Good run today

I'm having a great day off today. Did a 10-mile run this morning. Then went and did a "double-red" blood donation. Came home and have been reading and listening to music. I always am really sluggish after doing that donation. If you're not familiar with it, a double red donation is just what it sounds like. A double quantity of red blood cells. In a typical donation, they hook you up to a bag and take a pint of blood. For double red, they hook you up to a machine which takes out blood, centrifuges out the red cells, and replaces the plasma. They take 2 units worth of red cells. That's tough on any athletic activity.

Once this summer, I did a donation without considering the impact on my running. When I went out two days later I could do absolutely nothing. (It was a little embarrassing, because I went to Austin for an REI conference and was excited to run with my colleagues. Then I totally pooped after a VERY short distance.) It wasn't till about 3 days later when I was talking to someone back in Dallas that I made the connection that I'd been so weak because of donating blood. Stupid me. One insight from that experience: if the negative impact of losing red cells is proportional to a positive impact from gaining red cells, I can see why cyclists and other endurance athletes are willing to risk a lot to do blood transfusions or take EPO. It's an ENORMOUS impact. Not just a marginal difference.

(I'm still listening to holiday music. Vince Guaraldi on Pandora right now. Does that make me goofy?)

I think tonight I'll just sit here and eat and watch TV. Actually not TV, but a DVD. Probably James Bond. Gotta love James Bond. Exciting macho misogyny. Lots of cool gadgets and explosions. Happy ending and escape from the humdrum, though, is what I mostly crave. And it's not really that misogynistic, is it? Pretty healthy dinner, too. George Foreman chicken and baked sweet potato. Maybe (actually, definitely) followed by a dessert of a handful of dark chocolate M&Ms and a bowl of Cinnamon Life cereal. Totally decadent! (I'll probably also have a grapefruit.) I know all of you out there in blogland wish you could be here with me for this night of hedonism.

Had a great day last Thursday. Had lunch with my friend Jennifer, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, along with Jane (English instructor at Richland), whom I hadn't seen in about as long, even though she's there on campus, and Elisabeth (Jennifer's daughter) and David (Elisabeth's boyfriend) (they (E&D) were in town from California for the holidays). Went to Cosmic Cafe, one of my fave places. Had great fun conversation. Liked David.

(Switched to Early Blues. Charlie Patton on now. Hard to imagine a more pronounced contrast. Going from easy listening christmas music to raw scratchy old blues.)

Anyway, gonna go eat, watch movie and ice the knee. (Did I mention that I've kinda hurted the left knee?)

Later....