Operation Butterfly

The other day, I outran a mail truck. It was not a superhuman feat. It's just that mail trucks have to stop at every mailbox to make their deliveries. It was a day that I noticed a lot of public service and delivery activity on my run.

I was running strong on Wygant when a state trooper pulled over two women in a van in front of me. I wondered what they could have done to get pulled over, but I'd have no way of knowing. A few minutes later, I was on Oriole Drive in Birdland when I came across a UPS, FedEx and U.S. mail truck one after the other.

I was aiming to run 45 minutes, so I turned around at 22:30 on Redwing Drive. My primary goal was to get home before Liam got off his bus.

As I came back on Oriole, I could see the mail truck was way down on the other end. It disappeared around the corner. As I turned the corner onto Wygant, I saw it in front of me. I realized that with a little burst of speed I could get ahead of it.

I ran on the grass to get by him. I nodded to the carrier as put the mail in the box, then I kept going. When I got more than two stops beyond him I started running in the road again.

I got back home at exactly 45 minutes.

The new every-other-day schedule seems to work better for me than trying to run five days in a row. The runs seem more productive and enjoyable. I can achieve more with them if I have that rest in between the runs. But I need to make sure I use the exercise bike on the off days. The good thing about the bike is that it allows you to multi-task. You can read or watch TV during the workout. Anyway, I am hopeful that I will be able to maintain this through the winter.

Winter running will require some adjustments, figuring out what kind of gear to wear and how to manage the conditions. I may be forced to stop altogether when major snowstorms hit. That's when I need to make sure I keep using the bike.

My hope is that as I bundle up for the winter runs, I will continue to drop pounds. So, by the springtime I will be a whole new person, emerging like a butterfly from a cocoon.

I checked my weight recently. I am down to 235! Woo-hoo!

Amy and I have decided that when I get to 230 I can reward myself with a trip to Aniello's Pizza in Corning for one of their meatball subs.