Cav's Place

Monday I was woken up at 11:40 AM by the SMS from Auchan, announcing that the order for that cat food was ready, so after getting back under the blanket for just a couple more minutes, I got up. Only left at 1:55 PM though, taking the recyclables, including those things I drop off at Kaufland, because I was going to this Kaufland and Carrefour then, not to Auchan. It had rained earlier and was still drizzling, and I didn’t take that route taking me to some recycling bins, so I carried the recyclables all the way to the bins at the entrance of that mall, since there were no others on the way. But at least those were separate, not for all recyclables in the same one.
Since eggs were the first thing I was looking for, I had a plan to keep going to Obor if I wouldn’t have found any that were cheap enough without being code three at that Carrefour, but I did find some, plus some other things, the only exception being those bagels for my mother, which were gone from there too. Then I went to Kaufland and dropped those things off, but didn’t buy anything and was back some two hours after leaving, maybe just a little bit before that.
There had been some more drops on the way back, but by the time I was out again, at 4:05 PM, it seemed to have stopped… But I forgot the used cooking oil I wanted to drop off at Auchan, after spending quite some time filtering it the day before. Realized it not long after leaving, but didn’t care to come back for it. But before realizing that, had a quick look in this Mega Image, though I didn’t get the garlic I knew I had to get from Mega Image from there. Then I went to the Carrefour from the park, finding those bagels, and at the old price too, making it a good thing I hadn’t been able to get them before, so I got some, then stopped at a larger Mega Image on the way to Auchan, buying the garlic and also finding some mushrooms that were discounted due to starting to go bad. Also spotted that old woman with orange hair that I keep seeing jogging in the park in there, and she was rather jogging through the store too. Spent some time fumbling with the money though, since they separate those discounted products, so I gave exact change for the garlic, but then couldn’t find exact change for the mushrooms, and wanted to give it even though the cashier had rounded down, which is unusual for Mega Image, but when she repeated that I had given her enough, since I was just missing 0.03 RON, I left it like that and got out of there.
After finally getting to Auchan, I needed to wait for a while for the cat food, and when I first meant to pay I dropped 2 RON, but fortunately looked down and noticed and retrieved them right away. The procedure was confusing though, needing to wait for them to apparently bring the product from some other place where they store what’s ordered on-line, then pay in one place, then move to the one spot where there’s no protective screen for the same employee to hand me the product… And then she asked me to give a copy of the papers to the guards, and I said I wasn’t going to go in, assuming it was so she won’t need to seal the products, but she said it wasn’t that, which left me at a loss until a guard fortunately looked that way and she called him over and I just handed him one of the copies, still not really understanding what that was about.
When I went out of that shopping center, I’m quite sure someone from Declic was just going in. And then I took some 55 minutes to get back, entering the building just after 6:50 PM, being slow and stopping a few times, thinking of getting a pretzel but deciding against it each time. Then I took a shower, though the temperature of the water was rather uncomfortable, made mamaliga again in the evening… And as I was about to take it to my room, the power went out for a couple of seconds, and the fridge sounded as if it was trying to start again and failing, so I unplugged it and then checked the router too, which seemed to be in a reboot loop. Unplugged it and plugged it back in and it recovered, and after some ten minutes plugged the fridge back in too, and it sounded like it started properly again, and so far it seems fine, or at least no worse than before. On the other hand, didn’t read anything that day, and also somehow forgot to make the daily entry in a contest, which was annoying.

After making pasta the previous evening and therefore not managing to fully catch up on reading despite again going to bed at 5:20 AM that morning, yesterday I ran, the alarm being set to wake me at 12:30 PM, but my internal clock apparently remaining on the previous week‘s schedule, since I woke up at 11:59 AM. Meant to get back in bed at first, but had to pee, so I got up then after all, and had the usual stuff plus hazelnuts, the yogurt being one of those “creamy” ones with 10% fat again, albeit of a different brand, as I had grabbed one from the expiring products from Carrefour on Monday. As something sweet, again had doughnuts with added jam, and went out at 2:40 PM, wearing the old training suit without anything under the shirt, the old gloves, that thing around my neck, pulled up on the way so I won’t take a mask, and the jacket, which I of course tied around my waist for the run. The reported temperature was 6°C and supposed to hold steady, but while it was sunny on the way, becoming cloudy again after I got to the park and remaining that way while I ran, it was also a bit windy, which made it chilly on the way, the wind getting under my jacket and training shirt.
The time was a disappointing 48:57.50, with sector times of 4:24.60, 5:14 (5:13.73), 6:03.55, 4:37 (4:36.79), 5:09.23, 6:04.00, 4:34 (4:33.93), 5:10 (5:09.79), 5:53.01 and 1:49 (1:48.87), making for lap times of 15:41.88, 15:50.02 and 15:37 (15:36.73). I started by just aiming to stay under 48:30, thinking that returning under 48 minutes was highly unlikely, but from sector two of lap one it was clear that staying under 49 minutes was all I could hope for, and after the end of the lap even that was very questionable, and after sector one of lap two I was wondering whether I’ll even manage 49:30. But I just gave it everything on lap three, initially thinking I needed to in order to even hope to stay under 49:30, yet after sector two of lap three I realized I had a shred of a chance at 49 minutes if I pushed as if I was in good shape, and despite thinking it highly unlikely all the way to the end, telling myself as I was about to enter the lap’s final straight that a 5% chance was likely an optimistic estimate, I somehow managed at least that, as disappointing as it is to consider that as any sort of achievement.
There was a bit of wind at times, but only felt it as a bit of an issue in a few places on lap three, when I was pushing. People were generally not a problem, just requiring a rather normal amount of weaving and going the long way around overall, but there were a few large groups I had to make sure to calculate a path around and hope they won’t step in my way at the wrong time, which a guy from one of them rather did, probably causing me to slow a little. But the more notable issue was caused by stepping on a loose piece of pavement right at the start, my right ankle seeming to have been affected by it a little, so there was a bit of pain and I guess I wasn’t exactly stepping normally, trying to spare it, which actually led to two more situations where I strained it a little, on sector two of lap one and sector one of lap two. But I settled into things after that, and it went better, the only other physical issue being the general fact that I just couldn’t push harder, and had a very hard time trying to sustain the sprints on the straights.
After getting back, I took out a bag of trash dad had again left on the kitchen sink, and between that, managing to at least stay under 49 minutes when it had seemed so unlikely all the way to the end, and the fact that I had meant to get one Monday as well, decided to get myself a pretzel for the trouble, so I changed my shoes and went right back out, still with that thing pulled up to cover my nose and mouth instead of an actual mask, jogging most of the way to a pastry place, wanting to stay in the open, so not wanting to go inside this Mega Image for one of their pretzels. Just walked back though, the paper bag being too small for the pretzel, so I’d have likely lost a good part of the poppy seeds on the exposed part by running with it.