morning after (lyn)

I get up.  It's 7:30 and I'm going to exercise.  Feel compelled to after last night's dinner.  It's 58 degrees so my first big decision of the day:  sweatshirt or not.  I look out the window and see people passing both in lightweight coats and without.  No help.  I opt to go sweatshirt-less.  It's 7:37, according to my digital cable box.  My son is still home.  As careful as I am to avoid the land mines he's set, I step on one.  "It's 7:37," I shout from my room (the school bus is scheduled to arrive at 7:37).  "Why are you up," he screams, "this is why I hate for you to get up in the morning.  You make me nervous."  He leaves and doesn't call, a good sign.   I assume he made the bus but I don't know for sure.

I call Pam, my sometimes walking partner.  She hurt her knee and though she can come, she'd have to walk slowly so I decline.  I put on my iPhone, filled with both songs I've selected as well as ones Alexander has chosen for me (he knows my music preferences pretty well, and never includes raps songs laden with ho's and bitches). I leave my east side apartment at 8:00.  I go a half block and think it's too windy.  Maybe I'll go home and do this tomorrow.  I'm tempted, but remembering what I ate last night, I decide to forge on.

 I snake through the east side, carefully avoiding baby strollers, long-leashed dogs, and people walking side-by-side and taking up the entire sidewalk.  I walk/run by the pop-up fruit and vegetable stands that dot every other corner, the colorful fruits at the small store on Lexington and 80th, the expensive stores on Madison Avenue, and enter Central Park around 85th and Fifth, 15 minutes and one mile later.

I walk/run around the reservoir (1.58 miles) and randomly think what I'll write, eat, and do today.  I don't mind the routine errands I'll be doing, and look forward to the movie screening tonight with three friends.  I think how beautiful Central Park is, and how being there in the morning is reason enough to want to exercise.  

I zigzag around the puddles that remain from last night's rain.  I feel good that I'm out on this beautiful fall morning.  I calculate in my head that I'm doing a 3.6-mile route, which is equivalent to 72 city blocks (20 blocks to a mile going street to street; 10 blocks to a mile going avenue to avenue).  So if I run   7 blocks or so I can say that I've run 10%, and briskly walked 90%.  That's about what I will do today, though I hope to increase the run portion of that ratio.  (I find a steady routine of exercise a harder commitment to keep than watching what I eat).

I'm home by 8:55.  I made the right decision regarding the sweatshirt.  I calculate my speed.  3.6 miles in 55 minutes, about 15 ½ minutes per mile, not horrible.

I feel energized and good, ready to start the day.