A Great 5.65

Today I planned to go to the gym and work-out on the eliptical machine since I ran yesterday (I'm trying to run a lot, but not too much before the 1/2 marathon since I've had wicked painful shin splints for a few weeks now). But Cody called and felt like running - not just his normal quick one mile speed run, but felt like running an endurance run - around Forest Park - and I just couldn't resist this rarity. The big loop around Forest Park is one of my favorite runs in St. Louis - it's a pretty easy 5.65 miles with some great scenery along the way. I try to run it at least once or twice a week. So today I ran with a partner for only the second time in a year (the first time was with Marissa in the 5 mile St. Pat's race on Saturday) and for the first time with Cody. While Cody and I are both relatively physically active, our abilities do not match up well -he likes fast short runs and I like long slower ones - as you can imagine, this doesn't lend itself to working out together often - or ever, as the case may be.

So we set out to run together. I honestly thought I was going to kick his butt since I'm the endurance champ and he's only got speed, or so I thought. He really impressed me - we ran a pretty quick 5.65 miles and he had energy to sprint the last 1/2 mile! I had such a blast running with him too! First, I figured out I psyche myself out too much when I run distances so I don't run fast enough to hit my peak performance out of fear of not finishing (or having to walk some of it). Cody really had me keeping a good pace the whole run. Second I realized how bored I can get and how fun it was to have someone to chit chat with along the way. Not that I want to always run and chit chat, I enjoy the solidarity of the sport and the time of reflection, but it was a nice change. Of course, since he's used to running less then 10 minutes at a time, Cody thought it was boring to run that long. I've got to think of something to barter with him so I can talk him into running around the park with me once a week or every other week. . . . either that or find someone who wants to run 5.65 miles at a 9:30 pace with me - what do you think, Marissa? :)

On another note, the Tourney started today! As a result, I got nothing done at work as I hit "refresh" on my computer for hours to watch the scores. At the risk of discussing work on a blog (something I avoid like pickled beets), I've just got to tell this story. Our computers are equipped with a program called "Websense" that restricts our use of certain websites. We are allowed 60 minutes of Quota Time per day (which must be used in 10 minute increments) to view these "restricted" pages falling into categories such as "Travel," "Society/Lifestyles," "Entertainment," "Financial Institutions," and of course, "Sports." Of course things like "Weapons," "Pornography" and "Illegal" are totally restricted and you cannot use those even if you wanted to use your Quota Time.

So basically the theory is they don't want you messing around on the computer all day searching for tickets for your next trip, reading about Jessica Simpson's new boyfriend, or balancing your checkbook. . . . you can still do those things, but only on your Quota Time. Aside from the fact that I think this is ridculous as a professional to have Quota Time (after all I still have to bill my required time whether or not I chose to spend an extra two hours at work reading about the Ides of March), I swear we spend more of our time figuring out how to get around these blocks then we would if we just had free access to the sites to begin with. For instance, the Tourney started at 11:30 and the Gator's started play around 2:15 - obviously, I could not sit and hit "refresh" on ESPN Scoreboard for that length of time or I would run out of Quota Time before the Gator's started play. So I spent a great deal of time figuring out if I could find a site that had scores that wouldn't charge me Quota Time. No, I didn't want to sit there for hours on end and simply watch the scores change, but I did want to periodically look up from my work and see what was going on - and I would have run out of Quota Time after only 6 bouts of looking up as long as they were 10 minutes apart. Anyway, we did eventually find a way to watch the scores without using Quota Time, but he moral is I really would have spent less time periodically looking up the scores to see what was going on then I did searching for a way around the dumb blocks. After all, since I have to bill X number of hours a month, I think I should be free to sit on the internet all day as long as those hours get billed. More power to me if I manage to read about Brittany Spear's baby and get the hours billed too.