Short & Slow in the Snow

Last night was my office holiday party and a whole lot of fun (open bar, karaoke, free greasy and delicious apps) that didn’t get me home until midnight. Which actually wasn’t late at all, considering that in order to be home at midnight, I had to leave the East Village at 10pm.

I got a cab from the EV to Penn Station, assuming it’d be more reliable than the subway, and there was so much traffic that about a block before Penn, while at a standstill, I did that thing people do in movies where they impatiently say “I’ll just get out here” and they throw the cab driver some cash and get out and run their way up the street, outrunning everything in their path.

This is why I run, I thought, before JUST making my train.

I allowed myself to sleep in an extra hour this morning – all the way to 6:00 am. It actually wasn’t too terrible to get out of bed because the only thing I drank last night was four seltzers. I’m not sober or anything, and I have nothing against alcohol. But the older I get, the more I realize that I just don’t like how I feel when I drink. Like, it doesn’t enhance anything for me. It makes me feel good for like, 12 seconds and then I just feel tired. Or worse, sick. And the thought of taking a two-hour trip home in that state, well… ’twas a solid nah.

Also, you know, calories.

Thankfully I am one of those annoying people who can do karaoke stone cold sober, and actually prefer it that way.

So I felt pretty good this morning and ready to do a nice, long run. Unfortunately, the weather had a different plan. There was about an inch of snow on the ground from the night before AND it had started snowing again.

This is not a lot of snow and I definitely don’t mind running while it’s snowing. However, I don’t have “snow” running shoes with little knives on the bottom or whatever. And although they weren’t icy, the roads were slushy and slippery. So I was afraid of running down the major road I usually take. Last thing I want is to slip and fall into the path of an oncoming wheel. I prefer being in my usual, unsmushed state.

So I decided to do something I almost never do, which was to run around my neighborhood: a collection of small, curvy streets and dead ends and cul-de-sacs that sit up against the edge of a set of woods behind a veteran’s hospital. It’s a relatively quiet area and I felt safer sticking to those streets rather than the big loop I normally do. I mostly stuck to the tire treads in the road and encountered few cars.

The hottest look in lashes this winter is “Fuck It, I’m Running Today” only by Maybelline

I only ran a little over two miles. I figured I’d just do a short, slow, snow-filled run and then a workout at home. Short and slow is okay sometimes. It’s good to remember this.

After I got home I did a quick upper body & abs Fitness Blender workout. So two workouts today, but both short and relatively easy.

Which, following a night out eating too much and singing WAY higher than my vocal cords cared to venture, was, I think, a perfectly acceptable and reasonable way to spend my morning.