Running Man

I've found a new way to kill some time. For the third day in a row now I've gone running down to the park (which isn't too far away) and then run two laps in the park, followed by a short walk, and running back up the stairs and back home. The whole thing probably doesn't take more than a half hour, but it's a good workout, especially since it's at high altitude.

I'm not really sure where the motivation suddenly came from, but I just decided that I should go for a run. I'm perfectly acclimated to the altitude, and it's not extremely difficult. But after that second lap I'm still huffing and puffing and feeling like my lungs are going to cave in. That's a result of the fact that we're so high up here and there just isn't any air. You breath in deeply and there's not enough air coming in.

I've been lucky too by missing the rain each time. It's either stopped raining just before I went running, or like today, the rain started right after I got home. We're supposedly in the dry season now, but so far it's been raining pretty steadily for the last week or so. I don't think anyone really knows when anything starts. It kind of reminds me of New England in the sense that the spring doesn't really start until it's already officially summer.

I'm by no means a runner. When I had the time at the gym I would run on an elliptical machine or occasionally a treadmill. And when I came back from school for the summer I would run a few days a week until it was too hot by July to continue. But I think this is something I could get into for the remainder of my time here. Since I wake up around 9:30 a.m. during the week and don't eat until 11:30 I could get a quick run in with enough time to get showered and dressed.

Hopefully I continue to do it and don't just give up by Tuesday.