I Earned my Burrito Today!

So I skipped lunch today. I think it was because of a spoiled Clif Bar that I ate anyway. Rewind: last night after a wonderful dinner of fettucine and turkey-meat sauce, I emptied out my camping gear box. It was full of finds and garbage and things I should have considered garbage. I wasn't exactly ruthless with what I should have thrown away and consequently kept a couple Carrot Cake Clif Bars. These are normally excellent and I was excited to re-acquire, as it were, a stock of them before my morning of bouldering! So this morning after a breakfast of oatmeal with a banana, cinnamon, syrup and brown sugar, (plus a chocolate chip muffin and coffee from Dunks - gotta stop...) I set off for a 20 minute approach with a work buddy for the best bouldering the Seacoast area has to offer: Pawtuckaway State Forest.

It's a strange forest with multiple accesses and the guys I climbed with today had no idea where the nearest ranger station was. It's crazy how big this place is and the quietness sets in with a healthy dose of solitude. This allowed me to concentrate on the rock before me but also led to my dwelling on my soft and strained fingers. All in all, I was pleased with my performance today. I'm just starting out on the climbing sport and I dived in with enthusiam. I stopped when I knew I should and didn't trick myself into any really uncomfortable places - like freezing half-way up a particularly high climb. My friends are strong climbers but encouraging guys who enjoy climbing with beginners and I appreciated their return enthusiasm. I struggled but I sent (read: got to the top of) a couple problems and, like I said, was pleased with my performance. We were out for four hours. At the end of those four hours, downed 5/6ths of the aforementioned Clif Bar and thankfully the sore stomach did not settle in until my next great achievement: a 5K at 8:01 pace!

I decided on my ride home that I would go to bed tonight with a 100% sore and tired body. Well, that is pretty much how I feel right now. I popped in my tunes and bolted. I jogged faster than light to my start and took off. I felt a little heavy-footed but I cruised and my haggard breathing was covered by the blasting of punk rock. It was unhealthy to run with my tunes but I needed to disengage from the difficulty of what I was doing. In the end, I finished at 24:58, which according to runningahead.com, works out to a pace of 8:01. I was pumped!

But then my stomach hurt from the Clif Bar and I didn't even finish my Nuun. That should tell one something! Showered and after a quick trip to the library, I am totally ready to chill out 'till B-May gets home and then totally pysched for Dos Amigos $5 Burritos. Up yours, Subway - Burritos are where it's at!