Reinvigorate: the fourth "R"

Lately, I’ve been an irritable, stony zombie, sleepwalking through each day. My fatigue is explained by a noticeable uptick in the amount of miles I run each week. Two weeks ago, I ran a personal high of ninety-two miles in one week. Yikes! When I get home, I feel so drained that even cooking dinner becomes a struggle. As a result, I haven’t read or written very much, and I feel I’ve begun to neglect posting. This is a pretty normal feeling that accompanies a bump in miles, but fades away as the body acclimates itself to greater exertion. In a week’s time, my body will recover and my energy level will increase.

Why I’ve had an abrasive attitude is harder to understand because I’ve lugged it around for weeks, if not longer. Although I was recently promoted [Boosh!], my mood didn’t improve with the good news. I’m worn out and I need a vacation before I go over the edge and irrevocably damage relationships, persons, or office equipment.

In a shining example of controlled serendipity, I checked my email this morning and found that my friend had linked me to an article in the New York Times that has reinvigorated me, and more importantly, given an idea for a fall vacation with future interests in mind. [Lucky bastard] Christopher Solomon, a freelance journalist, spent 5 days cycling through sprawling Southwestern landscapes too spectacular for even postcards to fairly portray. Riding more than one hundred miles on some days, Solomon climbed auburn mesas and knifed through green-speckled canyons from Colorado through Utah, to Arizona and back to Colorado. The article is as well-written as any in the NYT. Solomon’s lingo is a little too colorful for my tastes [note: this is me projecting my own inadequacies onto another writer], but his task is daunting, and overall he succeeds in describing the grandeur of his journey. He obviously struggles with something that I hope to I would face in France. How can one describe scenery so beautiful and vast that has been so hidden in plain sight?

At the end of the article, Solomon links to a few cycling tours from the American West to Eastern Europe. Oh yes, I now know how I want to spend my vacation time. I’m going to start saving to travel to the West this October to spend 5 days brutalizing my body while soaking up some natural tranquility. And soaking up some local wine.