Spur of the moment, Fanatic call, Dexter, drowsy

Late yesterday afternoon Ali emailed me and asked if I wanted to run with her after work.  She was supposed to do a 45 minute run with negative splits, meaning the second half of the run is faster than the first.  I was still a bit sore from my 10 mile PR on Saturday but I told Ali I would go with her. I try to never miss an opportunity to encourage exercising together.

Ali originally suggested we go run the trail at the Bird Rookery but I told her I thought it was too late.  Running there in the pitch dark is not my idea of a good time, there are many nocturnal creatures that roam the swamp after all.

Instead we went to the track at the near by middle school, a place we ran quite often when we started our Florida running hobby 5 or 6 years ago. As a bonus the stadium lights at the track were on because of some kid’s soccer thing that was going on.

It was a strong run.  During the second half we were pacing what I did on Saturday and even faster for periods of the run.  Ali was there with me stride for stride. She probably ran the fastest 25 minutes she ever has.  I’d say I was surprised but I’m really not.  I have seen Ali run strongly before.  She did very well.

It’s this knowledge of her true inner speed that makes me critical of her when she settles for less.  I have more confidence in her ability than she does sometimes.

Yesterday I got an unexpected call.  It was from one of the members of SSRFanatics, named Roger.  He asked me for my phone number earlier in the day.  Roger said he was one of the Florida “Ambassadors” for the forum.  Roger is retired, has an SSR with a custom paint job and just loves the forum.  As an ambassador he goes out of his way trying to be helpful to other SSR owners.

Well when I ordered those parts for the SSR last week I never received any sort of confirmation of the order from the place that sells the parts besides the automated Paypal receipt, which I thought was odd.  A few days went by and I still never heard anything.  I hopped on the forum and asked if anyone else had ordered from this place lately, wondering if maybe they were out of business?

Well Roger was one of the people that responded back to me on the forum, saying the guy was reputable and he has known him a long time.  Well it turns out I think my post was the reason for Roger’s call.  He told me he actually called the guy that sells the parts and asked what was up.  Evidently he has had computer problems recently and was disconnected from his email.

I thanked Roger for taking that step for me.  His point seemed to be that my post could have been seen as others as red flag potentially even though I certainly wasn’t harsh, I was just seeing if I was alone or not in not hearing anything back.  Roger said he has a long list of reputable places to get SSR stuff from and he would send it to me.

This started what had to be at least a 20-25 minute phone conversation.  Well it was mostly Roger speaking, man did he like to talk. In a way he reminded me of my dad who ironically is his namesake. He told me various SSR related stories and how he has forged personal relationships with many people on the forums.  He said how he much prefers to have a phone conversation with someone as opposed to pecking on a keyboard.  I had to laugh out loud when I told him I am the polar opposite, preferring electronic versus phone communications by a large margin.

Well eventually we hung up.  I thanked Roger for making the effort to call me.  The forum is just filled with individuals like this, it is really a nice community, even if most of them are six decades old or older.

We had our most complex juiced meal to date last night.  I am not even sure if I can recall everything that was in it.  The combo included beets, kale, spinach, apple, carrots, broccoli, celery, and tomato.  I can’t recall if we threw an orange in there as well.  Anyway it wasn’t bad and I was able to down it quickly.   Ali isn’t able to drink the vegetable juice as quickly as I can, in fact she often doesn’t finish it. She much prefers when we do the fruit based juices.  Too bad because the veggie juice is where it’s at.

Juicing makes quite the mess.  Despite my best effort to cover the chute as I add ingredients there always is blow back that explodes up and outside the juicer.  The counter is getting wiped down twice a day right now.

Last night I started on the latest season of Dexter.  It was interesting catching up on the plot shifts since the last season.  I have no doubt I will enjoy this season as well as Breaking Bad.  But you can also be sure that the moment I am done with those I will be right back on the 24 bandwagon.

Man juicing takes some dedication.  Tuesdays are one of the days Ali gets up hella early (4:15 am) to go to swim training with her T2 group.  Well I told Ali I would get up with her to make a fruit juice for both of us to have later.  I have been using the juice as a post gym recovery drink.

So I made up a batch of orange, strawberry, blueberry, apple, blackberry juice.  Yea it was weird being up and about almost a full three hours before I normally leave the house.  Oh well, the juice isn’t going to make itself.  Staying healthy is hard work.