Beer makes you smarter...

There is truth to the saying "an object in motion, says in motion". With my training I find it's the same. The more I train the easier it is to get out the door to train.

This week I've done a couple of runs. I'm going to do an 8KM running race tomorrow and hadn't run since Clearwater. I figured my legs needed the warm up and it wouldn't be wise to show up without doing a couple training runs before the race. I don't want to injure myself if I decide to go hard.

The first run of the week was a shuffle with no heart rate monitor at a 9 minute mile pace. Yesterday's run was a little faster at an 8:10 pace. In both cases, before leaving the house, I had an internal debate with myself. Should I run or not? If I didn't, it was okay, after all it's the off-season and not training is fine. I figured I could always jog the race if I decided not to train this week. Just having choice, made it difficult to decide.

When I have no choice, I just do it. No choice reduces a lot of wasted time with self-talk. Last night the decision was beer or run, beer or run, beer or run? I ended up doing both. Mind you I stopped at two beers, which is a good thing. For the first half of the run I didn't feel in my normal groove. But for the last half, I was right back into it. My legs were fluid and I was feeling the mindless bliss of running.

I was getting a little too into yesterday's blog entry and I needed a run or beer to relax my mind. I was reading, re-writing, re-reading, re-writing and making sure it was just perfect. It's mentally draining. The reason was, to me, it was an import moment to capture. I wanted to make sure I got it perfectly right. When I capture day to day feelings it's much easier because it's still fresh in my mind. Capturing those old ones are much tougher.

Wednesday's blog entry was the same. It took a long time and lots of memory searching. With training less, I have nothing but time on my hands and those two stories I know I'm going to want to re-read down the road. It was the perfect time to take the time to do it.

As I get older my memory is not what is used to be. I joke I have early onset Alzheimer's, but in reality I think when you get older and experience a lot of things in your life, your hard drive gets full. To make room for the new stuff, you tend to forget the old stuff. Alice will tell me a story and then say "do you remember that?". Sometimes I look at her with a blank stare and go "really? that happened?". She'd then explain the situation and I'd listen to it like it was the first time I ever heard it.

Often it's a crazy story about something I did. I'd visualize it and then, after saying "no way! I did that? Get outta her!", I'd vaguely start to remember. Although there are some I still can't remember. I'll tell her she's "full of it", but I know she's not. Her memory is so good, she can still remember being a baby in her crib. I don't remember much before going to school.

The strange part is that I should remember everything. I drink a lot of beer and I contend beer makes you smarter. It's based on Darwin's Theory. You see, beer kills brain cells. It kills all the weak ones and only leaves the good ones. Therefore, "drinking beer makes you smarter".

My brother Bob has two similar theories. The first is that smoking is good because the tar coats your lungs so the cancer can't get in and Coke helps you lose weight because the acid eats away at the fat. As you can imagine, it must have been tough for my mother to manage two geniuses in the same household.

I'm now following Howie Blatt's Advice, he's a retired Insurance salesman I dealt with for years. He would say "the faintest ink is better than the best memory". So true. Even now, when I'm bored, I'll start reading older blog entries that I had already forgotten. Sadly, some were only weeks ago.

I enjoy blogging. I'm actually enjoying the writing part. I thought I'd never say that in a million years. Whenever I used to write it was out of necessity and not enjoyment. It was like school work. When I'd hear people say they enjoyed writing I just figured they were cerebral and probably hung out at coffee houses listening to poetry. Not my scene.

What I'm learning about writing is that anyone can enjoy writing. Forget about rules. All you need to do is express your true feelings with the perfect selection of words. It's taking what is in the core of your being and translating it from your soul to the page. It's that easy!!! It's only taken me 688 blog posts to understand that. I guess I could have learnt that sooner, had I only listened in School.

Me and School, that would definitely be an entertaining blog entry. Er, I mean, entertaining blog entries. Too many stories.

Finally, it's now officially Christmas in the Payne House. Alice has two Christmas Trees and all the decorations up. I also noticed, coming back from my run last night, that although I don't have anywhere near the most Christmas lights on the street, they are the brightest. And because their so bright, it seems like there is more on the house than there is. I guess it's like wearing white, it makes you look fatter.

Anyways, talking about beer and Christmas, I've included a video of my favorite Christmas decoration. Alice got it a couple of years ago from my mom. After I've had lots of beers, I like to push it's start button and play it over and over and over all night long.

Tonight I brought the bike in from the garage and put it on the trainer. I couldn't resist. I needed to ride. I was eating cereal and drinking beer for dinner and feeling sluggish. I needed it for two reasons, to burn off calories and warm up for tomorrow's run. It felt good having beers on the bike. It's liberating and guilt free beer drinking. Best part, no D.U.I., it's legal.

Mod Bike - 50:27 / 21.02 km / 25 kph

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