TITLE: A Month of Running, and Not Running
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: December 03, 2009  5:42 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:
It has been over five weeks since my blog entry on running.
Why?  At first, I was recovering from
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-10.html#e2009-10-27T06_57_39.htm">
   running a marathon</A>
and didn't have much to say: a few extra days off, a few
fewer miles, but mostly a natural recovery.  Then, three
weeks ago or so, I came down with a little cold that now
seems to be more of the same of what I was feeling most
of last year and earlier this year.  That's been
disheartening, both because it has cut into my running
and because it raises the specter of a longer down time.
On top of that, the last bout of this ended without
resolution, so who knows how my health will be in the
coming months.

At this point, I am on track to to reach my 2008 mileage
in 2009, as long as I can get back to even some low-mileage
weeks to finish off December.  That might make for a nice
psychological boost.

I did smile last month when I read tweets and blog posts
reporting on the unofficial RubyConf 5K Run, which I first
<A HREF="http://www.chadfowler.com/2009/9/25/unofficial-rubyconf-5k">
   saw mentioned</A>
a couple of months back.  Awesome.  I run solo at so many
conferences; it would be great to have some company.  A
couple of my students have been following the Couch to 5K
program that some of the Rubyists used to get ready for
the fun run.  Again, awesome.  I'm glad to see folks
making changes to live healthier lives, and running has
given me a lot of happy hours -- and burned a lot of
calories for me!

If the 5K becomes a regular event, it provides one more
good reason for me to attend RubyConf -- if I can ever
afford it...
-----