Run CPC

Ever since my spring semester’s finals concluded this past Saturday, I’ve felt as if I have had a ridiculous amount of free time on my hands. Like several minutes a day, often in consecutive fashion. Who knew that not going to class after work would have such a positive effect on my post-office life? I’ve done some crazy things since Saturday – opening my mail, making my bed, making dinner instead of being sucked in by those fast-food jerkpants on the commute home. (This, mind you, will grow tougher once the Five Guys opens in Merrifield.) Yep, I’ve been living the good life. It’s been a nice break between semesters, and I certainly needed some time off after mind-numbing exams in Information Technology, Managerial Accounting, and Managerial Economics. And I’m going to ride this wave all the way until the beginning of the next semester. Which reminds me, when the heck is that anyway?

Summer Semester Starts: May 11, 2005

Well, so much for that, it looks like I’ve got a pesky four hour class this evening. Joy of joys. Well, before I go back into MBA warrior mode, let’s type a little bit about the other crazy thing I’ve resurrected in recent days. Condon’s been going to the gym again.

My recent attendance records down in the Fitness Center falls somewhere between sporadic and occasional. Turns out there ARE only so many hours in the day, and gymtime got the ax in a close match-up with sleeptime and blogtime. The thought is always there, but the hours are not. Because going to the gym requires a much greater time commitment that simply stepping on the treadmill and running for 20 minutes. No, it requires packing my bag with work clothes to change into. It requires leaving work at a reasonable hour in order to get any semblance of a workout in. It requires 20 minutes of retracing steps to the last time I wore my running shoes. As you can see, a trip to the gym requires roughly 14 hours of your day.

The bullet has been bitten and for the last three days I’ve been back in the saddle again. The schedule is pretty standard: run before work, do weights after work. And so far, both my alarm clock and my desk inbox have complied to said schedule, not preventing me from missing any cardiovascular appointments. If you’re going to have a successful outing to the old gym, you need to have a routine. If this routine is broken, you might as well stand by the water cooler or flop down over one of those giant rubber balls, ‘cause you’re not going to get anything done.

When I run, I need two things to make it a successful run. They’re crucial elements that help make up my personal routine. The first is music. Music is essential to a great run, especially if you’re aware of the fact you don’t run great. Running in silence will only remind you of the tedious act your feet and legs are engaged in and currently loathing. Something must break up the monotony. And when the song selection is left to the shuffle feature on your Dell DJ portable mp3 player, you sure better hope you catch a streak of up-beat, hi-tempo cuts. Otherwise, you’re running too fast to grab the thing and hit next, so it’ll be 3 and a half minutes of running fast but listening slow. Need an example of mp3 letdown? Here’s how yesterday’s run played out…

Zebrahead – Subtract You – Second only to Linkin Park in the rap-rock genre, Zebrahead started the run off with soaring guitars, catchy lyrics, and a breakneck pace. Perfect for this run.Fabolous – Breathe – I don’t have many rap singles on the DJ, but this is one of them. It’s one of those rap songs that makes everything mundane seem oddly important. Also took the run into a nice groove with the downbeat. Everything is going fine…until…

Heights – How Do You Talk to an Angel? Ladies and gentlemen, early 90’s wuss rock at its finest. My drive to run fast just took the off-ramp to Stop-and-walksburg.

But hey, at least I have a magazine rest here on the treadmill. Even though I can’t make out the words and read the articles, it does give me one more thing to keep my mind off running. Now the only three mags I’ll pull from the rack are Time, Sports Illustrated, or Entertainment Weekly. They each have enough features and interesting graphics in their articles to keep me from thinking about counting steps. Today I grabbed an SI with the NFL Draft recap on the cover. A pick-by-pick breakdown surely will make this 20 minutes fly. Unless…

Unless somebody, for a completely inane reason has wrapped the latest issue of Shape Magazine within the confines of the outer SI cover. So rather than finding out Peter King’s draft grade for the Eagles, it looks like I will soon find out what carbs are friendly carbs and how to slim down for that great summer sun dress look.

Worst. Run. Ever.