active weekend
2004-03-30 - 10:57 a.m.
This was surely the weekend of Being Active. Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day here, so I took off early from work and got my hair cut. Nothing dramatic, just a trim. Then I drove home, picked up the husband and went off to Pentagon Row, where we drooled over some kayaks and visited the new running store. I picked up a pair of shoes and some other accoutrements, including wicked Coolmax socks. I fail to understand how anyone runs without these things--when I took off my shoes my feet were shockingly dry. We drove home, but not in a lazy haze of contentment. Instead, we strapped on our new gear and went running--right back to the running shop, where we picked up some nice Coolmax shorts for R.
Saturday we took the Metro over to Arlington Cemetery and ran across the Memorial Bridge. Then we ran smack dab into tourists. Every other person seemed to have a stroller, and most of the strollers seemed to be empty while the wild little rugrats sauntered around, getting in everyone's way. Needless to say there was not much running going on. But we did walk down to the Jefferson memorial, which I have always wanted to see. Jefferson was one of my favorite presidents--a deeply flawed man whose flaws still mark our nation today. In many ways, he was the quintessential American--visionary, profligate, somewhat hypocritical, idealistic. He constantly strived to know what the Right Path was, even if he wasn't always strong enough to walk it.
The cherry trees were also in bloom, and we walked around the Tidal Basin. What a gift, those 3,000 trees. It's one thing to see a couple cherry trees, and another to see hundreds of them blooming. Next weekend I'm going to try to get up early in the morning to take a run over there.
And by run I really mean walk with a few bursts of running. I'm pitifully bad at this, embarrassingly so. I can't run for more than 5-10 minutes or so at a time without getting winded. Saturday I could barely run at all after I ran across the bridge. I felt completely drained of the energy it required to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Supposedly by July I'm going to be able to run a 5K. I'm heading off to the gym tonight to try again on the treadmill. This time I'm hoping to run one lap, walk one lap. We'll see how it goes.
Sunday we took another walk down to the running store, this time to buy shirts. Mostly, though, we just wanted a nice walk. It was so nice to get out of the apartment and into the fresh air. Soon it will be April and the water will start warminig up, and then we can get started with the kayaking! I seriously need to build up my arms now so I can deal with portages in the summer. I'm hoping when my parents come out in June they'll be willing to go kayaking with us.
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Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction From
the Seraglio).
Which Mozart Opera Does Your Life Most Resemble?
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