Summertime

Conditions could not have been better for my Saturday morning run.

After running the last Sheepherder's race in the oppressive heat last week, it was nice to wake up to a cloudy and cool day in which to do my long training run. It had rained a bit sometime during the night, but I didn't expect the canyon road to be too muddy -- and it wasn't. The breeze was just right, the evil bighorn sheep and other wildlife stayed out of my way, and my legs seemed to be in a fairly cooperative mood for once.

My plan was to run 5 miles by myself, and then meet up with my friends Joe, Kristen, and Sue for another 8. For my solo segment, I stuck my MP3 player into a pouch on my hydration pack and listened to my next Japanese lesson. While I ran, I learned how to speak important phrases such as "My husband would like a beer" and "In America, a bottle of water costs 2 dollars." As instructed, I repeated each phrase out loud; any observers would probably have been puzzled by my sporadic bursts of poorly pronounced Japanese coming between gasped breaths as I tried to run hard.

As usual, I started out slowly and then loosened up. But it was probably the fastest 5-mile training run I've done for quite some time, and I was feeling pretty good. And right on schedule the other folks showed up to join me, so I put the MP3 player away and turned around to head back into the canyon for a conversational run with my friends.

An excellent way to start the day. And the rest of the day was fabulous, as well. Weekends are definitely a good thing.

But with my job, such days are not frequent enough. Sunday found me sitting in the office all day, staring out the window to watch the sun shine on everybody else in Denver. It was one of those days where Mother Nature is positively begging you to get out and luxuriate in her outdoorsy goodness, but I somehow managed to avoid the temptation and remain at my desk...adding punctuation marks to a document that was soon to be translated into a language that uses an entirely different punctuation system. Sigh.

But no matter. There will be weekends where I can get out and enjoy the weather. It won't be long before I'll be swimming in the pond, riding my bike around the lake, and (despite sunscreen) developing a noticable farmer's tan. I hope to see you out there also enjoying this fabulous time of year. It's summer, dudes -- Let's get out there and take advantage of it!