Sore as hell

But not huffing and puffing

The holidays are almost over (thank God) and all the gluttony is over. I've been a silent fella for the last week, but there's been a method to the madness.

It was an active Christmas, more family at the table than there has been in five years. Considering that five years ago on Christmas Eve my father died, and consequently Christmas is a shitty time for the family, it was quite an accomplishment. At least there weren't as many leftovers to gorge on as usual.

In light of all the gluttony, my inter-semester and inter-job idleness, and the restlessness that always gets to me this time of year, I've begun a ruthless exercise program. I've been running and bicycling ridiculous mileages to keep the weight down (since I quit smoking it's been a royal pain in the ass.) It's also good prep for the marathon kayak paddle I'm still conspiring to commit. I just hope those who are in it with me are as into the preparation as I am, or I am going to be towing a lot of those sonsabitches home.

After a couple of months of this I will be more than capable of doing so. In the last three days I've biked 15 miles one day, biked 10 miles the next, and run five on the third. Great, considering I haven't set a foot to a pedal since September and haven't run since August, which was the first time I had run in three months back then.

There's been a lot of pent-up energy unexpended in me lately, and I'm still not out of the mental woods since the breakup. That's been driving me pretty hard lately. God knows why.

Either way, the end of the year is upon us, and I'm marking tomorrow and its plummeting temperatures (here) with a paddle trip over in Fairhope to watch the fireworks at the pier, like I did on July 4th a couple of years ago.