Last night’s run was just four miles. I was looking forward to it after my six mile run Friday which I would actually describe as “enjoyable.” It felt good. I was pumped. I could have run longer.

Four miles? Ha! Not a problem.

I. Hated. It.

Every minute of it was a painful reminder of why I always made fun of runners.

As I was on the treadmill, sheer willpower keeping me from repeatedly banging my head against the console, it occurred to me why I was having such a hard time: I was bored. Really, really bored.

Mentally, it’s not a good to start thinking about what a boring thing it is you’re doing. “Geez, this is boring. Now that I think about it, how can anyone not be bored doing this? If anyone had to run in place and stare at the same thing for 45 minutes, I think they’d be bored to. I’m not even half way done yet?? I’ve been running for five hours – how is that possible??”

It’s not a healthy way to be thinking.

Wednesday is another four. Wish me luck.

Image courtesy of here.

Check it. This showed up on our doorstep this morning. My better half attended some kind of savvy shopper/couponing (a verb) thing and now we subscribe to the paper on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Honestly, I’m pretty excited about getting the Sunday comics. On a related note, I firmly believe Cathy should die and whoever writes the Lilo strip should stop it and seek professional help. (I will not do either comic the dignity of linking to them.)

But I digress.

I found myself sitting at the table eating breakfast with my daughter, reading the paper.

No, I found myself sitting at the table feeding my daughter my breakfast while she threw the paper and all the ad inserts on the floor.

As the pile of paper on the floor got higher and higher and the amount of cereal in my bowl got lower and lower, I thought about the experience I was having. Sitting down with a physical medium and reading yesterday’s news felt almost…I don’t know how else to describe it…charmingly retro. Classic? Authentic? Trendy, maybe? It kind of made me want to go shave with a safety razor and put on a fedora on my way out to work.

To be clear, I would look terrible in a fedora.

Despite reading everything online, all day, I find myself wanting to go home tonight and read the paper.

Yes, this is Dave. No, I haven’t eaten any spoiled meat.

Does anyone else get the paper? Do you get it for news or just for the comics and coupons?

I did it. This morning I signed up to run a half marathon.

In case you aren’t familiar with those, they’re 13.1 miles.

Of running.

Coo-coo. Coo-coo.

“But why?” you may be asking. I’ve been asking myself the same thing. Yeah, I dunno.

I want to be in shape? Seems like there are less sadistic ways to do that. But if this guy can do it, I can.

I plan on posting the occasional thoughts as I torture myself over the next three months. I’ll also be posting my run data automatically which you can follow here if you feel so inclined.

Encouragement and support is appreciated and greatly needed.

Image courtesy of here.

Just looked at my online reading habits and did a little data analyzing (because I’m SO into that) and found some interesting statistics:

• I subscribe to 228 RSS feeds
• I read 3,449 items from those feeds in the last 30 days
• That averages out to reading 114 items per day
• Assuming I get 8 hours of sleep a night (HA!) that equals a little over 7 posts per hour
• Or about one post every ten minutes I’m awake

And that’s just from Google Reader. It doesn’t include visiting individual sites or checking out links from Twitter and Facebook.

To some (OK, most) people, that’s probably one of the most horrific things they’ve ever read. So allow me to quell some of your disgust:

• “Read” is relative. When I say I “read” 114 items per day, please keep in mind that “read” is a bit of a misnomer; burning through current advertising and epic fails doesn’t require much time nor actual reading.
• It’s my job. Unlike everyone else who has to sneak around to be on Facebook/read websites at work, I get paid to do it. I’m responsible for keeping up on this stuff. And, yes, I have an awesome job.

It also leads me to believe that I probably need an iPad. Don’t you think so?

Also, what are your Google Reader stats? Is any one as sick…er…well read as I?

Things are looking good on the job front. I got about a month of contract work copywriting and building sports apparel (see above pic). It’s a good place to work and I like the people. The commute is a bit of a killer, but if I got the job I’d probably end up moving so it’s fine for now.

I’ve also had  couple other interviews and both places have wanted me to come back for second interviews. Boo-ya. There have also been some freelance work. Nice.

So yeah. That’s the word. Feeling happy and blessed.

Just in case you were wondering.

Image courtesy of here.