In which I accomplish running

Running on rough, uneven, rock strewn dirt with lots of hills (some of them very steep) is so much harder than running on the treadmill or the track at the gym. But I got myself out the door bright and early this morning and forced myself to do the 'long' loop through the park, which I thought was somewhere around 3.5 miles. I need to find a longer loop, clearly, because after spending inordinate amounts of time fiddling with the ruler function on Google Earth, my loop actually measured at 2.85 miles. But did I mention that it's very hilly and rough with lots of ankle turning rocks and such? *sigh* Oh well, even with some very steep hills that caused me to go about as fast as an old lady with a walker (seriously, I must have looked hilarious to any passers by - I was running, but with tiny little steps at the slowest pace imaginable), I still managed to average at 11.4 min/mile, with a total time of 32:58.

I also tried out my Camelbak for the first time. I need to play with the straps a little bit because it was sliding around all over my shoulders, but it worked excellently well as a hydration system. I don't know how people run without carrying water with them. I can do about a half mile without drinking something. And carrying a water bottle with me doesn't work, either. The Camelbak may seem a little silly for such short distances, but it works for me. I'm pleased!

Now it only remains to be seen how much damage I did to my legs with that run. Speaking of which, I should probably get some ice for my calf.

kissing writer's block good-bye

I've been doodling around a bit with an original story idea, mostly as a way to jump start some creative juices after I realized I'm just not going to be writing anything fandom related anytime soon (this makes me very sad, but I don't seem to be participating in any fandoms lately that lend themselves to my particular subset of writing styles/skills/interests).

This afternoon I had a major breakthrough on a significant plothole, which allowed me to move on to real plot structuring. I set a timer for an hour and made myself write. 1669 words later, I have probably the first third of the story plot sketched out. It feels soooooo good to be writing something again. If I keep this up, by the end of vacay, I'll have a solid start to my story. *glee*

Lost in the excitement of real writing for the first time in years, was the original reason I set the timer. I recently bought a battery charger, which is supposed to charge up my rechargeable batteries in one to two hours. Last time I used it, I forgot I'd plugged it in and left the batteries in it overnight (a no-no according to the booklet that came with it). One hour has come and gone and the batteries are not yet charged. Will they charge in two? Time to find out.