Oops...

...I almost let June get by without a blog post! I'm shooting from the hip tonight, as I type this, I'm waiting for an idea to pop into my head. So....... how about this 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament? Sarcasm aside, I really have been keeping up with the USA matches & even some of the matches between other countries as well: guess I now have the subject of today's post - see how quickly it happens when I stop procrastinating & just put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard, rather :-)

I'm hardly a huge international soccer fan though, I only even know of a couple of popular fútbol clubs such as the Manchester United (of England) or FC Barcelaona (of Spain). Hell, outside of a few championship runs during the inaugural seasons of Washington's soccer club, the DC United, I've never passionately watched Major League Soccer (MLS) in this country either.

But this year, I actually have a true interest in the sport, so I've been paying attention during any of the coverage I run across lately. It's definitely an exciting sport, even by American standards (we love to see tons of scoring in our own US pastimes like football & basketball). I'm now able to appreciate the level of defense & coverage in those 0-0 or 1-0 games, my favorite element of soccer are the shootouts sometimes required to break a tie. 

The shootouts feature 1-on-1 match-ups between the goal keeper & an opposing team's player. By the way, I'm super fascinated by the goal keeper for both teams, so I guess it makes perfect sense that I'm most excited to see the rare shootout in soccer. I'm that way with hockey too - I always gravitate towards the goalie!

Oh & how cool is it that goal keepers get to wear uniform colors that completely differ from the rest of their squad??? Plus, they're the only ones allowed to use their hands to contact the soccer ball during play - if I'd played as a youth, I'd definitely have been 1 of the kids lined-up to tryout at goal keeper. Tomorrow afternoon the US, having advanced to the 2nd stage of the tournament last week, will face Belgium... I'll be watching - Go USA!

Reboot: Telecommuting...

Tomorrow, I plan to start telecommuting (one day a week) again... I initially began the practice back in 2012, to save on my weekly commuting expenses - a day of working in my underwear was definitely a bonus as well.

But I didn't telecommute at all in 2013, I had a far lighter workload last year & quite honestly, it was easier for me to physically report to work than come-up with fictitious activities to put on my daily telecommute action plan, lol. I always intended to get back to telecommuting, but just got out of the habit I guess.

Now, my to-do list here at work is once again full of bonafide assignments to complete, so I'm comfortable documenting my efforts from home again. The weather seems to finally have broken in the area, so along with the warmer temps, comes the added desire to goof-off a bit more during the work week, a telecommute day should help alot in that regard.

The last time I was telecommuting regularly, Wednesday was my scheduled telecommute day, this go-round, I'll be tabbing Thursday as my preferred stay-at-home day. It's a little closer to the weekend, plus physically returning to work each week on a Friday sounds pretty good to me.

Earlier this year, I began driving to work (rather than take the subway) a couple days a week, so now that I'll be telecommuting on Thursdays, that leaves just 2 days a week that I'll have to deal with extremely busy Metrorail system (& it's lovely patrons) - yet another bonus & I'll take it :-D

Dry Run...

I'm no longer spending every free moment bike riding, so I've finally been able to work a jogging routine back into my workout schedule. 

 

Had no choice really though, the 1st race of the year is less than a month away, so I've gotta start training now if I want to be at peak performance by the final weekend in May.

I've run at this particular event (the MCVET 5&10k Run) for the past few years, this time I decided to challenge myself more by stepping it up from the 5k race to the 10k event. 

 

I can run 3 miles in my sleep, so a 6-mile run is far more appropriate at this point. I should be ok, but I've got a ways to go before I'm fully back in-shape.

Earlier this evening, I jogged for just the second time this year - the 1st time in almost 3 months. I could really tell it had been that long too, I struggle to keep a steady pace for the duration of my run. 

 

I have; however, noticed that I now share mixed used trails much better than I did before becoming a regular cyclist. Back then, I'd be all over the trail whenever I ran, but now I recognize the importance of staying to the right side of the trail. 

 

This is especially important for trail runners like myself, who wear ear buds & are therefore unlikely to respond to any audible warnings given by bike riders who need to pass. In short, when it comes to running - I've vastly improved my trail etiquette, lol. Here's to a great running season!