Words to the Past.

This morning I took it easy.  I had five planned and wanted to do six so I could take it off of one of my longer runs this week.  I also wanted to just look at today as a recovery run so I walked when I felt like it and drank plenty of water.

I tried something that Kate Evans suggested: start with A and go through the alphabet, thinking of a word that makes you happy for each letter.  I made a few revolutions, and one thing that I found--that I liked--is that thinking of one word would make me think of another.  Of course the other word wouldn't start with the right letter, so I would try to put it off.  Tomorrow when I run I won't.  I'll let the words take me where they want me.

I tried to hang on to the words that I liked particularly the sound of: supine, effervescent, luminescence, vivacious, voracious.  I was stuck at E once but chose edamame: my sushi bar comfort food.  A few times my words triggered memories of the lake when I was a kid: baking on the rocks at Dam Site Park until we couldn't handle it any longer and plunged off into the cool clean-smelling lake water, climbing up moss-slicked rocks back to the top, breathless and dripping, collapsing back on the towels until time to do it again...Driving home a bit sunburned, smelling of tanning lotion and hair in knots from the wind blowing through the windows.  Really those summer times are never far from me, but I liked it being close today.  It's a nice place in my past.

My calves were hard on me again today and didn't loosen up until about half-way.  I went down Brockington to the bottom of the first hill and then came back, feeling good with about 2 miles to go.  I got my six in.

This afternoon it finally rained and we had to go outside and feel it.

We walked barefoot down the street that was wet but still warm from the sun, holding out our hands and our faces to the drops.

A is for acclimate.  O is for open-minded. G is for gregarious. Q is for queer.