It's early evening, and I finally dared to sit outside, as the sun has swung around to the northwestern side of my building; allotting me some much needed sweat-free relaxation time in the shade. The humidex reading climbed to 41 degrees today, and luckily I managed to get the settings to work right on my ancient, ailing air-conditioner. I had it on long enough to at least make it comfortable to operate my stove to finally cook a meal in here after five days. As nice of an option it is to have and use, I only run it intermittently: because I notice now how badly any radical and damp artificial cooling makes my semi-arthritic knees ache, plus the thought of catching a summertime cold by exposing myself to such drastic temperature fluctuations doesn't appeal to me either. The lesser evil seems to be indulging in a lot of cool drinks. An icy cold half and half blend of kombucha tea and water with a generous squeeze of lemon is both quenching and invigorating; or at least not so dulling to the senses as beer is at this temperature. My poor little black-haired dog is performing her usual summertime ritual in the futile exercise of instinctively trying to find 'shade' by staggering and waddling around, hiding under any furniture she can fit under, discovering with restless discontent that there is no satisfying spot she tests out in which to take refuge from the sticky heat. I expected a thunderstorm to roll around soon after such a day, but neither the forecasts nor the view of the sky is promising anything of it for either now or later tonight.
It's a lazy summer day, occurring on a day when I'd rather not be lazy: the simplest of chores seem to take five times the effort and energy to do. I had a mind/body conflict happening all day. I've reached that point of fitness now where sitting still seems like too much of an abnormal thing, and yet it's hard to cope through such a hot day,where expending energy needlessly is an unwise thing to do if one wants to keep enough stamina and strength for training throughout the rest of the week.
I have a couple more running goals to add to my list. Firstly, to reach 3000 kms of recorded mileage before the end of July (coming close to doing that). Secondly, to lower my average pace time down from 7' 00"/km, to 6' 55"/km by the end of August. With the hotter weeks ahead and the tougher measuring adjustment created by the enhanced accuracy of my new metering tools, the latter goal is definitely the greater challenge.
I borrowed a book today from the SPL called The Practicing Mind. It seems interesting, maybe something to help me keep motivated in the learning of the new things I'm checking out now; to stay enthralled with the process. Even now at this age, I'm still searching for at least one unique thing that I really excel at doing, and really using it for my prosperity. Exploring some more new interests is one thing that I hope could help bring that about. At the very least, if the findings from current studies are at all credible, the effort will make me less likely at risk for acquiring dementia or Alzheimer's disease in my senior years.
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