Should I Walk the Bolder Boulder?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
25 Days Until Bolder Boulder

Warmer than ever, it was 45°F when we started our morning run. I was exhausted and got heated up within minutes of starting. We had shot a few baskets before running as a token gesture to the hapless Denver Nuggets, who had just been swept out of the National Basketball Association playoffs 4-0 by the Los Angeles Lakers. Like the Nuggets, I missed most of my shots. I was so tired Angela could have beaten me one-on-one today.

My sleep deprivation had me so run down I simply didn’t have any energy today. My reserves were gone. And the caloric gorging yesterday didn’t help either.

After running less than a mile, I knew I was in trouble. In the past, when I was tired, I simply slowed down. I would “gut it out” and keep going until I got a second wind. This time, I knew the situation was different when I started to not feel well from a whole body perspective. I was being told, in less-than-polite-terms, to stop.

It wasn’t as if I decided to be prudent and listen to my body. It simply wouldn’t let me keep running so I started to walk at certain points. My running partner, Angela, jogged alongside me as we debated whether or not there should be a death penalty. She didn’t believe in it and told me a humorous story about how, when on a business trip, she had accidentally almost pinned a coworker against a brick wall. She speculated whether or not she could have gotten the death penalty for killing her coworker. I assured her that, because it would have been an accident, it was unlikely she would have faced anything severe at all.

I was unenthusiastic about the death penalty but was concerned about the cost of housing prisoners for decades (i.e., potentially more than a million dollars per lifetime incarcerated convict). I also wasn’t certain if I would be against the death penalty if a love one were brutally murdered. I knew a part of me would want the perpetrator and his or her genetic material off the planet permanently.

The run was the most difficult one I had in a long time. I stopped frequently and would break into a walk. My long stride made it possible for Angela to keep running, albeit at a slow pace. Somehow, I managed to finish. The temperature had skyrocketed and it now was 60°F according to a nearby electronic sign. That was amazing.

After the run, I made it back home to get going for the rest of the day. It was no surprise when I weighed in at 205 after my semi-bacchanalian food orgy yesterday. I now was 5 pounds off my target and asking for trouble. I still had a shot at being 200 on Saturday but it would require willpower I hadn’t yet found. Somehow I always was able to rationalize not just that extra bite of food but that extra platter of culinary delights.

For breakfast, I had three fried eggs with tons of salsa and three heavily-buttered English muffins and some organic milk. I knew this wasn’t a good way to begin the eating day but I promised to moderate my intake after that.

For lunch I had a bowl of strawberries (good) with whipped cream (bad) and a mix of hot chocolate and instant coffee. I almost never drink coffee but today I was so tired I was falling asleep at my desk. Because I rarely drank coffee, the few times I had it resulted in my eyes popping open thanks to the caffeine.

The rest of the day was nonstop. The lowlight were the battles I was having with my computer and a host of crummy Microsoft products. It was frustrating but the idea of switching to Apple products entered my mind on a serious note for the first time. As seemed to always be the case, I got to sleep two or three hours later than I had planned.