's illegal Chinatown firework dust that is getting to me. Hmmm.

In entirely unrelated news, I have a plan! For fun! I'm taking two weeks or so off and having - wait for it - a Staycation! You know, we're so broke we can't really go anywhere, what with the gas and the hotels and the kennel and whatnot, but I have copious amounts of vacation time, free passes to the Met and the Cloisters, and lots of beautiful (deserted on the week days!) beaches within an hour or so by car. We can sit in the newly installed beach chairs in Times Square (if they haven't all been looted - I suspect I'm a bit late to that one), go to the top of the Statue of Liberty (did you hear they reopened it? I've never been) or head upstate and mountain bike or go to that huge pool in Harriman state park. Awesome. I shall plan something amazing to do every day! Even if amazing = clean the closet and then go out for dinner. I highly recommend it. Staycation - fun for everyone! Plus, running at a time that is neither 5 am nor after a long horrendous work day. Rock on.

Happy three days off! I mean, Independence day!

Do you ever get the feeling you're acting like a total douchebag, but you just can't stop yourself? For me it's an occasional thing and it usually occurs when interacting with either my child or my spouse... Okay, honestly, it was just today. And toward the child in particular. But seriously, does this happen to you? It's like having a dream or watching a movie of yourself speaking... "You sound so annoying. Just stop doing that. No really, just stop! Shut up now!" In my partiuclar, ahem, movie of my own douchebaggery, I have become that most annoying of species, the pushy as hell parent. As in, "why aren't you still stretching every day? Did you ever get in that track workout? For god's sake, run some trails next week!" Egad. The poor child should never have taken up my sport. Had it been laps in a pool, I would have been pleasantly disassociated and neglectful, but no. Kid had to be a runner.