Insouciant: (adj) free from concern, worry, or anxiety; carefree; nonchalant

That’s right. I am insouciant after completing my GRE today…after a week (I know, one whole week!) I actually managed to better my scores from the last time I took it, which was twelve years ago. My scores were, well, okay – as well as could be expected, all things considered. Not outstanding, but not remarkably average either.

As far as my state of insouciance (say it with me: “In-soo-sawnss”), I shouldn’t overstate it. I’m actually nervous because I’m racing a 12k tomorrow in Orangeburg, and it’s my first race since March. You can check out the race website in my little widget box to the right. It’s a small race on a challenging course, so I’m curious to see how things will turn out. I’ve done a slight taper (8M yesterday, just 5M today) and I’m amazed how much even that can affect how I feel during a run. Five miles…I feel like I’m cheating or something.

Anyway, this weekend should be productive with posts and the blog itself. Got some stuff on my mind I’d like to share, and a guest blogger to introduce. Race report tomorrow…here’s to running fast!

Progress Check

Boy, I’d really like to sit down and write about ten different posts right now. But since my time management is just about worthless I’m going to have to keep it brief. Besides, my brain is full of big words, graphs and other worthless GRE nonsense, so I probably couldn’t put a decent  post together no-how.

Training – another week, 100 less miles waiting to be run. Lest I give the impression that this is no big deal, let me tell: it is. Up until a few weeks ago, I’d never run 100 in a week, much less put four of those weeks together back-to-back. This week was particularly rough on my feet. A midweek 11M averaging 6:18 left me with some ridiculous blisters, and my black toenails are threatening to outnumber the healthy ones. I may have to start painting my nails just to keep my wife from dry-heaving at the sight of my feet. I also have a lovely case of plantar fasciitis in my right foot, which for some reason has me fantasizing about acupuncture. But the training is doing its job…I did an encouraging 17M yesterday through rolling terrain and averaged a brisk 6:37 without it being too teribly hard.

Mocha Club – Still haven’t gotten it completely squared away but I’m close. I know, you had your debit card out, just itchin to make it happen…but hang on, partnah! Anyway, this week, fo sho…I’ve gotten some other exciting news I won’t share quite yet regarding supporting Mocha Club. I’m hashing out some details (I know, I seem to do a lot of that) before I let the cat out of the bag.

Inspiration – Every day, I’m attempting to open my eyes a little more and find the little nuggets of goodness the universe has tucked away with my name on them. Whether it’s fighting negativity on a bad run by rejoicing in the progress I’ve made in less than a year; or taking a moment to consider a profound quote shared by my wife, I’ve found a lot to smile about in the past week or so. Just tonight, I made the best of a late run start by enjoying the moonlight and belting out “Walcott” by Vampire Weekend as I ran down a suburban street. Sometimes…you just have to sing, even if it’s off-tune and out there.

Guest Bloggers!

Quick update – I’ve almost got things worked out with Mocha Club to streamline the donation process; hopefully by the end of the week I should have all that squared away.

I’m also excited to announce that I’m going to have some other folks do my work for me and pen some guest entries! Going back to the “Mile #1” post, I liked the idea of putting a face on the activities the rest of us are doing. So, I already have a few peeps lined up but PLEASE if you would like to discuss perhaps some of your own projects or want to nominate a friend, do so by emailing me and we’ll get it set up.

Alright, I found out I have to take the GRE next Friday, so I apologize in advance for what will probably be short entries during cram-time. Then again, this may help me out with what I’m told is a tendency towards “abusive long-winded-ness” in my writing…