Cav's Place

Leaving the remaining odds and ends from April for another time, I’ll start this post with the early hours of May 3, when I made the tea for the morning and then ate dinner, which also included some of the new peanut butter, between 1 AM and 1:55 AM, and went to bed at 3:50 AM. There was some pain that seemed to come from that rib that I probably cracked multiple times in the past, which worried me for a while, but at one point the kind of pain that I recognize as being caused by that bone spur also appeared, which made me think that my back might be the cause after all. And that was probably correct, since working on my posture made the pain go away.
Either way, I got up when the alarm rang, at 8 AM… And it was a good thing I chose that day for that morning run, because soon after I woke up they started mowing all the plants from that area behind the building again, meaning that I couldn’t have slept anyway. So I had the usual stuff plus almonds, with the sweet thing being both a slice of cozonac, with added honey, and a small expired banana protein bar, as in one out of a double one, since I wanted to see whether I could take the other part with me on the day of the half marathon. Rather surprisingly, considering the early hour, even left something in the toilet, albeit less than I felt I had to. Then I also took both supplements and went out at 9:45 AM, wearing the full running gear. The reported temperature was 12-13°C, reaching 14°C when I finished, but it was cloudy. I can’t say I felt the chill on the way to the park, however, since I rushed.
The time was 46:41.07, with sector times of 4:03.79, 4:59 (4:58.22), 5:46.53, 4:24 (4:23.81), 4:55.03, 5:44.16, 4:24.41, 4:58 (4:57.06), 5:39.21 and 1:49 (1:48.85), making for lap times of 14:48.54, 15:03.00 and 15:01 (15:00.68). I managed to start right at 10 AM and pushed hard from the start, obviously feeling that I couldn’t keep up that pace but wanting to see what it meant on the first sector and managing that outstanding time that makes it a new second fastest first sector, and that was despite having to slow and squeeze through a group of what were probably high school students having a photo shoot on the long straight. After that, I also wanted to cover the first lap in less than 15 minutes, which wasn’t a problem, but the initial target of staying under 47 minutes seemed in danger after tiring myself so much from the very start, making me think that I should be aiming to just stay under 47:30. Still, from sector two of lap three I gave it everything and after that sector I realized that I might just have a shot at staying under 47 minutes after all, being surprised to already have a safe margin at the end of the lap.
There were pretty few people, and if you exclude that group on sector one, which was still there on lap two but had learned to leave some space, it seemed that most of those who were on that path around the lake at that hour were runners, so while I still occasionally had to weave or go the long way around, there were no notable issues other than that one on sector one of lap one. I felt bloated, however, and that was the notable physical issue, the couple of moments when a certain pressing need seemed to appear quickly passing, as did the brief pain, or more exactly discomfort, from my liver and back. On the other hand, the bugs that got right in my eyes on sector two of laps one and three likely caused me to lose a little time, since they remained stuck there. And if during the series of three runs in five days I had noticed the lane breaking up in a couple of places on the paved area of sector three, by then it was significantly worse, at least three spots posing a serious potential problem on the long straight of sector one, and starting to give the impression that it was starting to fall apart in general, at least in some areas.

After getting back, I ate a banana and drank about half of the last of those bottles of Pepsi Max. Considering the bloating, that was probably a bad idea, but I thought it might help me stay awake, since I then changed, also gathered my clothes from the balcony, and left again a little after 12:25 PM. The first destination was Auchan, but that somehow simply slipped my mind right after crossing the street, probably proving how sleepy I was, so I ended up going the wrong way, almost getting to the intersection before finally realizing it and turning back. But at least I got there well enough and just bought one of those breads, seeing that it weighed just four grams less than the listed weight. Also meant to get a few of those meringues from that confectionery, but the price had increased, so I gave up.
Continuing on the planned route, I then went to the Kaufland and Carrefour that are next to each other, quickly checking a few other places on the way. Peed and washed my hands after reaching Kaufland and just went in with that bread, getting a few things and having no problems with the self-checkout. Then I went to Carrefour, put everything except that bread in a cabinet, since that was clearly from Auchan and I just went in with it again… And apparently dad called just then and I somehow didn’t hear, or at least didn’t notice. It must have been either while I was arranging everything in one bag and placing that in the cabinet or just after I actually went into the store and a woman checked her phone right next to me when I heard one ring, so I assumed that it had been hers. Either way, instead of trying again he left a voice message, which I listened to right away… Learning that he had also bought some of those snacks for Liza from Kaufland, despite having left a note telling me to do that. And I had already been to Kaufland, so I had also bought some by then. But, to return to Carrefour, from there I bought some expiring eggs and, after seriously considering a pack of two cakes, eventually just added a pastry. And I used the self-checkout there as well, also without problems, since they finally added some that also accept cash in that location. Then I retrieved my things from the cabinet and got back just before 5 PM.
Saw something that looked like a small rash on the left side of my abdomen when I took my clothes off, and if it’d have been caused by clothes rubbing that area it should have probably gone away much faster than it did, so maybe some food had disagreed with me, which would also explain the bloating. Either way, I ate that sweet pastry, drank the other half of that Pepsi Max, and had lunch after my parents came, dad bringing mother, who stayed until the following day. Two pieces of steak were going bad, mold starting to appear on them, so I cleaned them as well as I could and ate them, splitting one with mother, finally washed after that, and later in the evening also had a small quantity of the peanuts brought by my mother. And my stomach seemed to deal with everything better than expected, the warnings it gave me at night not being too bad, despite eating that steak when something was probably already wrong. And, even though it was almost 1:15 AM when I went back to the kitchen, I managed to start eating dinner just before 3 AM, but it was a couple of minutes after 3:40 AM when I finished. And I only finally got in bed at 5:20 AM, even though I had woken up so early and hadn’t even tried to nap during the evening.

Since I mentioned the plants that are behind the building, in that area that’s surrounded by a fence, being cleared, before moving on to May 4 I’ll also mention that today, as I was writing the first part of this post, a guy mowed the small plants that were just behind the building, in front of the fence, so in the garden that was tended by the father of the guy living below us. At least the larger plants were left, and another guy was also there and seemed to give some instructions to the one doing the work, but while I can usually recognize this guy’s father, I don’t know him, so can’t say whether that was him or not. Either way, I can’t see why that carpet of smaller plants needed to be cleared.

To finally get to May 4, I couldn’t recover the sleep lost the day before. I did manage to get back to sleep after waking up just after 9 AM and also going to pee, though I guess that what actually woke me up was the noise made by the upstairs neighbor, who was probably cleaning. Around noon or just after that, however, when my mother also started, or continued, cleaning, I couldn’t get back to sleep again, so just before 12:45 PM I was up… And annoyed, obviously.
Since that morning I had also received the message that I could pick up the whisk I had ordered, I decided to do so that day. However, I was thinking to go out later, maybe in the evening, but mother kept annoying me, cleaning the litter box and taking a lot out, then giving Micky new food on top of the old one, and when I noticed and said that she’ll never eat the old one that way, she said she’s old and should just have what she likes. So I snapped, shouted, slammed doors, got dressed, just quickly ate a small apple, without talking to my parents anymore, since dad was also back by then, and it was a few minutes before 3 PM when I went out.
I had selected to pick up that whisk from that store’s location from the mall from the park, so I first grabbed a few things from that Carrefour and then started searching for that store. I initially tried to use the displays, but some didn’t work properly and it didn’t show up on a search even when there didn’t seem to be any technical problem, so I eventually started to just walk around and finally found it that way. Then I picked up the whisk, which they had placed in a box that seemed too large and, as I found when I sat on a bench and opened said box, wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap.
After walking out of that mall, I also checked a pet store from that farmers’ market, looking for cat litter, since mother had ensured that we were going to run out sooner, but I couldn’t find the kind I wanted, so I looked around a little and ended up getting some cheese from another store from there. Then I got back a couple of minutes after 5 PM, being relieved that my parents had left by then, took a quick shower, ate the sweet pastry bought from Carrefour and some more of those peanuts, which they had left here, and an orange, and in the evening made mamaliga, using the new whisk.

The plan was to also include May 5 in this post, to start the one about the half marathon with the evening of May 7, when I was getting ready, but with nothing else posted this week, I need to post it today, which means finishing it not before midnight but before 10 PM, when the final of this year’s Eurovision starts. And since the week’s second post will be about that, it’d be weird to first post that and then edit this in order to add that remaining day. Plus that on May 5 I picked up the race kit, so that day can also be said to be directly related to the half marathon and I can include it without that post becoming too long, so that’s what I mean to do… The problem being that I didn’t even write notes about the actual run, and after getting back here that afternoon I noticed that I had already forgotten many of the times, since I had been too certain that I won’t forget them and hadn’t written them down after finishing, so I wonder how much I’ll be able to write from memory and how accurate even what I will write will be when I’ll finally get around to it. And that’s frustrating, seeing as the time makes this my most important run yet, or at least my most important half marathon.