POST WEEKEND.

Yesterday, after all the weekend activities, the IM party, the actual outdoor "run," three hours+ at work, and then a little shopping, I was decidedly bleary eyed by the time I got home at 6 pm. After being gone since before 8 am. Long day. And this was a Sunday, supposedly a day of "rest."

This morning, it was very hard to open my eyes. My alarm went off and I was still dreaming, a sign I was still in a deep sleep, a sleep that should NEVER be disturbed by the sound of an alarm.

But I got up and went through the morning routine of getting coffee, my lunch made or packed while it perked, and getting my brain in gear as to what needed to be done. Most of my morning preparation was done the night before, but there are always some things I inevitably put off until morning.

Don gets annoyed with me, I know, for getting up early almost every day and leaving the house for a "workout" as he puts it, when I am this tired. But for me, it isn't just about the workout. Its become a whole lot more. And now with this new gym, I really have no excuse to not get to the gym any morning. While the workout is important to me, and its pretty much a part of my day, leaving the house in the early morning hours is more about cutting down on stress: the stress of less traffic, less hassles at the gym (even less now!), and getting to work pretty much on time. After spending 20 years white-knuckle driving to work every day from the suburbs, where we moved for a better way of life and schools for our kids, some days putting in 50-100 miles of driving, and each day wondering if this would be the day I would end up one of those mangled wrecks on the side of the highway that happened daily, or worse yet, a fatality, I have found that going as early as possible alleviates at least that much stress in my life. As does living closer now. And its also the best time for me to work out on any given day, before the demands of the day get in the way, or suck away my energy so that I am too fatigued, mentally and physically, to go to the gym. And if having less stress means getting up at 5 am every day, that's what I am willing to do.

I did my one mile plus a little more of swimming this morning, trying to go a straight 45 min. and went over a little more, also trying for an even amount of laps. Its really hard to know after a certain amount of laps what the distance is in this pool, since it is short (60 laps for a mile), so doing only 5 more could really be negligible. And I am glad this is out of the way for the day, because I know for a fact it is less likely to happen at any other time during the day or evening. Once I am done at work, I just want to go home. Most lunch times are spent catching up on Internet news and/or making up working time, so mornings are my time, and I don't want to give them up.