What's for Lunch?

When I'm in our office in Portland, my lunch hour is normally spent taking the brown furry one to the dog park. This ensures that Kooper can get his daily dose of exercise and, hopefully, I can have a somewhat peaceful afternoon in the office to get things accomplished without being accosted (repeatedly) with a slobbery ball. Yet another occupational hazard. Runs, while in Portland, come after work and usually after taking Kooper on a short walk and let me say, it is sometimes really difficult to get motivated to run so late in the evening. I can usually think of a million and one excuses for not taking that run and practically have to force myself to hit the treadmill (after looking in Kooper's sad little eyes). Always a challenge.

On the other extreme, every day around lunch, my co-worker, and yet another Shamrock Run co-conspirator (I'm sure I'll see his dust...), faithfully picks up his backpack and heads to go for a run at the local 24 Hour Fitness strategically located right behind our office. The same 24 Hour Fitness where you can plug your Nike+ iPod equipment into their cardio machines and they will keep track of your workouts for you and send them to Nike+ before your sweat even has time to dry. But we won't get into the lure of the gadgets here, although just the thought of it makes me want to run out and join, then I remember my never-ending date with the dog park.

This week I'm working from my office in the winter wonderland otherwise known as the Treehouse, and lunches have a taken on a whole new meaning. Normally I don't do much of anything and find myself just working straight through, simply out of having no where to go. Even getting to the neighbor's house requires an ATV in these parts (and sometimes overalls). This really is no good. There are enough studies that show that it's more beneficial to your brain to actually take a lunch break and (ala Elvis, minus the fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches) leave the building. So, who am I to argue? Today I decided to take that time and hit the treadmill, getting my run out of the way early.

It felt kind of weird at first, like it was something I shouldn't be doing in the middle of a work day. After I got rolling a bit I had a thought: What a brilliant concept. I had more energy mid-day than I usually do after a day of work and felt more energized after the run to tackle the afternoon. After being bound to my desk all morning, it was nice to actually move around and get the blood pumping. My body was wondering what the hell I was doing, but after the second kilometer, it was actually enjoyable. Usually when I run I listen to Podrunner Intervals and rarely do I finish my 5k before the next podcast starts (this means I'm disastrously slow, by the way). Today, I was done before with the run before the cool down section started. What a bonus. Getting it done mid-day simply gets it out of the way. No excuses necessary. Why didn't I pick up on this sooner? (Don't answer that).

At the end of the day there was still enough daylight to get the boys outside to play a game of fetch in all the new snow that has covered up the layer of ice that formed on the ground, making games of fetch rather trecherous. I have a hard enough time standing upright without finding my butt in the snow - I don't need ice as an additional factor -- gravity is challenging enough. At the end of the day, everyone got in their exercise before the sun set. This makes for a nice evening - and both pups are sacked out and completely content.

I'll be doing more many more lunchtime runs when we're here and on the weeks when we're in Portland, well, am afraid I am already committed to my permanent lunch date. I don't mind, actually. It still beats dealing with slobbery tennis balls and an overly energized Labrador jumping on unsuspecting visitors, like the mailman or some other potential gift-bearing people. I will simply just have to live vicariously through my co-worker on those Nike + iPod cardio machines. The lunch break, either way, is back.