An overdose of feeling thankful

What a wonderful long weekend!

During Ironman training they talk about rest days, and knowing when you need one. It's true. There's a difference between being tired, and carrying on with the workout. Then one day you'll wake up with a planned workout, and you know you aren't going to do it. No thinking involved, you just know. You go back to bed, and go back to sleep.

Saturday had been planned to be a quiet day, and I woke up with that feeling reinforced. I didn't do anything other than hang around the house, doing a bit of writing, and watching me some Kona Ironman video. It wasn't as much fun as it has been in the past. Every other word out of the announcer's mouth was a product or company endorsement. The leaderboard webpage was a complete and total failure. When I can't figure out how a web page works, the GUI is a failure, and no further discussion needed.

As far as I can see the only story of the day is that Mirinda Carfrae started the run 14:30 down on the leader, then proceeded to catch her on the way to a 2:50:xx marathon and a 9 hour total time. I watched her blow by Rachel Joyce (who turned in a completely respectable 3:06 run split) like she was an age grouper. That's yet another new course record. In case you were wondering, the actual fastest marathon by a woman is 2:15 or so. I can only wonder what Carfrae could run if she wasn't all tired out from a swim and bike first.

I felt sorry for Sister Madonna Buder. Tackling Kona at 84, then DNF on the bike because of a simple mistake. Sigh. I am in awe of her, tackling something that I would be reluctant to do just now. I just hope I'm still around and mobile at 84. Doing any triathlon at that age would be nice, let alone Ironman.

Sunday, oh Sunday. Another lovely run with my buddy. We ran up to the new bridge going in at Sandy Beach. It doesn't look like it will be much longer. Coming back we stopped to admire the mountains beyond Glenmore Reservoir. The vantage point just behind the hospital is wonderful. The mountains looked huge, and looked like they started just beyond the reservoir. I'm surprised there wasn't someone there with an easel painting. The temperature was perfect for running. We ran just over 10 k in about 1:15, with a short break at Sandy Beach. No selfies, no mountains pics. Sorry. We were too busy enjoying the run and the chat.

After having cranky legs on and off for much of the last two years it's been really nice to be feeling strong and stable while running. I've been gently stretching and starting to do some core again. Rather than build milage or speed, I'm just going to try to stay consistent running about 25 K a week for a while and see what happens.

The rest of the day was house stuff. Oh, and I got a new iPhone. I decided the time had come. Spent some time domesticating it, but have still been startled by some of the noises it makes. I still don't know why the FaceTime call today with my brother went to the desktop, and not any of the other devices that I thought were set up for that. Now I do. He called my email address, not the mobile number.

Sunday Linda's cousin and his wife were coming over for brunch. Before that I got into the pool for a great swim, with the pool almost all to myself. 1K 18:55! Some kick, and 5 x 50 on 60 seconds all but the last  under 50 seconds. (sorry about the hashtag glop. That's what I get for inserting the less than symbol.) People often talk about getting bored while swimming. I don't get it. I could have swum much longer, thinking planning thoughts for NaNoWriMo, and generally being happy about where I am these days.

I don't mean to suggest it's all rainbows and unicorns, but I really am happy these days, and thankful about life. While I'm still not in the shape I'd like to be, I can go for a nice run with buddies. Swooshing up and down the pool is all good. It even feels like the bike love is coming back, just in time for winter. The recent doctor's appointment didn't find any concerns, though the lab tests are still pending. My health generally feels excellent.

We are coming up on 30 years married. Jokes about it seeming like forever aside, it's been a fun ride. Well, maybe a few exceptions, but everybody that's married knows about that. So far we haven't planned anything special to celebrate, like a trip around the world on the Queen Mary II or anything. We will probably hang out at home and drink some wine. If you have some suggestions about what to do between those two extremes, I will read your comments with interest.

The work I'm doing is enjoyable for me (I completely understand that most people don't like writing SQL queries and playing with data, but I do) , and I like the people I'm working with. The company is going through some pains right now, but that's to be expected the way the world is. Companies that are not changing are about to go out of business.

In the bigger picture, I (and pretty well all the readers of my blog( and thank you for reading)) live in the safest and most secure societies humans have yet created. Yes shit happens, (and if we could cut down on the numbers of idiot drivers it would be much better!) but by and large we live pretty peaceful lives. We almost all have enough to eat. We might wish there was no need for food banks and such, but it wasn't so long ago that people could and did starve to death on the street.

And disease. Everybody is all freaked out about Ebola, and yes it's a horrible disease, but the odds of a North American getting it are trivial. Republican paranoia aside, there are no legions of Ebola carrying ISIS (or whatever it's calling itself now) fighters massing at the border to infect you all, or worse, threatening The American Way of Life. You've a better chance of hearing you've won the lottery while getting struck by lightning.

The people you should be worried about are those idiot anti-vaxxers. What they're doing is child abuse, and a menace to public health. Claiming a religious dispensation for vaccination is saying you're unfit to live in the modern world. People like that, and those that don't follow their doctor's instructions about completing a course of drug treatment are one of the reasons why we have the so-called super-bugs.

We know beyond any doubt that a reasonable diet, and a reasonable level of exercise will lead to a much happier, and prolonged life. But lots of people don't even do that, and we wonder why the hospitals are full. To me, it's a no brainer. Here's a little modest proposal. How be people that complete a half ironman or equivalent be charged only half the medical portion of their taxes for that calendar year?

I was pushed aside by a bossy cat as I started writing the blog. Celina hopped up and pushed me over to the side of the chair so she could snuggle in. She's still there several hours later, though I've got up to have some supper and change chairs.