Breathe, breathe in the air

The hockey game last night started off all right.

Drums, fireworks, testosterone, beer. It never fails to amaze me how this blend of raw ingredients does not add up to violence in hockey, like it does in football. Hockey is often a family activity. The arena was packed with kids yesterday. Any violence takes place in the field, unlike football where it's more likely to be found among its supporters. Hockey 1, football 0.

Still, we lost. I don't follow hockey enough to get terribly disappointed, but I think I would have come home a lot more excited had we won, or at least if the game had been good. But it wasn't. Yet, even that failed to put me in a bad mood after the high I had gotten from yesterday's long run.

My good mood continued this morning. The sun shone and once again I wished I could bottle this sunshine and save it for the rainy days that are sure to come. On schedule, a short run in my VFFs. The thermometer showed -14 degrees. The air was a joy to breathe in and it was pleasantly chilly. My toes on the other hand did not like that and went numb after just a couple of minutes. I thought about technique and counted footsteps per minute to make sure I took short steps. I might be making progress after all: I averaged at about 190-200 bmp.

After 3 kilometres I was back home. During these 3 kilometres I had had time to fantasize about long runs in my VFFs, in the woods, in the sunshine, when the snow has melted and the ground is soft and smells of pine needles.