A run is better than a walk - 3 miles

And also better than no riding at all. Today's weather was FUNKY. I started mowing the lawn and had to quit twice because it began snowing & sleeting. This blew my riding time out the window so I had to settle for a run. I so hate running. At least I got my heart rate up and kept it there for a while. That's what counts in my mind. I don't think I'm really building leg muscles with the how infrequently I run.

Continuity

It's been a busy but great weekend. I'm Feeling good mentally and physically and I got a lot done. Friday night, I climbed with my friend Chris at Brooklyn Boulders. This was probably the best night of indoor climbing both of us have ever had. I took care of a 5.9+ route with a hell of a crux and cleaned a V2 bouldering problem that is 90% upside down. But where I "hit the wall" so to speak, Chris pushed right on, cleaning a difficult 5.10A route and a new 5.9 on the suspended, inverted, obelisk. Damn you Chris, you've raised the bar again! After BKB, we hit up the Ocean View diner in Brooklyn and played a few games of Blockus Duo over tasty (fairly) burgers before calling it a night around midnight. When I got back to my building in Manhattan around 1:00am I walked in through the trash room and snagged a lamp someone had thrown away thinking: I need a lamp like this, whatever's wrong with it will be fun to fix.

I woke up Saturday morning around 8:00 and went for a run. It was 38°F and misting but it felt great to run so early through my hazy, sleepy neighborhood. I made a loop around The Cloisters, passing the overlook that gave a view to upper Manhattan and farther off; the Bronx. For a while I jogged along looking down on the Hudson River through dense fog and mist. I got a small high from the sight of it and a generally good feeling swept over me. I finished 2.5miles later.

Let there be light:

Fixing the lamp was fun. I used my multimeter to determine that the foot-tap switch was the culprit. I couldn't get any continuity through the circuit when the switch was closed so I took it apart to see what the deal was. Inside, the foot-tap switch, I found corrosion and arching damage. When I dug deeper into the switch I found it was melted and badly damaged so I decided to scrap it and hard-wire the lamp without a switch for the time being. Today I'll take a trip to the hardware store and see if I can find a foot-tap switch for this baby. She works (the lamp's of the female gender, don't ask me why) but I need to find a switch if I want to avoid plugging it in every time I need it.

After "fixing" the lamp, I went in to work. The purpose was two-fold. I needed to pick up my W-2's I left in my desk and I thought I might crank out a few project letters while I was there. I ended up staying for five hours, working by the light of my desk lamp and the sounds of Morrissey, I cranked out nine project letters and felt fantastic when I left the office at 6:00pm.

Now it's 9:00am Sunday morning. I've got my laundry in the drier, a hot cup of coffee by my side and life is good. I plan to attend an Introduction to Meditation class at the Interdependence Project this afternoon, but other than that and watching the Super Bowl, I have no other obligations.

Bespoke

Busy day today. Did a million things. This calls for a bullet point recap:

• Kicked the day off with a 2.5 mi run around Washington Heights this morning.
• My girlfriend and I hopped a train down to Morningside Heights and had a french style breakfast at Le Monde.
• Enjoyed the Bespoke Exhibit at the Museum of Art & Design. (I now want one of A.N.T.'s Truss Frame bicycles)
• Browsed the Farmer's Market at Union Square and came very close to buying some free roaming, hormone & antibiotic free, beef
• Grabbed some food items at the Trader Joe's in Union Square

Time to clean up the house, fix a nice dinner and then satiate my need to know more about Alternative Needs Transportation...

Running

I started running this week. I picked up some running shoes, shorts, socks and began reading about running on a few websites and forums. I'm feeling pretty energized from the runs; I sense a change in my attitude during the day and especially right after a run. (I guess its true what they say about activity enduced endorphins) I'm not running far yet. In fact, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I only ran 1.39mi, 1.68mi and 2.12mi respectively. My goal is to be able to run 4 miles comfortably.

One thing that's been a lot of help to me is the Runmeter App for the iPhone. It uses global positioning to track my mileage, pace, elevation et cetera. I can then email a Google map of my route to myself and friends and there is even an option to update my Face Book status with my run or even Tweet it. The app also provides an overview of your running history so that you can view your runs on a calender to compare daily activity. Moreover you can even export all of your data in excel format! This is good stuff!