Be Happy

I received an e-mail today with a long story. At the end were these five simple principles:

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Have a good weekend, everyone. If you are racing, have fun. If you are training, have fun. If you are slacking, have fun. I'll be at my daughter's 7th birthday party tomorrow, then running on Sunday. It's going to be a great weekend!

Back from Vacation

We just got back from a 16-day driving vacation through the Northeast US. We drove from Dallas through Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville to Washington DC where we stayed for a few days with my Dad and visited some of the monuments and museums, Mt. Vernon, and we saw Love's Labours Lost (wonderful production, based loosely on the Beatles' 1960's visit to the Maharishi). We then drove to Philadelphia, where my wife and I lived for about six years, and stayed there for about six days. Again we visited historical sites, museums, visited with old friends, and soaked in the ambiance of the city. We then drove to New York City for a quick two day visit, then the long drive back home. It was GREAT to be away from work for so long (no cell phone, no e-mail, no worries)! It sucks to be back :(

While on the road I had the chance to walk quite a bit, and only once on a treadmill. I did three long walks in Philadelphia, from downtown (Rittenhouse Square) through Fairmount Park up to Manayunk and back (about 16 miles). I also walked in Central Park, although it wasn't a great walk because the Chase Corporate Challenge was being held that night so the park roads were packed with thousands of runners. I did a nice run (yes, run) in a lovely neighborhood West of Knoxville, and I ran (yes, ran) along the River Trail in Little Rock, AR.

Now it's time to get back to training. My thoughts are all over the map right now--I've thought about focusing on 12-hour and 24-hour races and racewalking; I've thought about switching to running and building up to ultras as a runner (I'm getting a little bored with walking and am looking for a change). One thought I had was to repeat my first season of ultrawalking as an ultrarunner, which would mean a 50 miler in October (either Heartland or Palo Duro), then the Rockledge Rumble 50k here in Dallas in November, then SunMart 50 miler in December, then train for the Three Days of Syllamo race in Arkansas in March, then maybe a few 50k races. I still want to do a hundred miler, maybe Heartland in 2007.

I want to train hard and feel excited again, but right now I'm just feeling a little lost. I'm also very burned out on work, and the vacation only made that more apparent. I'm going to try some running this week and see how it goes; I'll let you know how this turns out.......

My New Ride

I bought these this weekend. Nice ride, very lightweight, pretty good heel support, nice roll. I got some small blisters under some callouses on my heels, and the bottoms of my feet were sore the rest of the day, but I think that is because I didn't lace them tightly enough and I needed to wear thicker socks.

I did 21 miles (85 laps) on the track this weekend at a 12:02 pace. Did I mention I'm training for Ultracentric 24 hour? I've been all over the map with my training and racing plans, but I've decided to throw myself fully into training for Ultracentric in November and the Houston Ultra Weekend in February. I might do a twelve hour or another 24 hour as a training race before then; we'll just see how things go. I never realized how much I would miss the ultra distances, and the ultra people, when I took my little break. So I'm back. For now. ;)