Drinking Again

I think I blogged something about trying out sobriety recently, but I just couldn’t help myself tonight. A friend called me beyond the last minute (I was way to leave the office) and asked me if I wanted to go out for a drink. We always have a good time together, so of course I said yes. I wound up in Papillion and had 4 beers and a plate of fried Calamari. Not the best thing to eat and drink the night before a race, but what the hell, you only live once. At least I am not as drunk as this guy sitting next to me on the train. Whenever the train starts moving again after a stop, he falls into my side. I don’t mind though, I think I’ve been there before. At least he doesn’t smell. Tomorrow I am doing the Fred Lebow 5 miler in Central Park. I need to be at the New York Road Runners Club to pick up my race number by 7:30am. I am going to meet a friend there at this time. It should be really interesting to see if I make it in time. It’s already 9:30pm (as I write this on the subway), I haven’t eaten dinner and for the life of me haven’t been able to get out of bed before 8am for the past few days. I know I’ll do it, because this year is the start of the new me; the one that’s seriously training for the Vermont 100 miler. Well, that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll post this entry when I get home, after I recycle some beer of course, and then eat dinner and go to bed. I’ll probably wind up driving and spring for a parking garage somewhere on the East Side. I just don’t see myself waking up by 5:30am to make the subway by in time to make it to the race on time. Hey, I make enough money to splurge every once in a while. Thank G-d for that.

Give Up Drinking?

I suppose I should give up drinking now that I am committing myself towards training for the VT100 and the fact that the alcohol tends to exacerbate my headaches. However, I told myself I should live my life in moderation and giving up all alcohol would be abstinence and not moderation. I believe that total abstinence is the right policy for very few things in life. I like to try most everything at least once in a while. Think about it… I can’t even say that I totally abstain on killing. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill a cockroach running across my path. Yesterday I did manage to drink again. I was with a large group of colleagues from my office and we were all at the Marriott Marquois Times Square bar chilling out after attending a day of conferences. At first I decided to only drink water, but the temptation of free booze and getting a little loose with a group of people I for the most part liked was eventually too great. I decided to have a Guinness beer or two while we were hanging around waiting for a post conference party to begin. I was careful to monitor myself and not drink too much as I didn’t want the headache I had in the morning to return. That headache required a shot of Imitrix in my ass to get rid of it. I didn’t feel like going back there. So anyway, I drank 1.5 beer mug size glasses (or was it 2.5) of Guinness before we headed to a Mexican restaurant/bar for the after party. There I had half a glass of a frozen marguerita, which I didn’t like and hence only half a glass and then a bottle of Bohemia, my favorite Mexican beer. I ate lousy, noshing on tortilla chips and an assortment of Quesadillas that were being served as cocktails. While I was there, I was talking to another colleague who does a lot of training as well. She was telling me how she decided to take today off from training. All I could think about was how I missed my training this morning and how I really felt like I should have done something today. I decided right then and there that I was going to cut the night short and go home for a run in Prospect Park. I said my goodbyes and made for the subway. I got home pretty quick, but feeling minimally headachy and tired. I forced myself out the door though, since I know come the VT100, I’ll be more than headachy and tired come 1am in the morning when I will have been running for over 18 hours. I need to get used to running when I don’t want to. Perhaps drinking and making myself not feel so great is a great strategy for preparing my body for this type of training. I’ll have to check with my coach on that one. So anyway, last night’s run turned out to be a decent 4 miles around Prospect Park. I felt really good about getting myself out there and I enjoyed a nice run in solitude. It was just the type of calming thing to help me fall asleep later, without the need of an Ambien.