Recently I read that Ted Cruz is set to oversee NASA. This is after the not-surprising news that the Keystone XL has been approved by the Senate. This morning I read how now the Senate is also going to vote on whether climate change is even happening. I don’t want to get overly political in this running blog, but I kind of feel like I entered the Twilight Zone and found a time-warped room of ancient, illiterate thinking that makes you scratch your head and, well, laugh–but not in a good way.
So it was with these thoughts that I ran today, trying to not mull on them too much. It’s like a sideshow in a circus where the main event is a warming world that needs our action to ensure species’ survival. It’s amazing that a non-scientific denial narrative has been so successful with Republicans.
Anyway, with that in mind I just tried to concentrate on the beauty around me. It is a sunny but very cold day. The sky is stark blue. The mountains paint the sky with white and gray.
I’ve included some variance in my runs lately. Today, instead of the normal five-minute walking warmup, I walked only for a minute, which means that I introduced a long hill into my run–good for training, they say. I normally walk up the hill but figured it’s time to start running up it. I’ve had to cut back my run two days a week due to work time limitations at work, so I only ran for twenty minutes, walked for five, and sprinted for two. On the weekends I can run for longer, and set my record on Saturday! I just started using Strava today so that I can see more clearly my pace as well as other details like elevation gained or lost. It’s kind of neat.
In other news, I registered for the Vancouver Sun Run, which I have participated in once before. The last time I ran only about a quarter of the way. While I’m not sure where my training will be in April, I know I can run at least half of it, and hopefully more than that!