Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I hurt all over

The marathon training plan I'm using (Galloway for those interested) called for me to do 19-20 miles this past weekend. I took the position that 19 was a gracious plenty.

Ugh. I hurt all over. In addition to the usual aches and pains in my legs, ankles, and knees after I finished running, my arms, neck, and shoulders hurt, too. My current theory as to why that was is that I was too tense in my upper body as I ran, especially as I grew more tired toward the end.

I finished 19, but it wasn't fun or easy. I have been following a run 9 minutes/ walk 1 minute ratio on my long runs. Sunday I had to switch to 4/1 for the last couple of miles. It took me a smidgen over 4 hours. Incredibly slow for serious runners, but still a little ahead of the 14 minute per mile pace I need to run at the Marine Corps Marathon to be able to finish. My hope is that DC in late October is bound to be cooler and less humid than South Carolina in August and my pace will improve with better weather. I'm reminded of a quote I heard from a guy who was asked about the so-called "runner's high." He said that the only high he ever got was when he stopped. The high point for me Sunday was definitely when I finally quit running.

Oh, and there is at least one police officer in my hometown that I'm sure is convinced that I'm some kind of nut. I started out running a little before 6:00 AM and saw him pulling into the police department, presumably to start his shift. Over the next 4 hours, I must have seen him driving around five or six times as I ran. (Did I mention that I live in a very small town and that you have to do multiple loops to get this kind of distance?) I waved every time I saw him and the progression of the looks on his face over that time cracked me up. It started as kind of respectful for being out exercising. After an hour or two, he kind of shook his head at me in amusement/puzzlement. Toward the end of four hours I could almost see him thinking to himself "Is he mentally ill? Should I call an ambulance?"

The best news is that the training plan I'm on cuts me back to 8 miles or so as a long run the next couple of weekends before I do another really long one in three weeks. Hopefully I'll be recovered by then.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

My New Office




Well, it's not quite this bad, but it does kind of stink. We're in cubicles in the basement of the county office building across the street from the burned out remains of my former office. )For anyone interested, you can read my post on arson 1 and arson 2.) At least I have a place to sit now. For a week or so, we were all basically operating out of our cars.
No arrests yet, but keep your fingers crossed.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Don't Ever Say It Can't Get Worse




Just when you think the worst is over.


As I mentioned in the last post, my office was destroyed by arson Monday. In addition to me, we had offices for two other lawyers and a paralegal in there. But the one sliver of good news was that we had one lawyer and a paralegal in another building across the street.
Well, not anymore. The portion of our office that was not destroyed in the courthouse fire Monday was burned in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning. On the bright side, nobody was hurt. Law enforcement is working very hard to find the person or persons responsible. Some news articles are here, here, and here.
This is shaping up to be the worst week at work ever.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

My Office










The courthouse where I work was struck by arson very early Monday morning. For anyone interested, some articles are found here, here, and here. Very sad. The courthouse was built in 1828 and even survived Sherman during the Civil War. And of course, the damage to records, files, etc. was extensive. My office was not burned, but part of the ceiling collapsed and I had very extensive water damage. Considering how many people we've prosecuted over the years and how many people had pending charges, the list of suspects is pretty long.
Something like this really makes you feel for people who suffer a house fire. Here I am complaining about the loss of my diplomas and other things in my office, and some people have fires at their homes and lose everything.
Anyway, it has been a very painful week at work