I am lucky enough to have another day off today. Hurray for President’s Day. Although BoBo has baseball practice, the boys are out of school all day as well.

If this wasn’t enough to make for a nice and easy week, it is also a step-back week. So Coach was nice enough to let me run on a day that I would normally be resting. The rest of my running week consists of a run every other day. It should help me manage my work at the office.

Surprising as it is, my legs aren’t the least bit sore today. The blister on my left foot was a concern though. I drained the clear fluid from it and applied some blister blocker to the spot.

The next task was to MacGyver my shoe set up – AGAIN. I pealed what remained of my metatarsal pads from my orthotics, traced them, and then cut two-layers of moleskin foam to make a replacement. I attached them to the most neutral insole that I own.

After this I was off with YaYa riding his bike along side of me. We made our way to the local high school track. I ran 6 laps and YaYa ran every other lap along side of me. He took this picture of me during his rest period (finger cropped out).

I made it through most of the run before I could feel the blister filling back up with fluid. We managed to get home before the discomfort got to be too much.

The schedule has been busy these days. I am always on the go from the moment my feet hit the floor to well into the evening. If I am able to pick up my laptop for some “me” time it is a good thing. This is the point that I take a deep breath, release my tension from the day, and get lost in the virtual universe. It’s a great thing.

Lately, there is a battle for keyboard time. Not only does YaYa also have a blog, but he has also discovered a game site that is popular with his classmates and his cousins on the other coast. He is motivated to get his homework completed so that he can earn some computer time. Tonight, YaYa finished the bulk of his homework at daycare, and finished the final problems in the van as we waited for BoBo to be excused from his baseball practice. He earned the time, but BoBo also had computer needs tonight.

BoBo, wanted to use the computer for an online Spanish review. I really didn’t want to give up my laptop time; I’d earned it too. *sigh* Although we have a more than one computer, it was looking like there it would be awhile before my fingers would hit the keyboard.

By the time I finally was able to get my fingers on the laptop, my thoughts had escaped me. There was nothing left. I tried to catch up on my blog reading, but it was not use; the connection was lost. So, I got pretended to write, with hopes that something would come out. Finally, I let myself get lost in the television along with my boys who were watching the new episode of Friday Night Lights.

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The sun was up and I had 12-14 miles on my list of things to do. I rolled over in bed and felt the muscle soreness all throughout my body. My arms, pectorals, abdominals, and legs were ALL sore from a night of holiday partying.

It began as the usual family gathering. The fact that we were gathering for Christmas in January, although last year we did it in February, was due to my brother-in-law’s loss. As usual, the meal was fabulous.

During dinner, Chris began talking about her new goal for 2007 to begin jogging. Paired up with a jogging partner, Chris already had one workout. Although she told her partner that she “cannot talk” and gave instructions “I’ll bring my iPOD and you bring your iPOD.” The only problem was that her partner did not follow her directions. The result was that he began talking and talking, and by the time they had traveled one corporate block he was too tired to go on. They are attempting to jog again on Monday. Chris warned him again to “bring your i-POD!”

Well this somehow led to questions of my family on fitness in general. Before long we were doing push-ups, sit-ups, and all sorts of abdominal exercised. The sore tummies lead to more conservative helpings of cherry brownies. Then we all danced to music from the various family members’ iPods for over 2 hours.

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Whew. What a day today was. Protocol A got denied board review. This review was one that my team has put in many hours to prepare for. What should have been easy, ended with a result that was hard to take. The preliminary talks went on for over an hour. In the end, the decision made the most sense. It set the stage for my next meeting.

During the 20 minutes that I would have had between meetings, I crafted my email the key players. By the time the meeting occurred, the decision to shift the plan of attack for Protocol B was easy made. Well, for some of us. It took a while to convince everyone. Here again “easy” ending up hard. We finally exited the conference room a mear 2.5 hours later…

By the time I hit the road for home the traffic was already heavy due to newly fallen rain. I parked in front of the baseball field and got ready for an hour run in the surrounding area. As I left, I could see the head coaches sitting together in deep discussion. It’s cut day…finally. I say finally because twice before BoBo was told that it was cut day only to be told that the coaches needed more time to make their decision. The coaches looked intense today as they measured each of their options (my son being one of them).

I ran in the opposite direction while thinking of last spring when BoBo didn’t make the cut for the All Star Team. He’d played on the All Stars in prior years and even contributed to a district championship. Baseball is no longer easy when the kids get past the “fun to fun” stage. There was a lot of boys trying out for the team. The fathers (who coached last year’s AS team) will soon be arriving to see if their boys made the cut. We’ll all huddle together and wait. Only this time they will have reason to be nervous just like me. Until then, I just run.

Speaking of “easy,” the term is relative these days even for me. Today’s run is noted as an “easy 5-6 mile” run but the pace is 8:30-8:45.

Coach: If you are reading this, I am not complaining. I am just noting that I have not thought of 8:30-8:45/mile as “easy” in my past running.

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