Why Mr. Sweetie IS a Sweetie

So I swam this morning and actually got to the pool before my lanemates started the first set (this has been the week of being on time - I've gotten into work EVERY DAY before 9am. It's a strange and awesome feeling to beat your co-workers to work). Anyway, back to the swim. Good lord I'm terrible at pacing during the swim. Really terrible. I've not yet mastered the art of the "descending swim" or the "start conservative and finish strong" type of set. No, no - instead, I try to start and hold a stupid fast pace (for me, I will not say my splits because in reality they are NOT stupid fast) which always ends with my lanemates saying, "hehe, you kind of died there in the last 50, didn't you?" And I've also discovered that trying to swim stupid hard really only buys me about 2-3 seconds over 100yds, compared to swimming a steady, strong, DOABLE pace that doesn't leave me gasping at the end. And please let's not get started on open water swimming and how my pool fitness does NOT seem to translate to the types of OWS times I'd like.

Anyway. Would you like an example of why Mr. Sweetie is a sweetie? He's been super nice this week by dropping me off at the metro station on his way to work, saving me from the worst 30 minutes of my morning (the bus commute to the metro station). He leaves for work too early for me to fit in a shower between my workout and our departure, so I've just been getting ready for work at the gym in my building. And guess who forgot to pack her work shoes this morning? And guess who didn't realize it until, oh, halfway to the metro station? Mr. Sweetie was nice enough to turn around, bring me back to the house to get my shoes, and then drive me back to the metro station. Without a single snide remark (had the roles been reversed, I don't think I would've had the willpower to hold my tongue). I brought an extra pair of shoes to work with me today so this won't happen again (but then I forgot to actually take the extra pair out of my bag and leave them in my office, so that didn't do me any good).

I looked at my workouts for next week. Not going to lie... I am getting EXCITED! Excited as training ramps up, excited for upcoming races, excited for... my first ever double run day! Neither run is super long, but even when I was just training for a marathon and trying to qualify for Boston, I don't think I ever did a double-run day. I feel like double run days are serious, and I think it's kind of cool that Jen thinks I am serious enough to be given a double run day :)

Yesterday I finished the book "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." A co-worker of mine had recommended this book and with the movie out in theaters, it was on the top of my list. It is one year after September 11th and Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy whose dad died in the terrorist attacks, is on a mission to figure out a puzzle that he thinks his dad left behind for him to solve. The puzzle ends up being the backdrop to other more important story lines. In the beginning, I wasn't a big fan of Oskar's character (I know, terrible thing to say about a kid whose father died). He comes off as being too smart and pompous for his own good, kind of reminding you of that know-it-all child you used to babysit for when you were a teenager. But then layers start to peel away and I found myself liking him and feeling sad for him and rooting for him by the time the book finished. In the end, he really is just a kid trying to overcome a trauma that hopefully most of the rest of us never experience. It was well-written, definitely quirky, and as you read it, you feel like you are inside the minds of the characters who are narrating. The most poignant part, I thought, was when Oskar was talking to someone about why he needed to know exactly how his dad died. It was towards the end of the book and I really just wanted to give him a hug. NOBODY should ever have to think about something like that. Definitely a book I would recommend.