Thursday's session was pretty good. I knew I only had to bang around 2 miles out but I ended up doing 5.8 in what I can only call a long tempo run. It was a terrible idea, really. I had stayed at work a bit longer than I planned and, after basically forcing a co-worker to get a group of people together to go to Moxie's, I had an obligation to go to the bar at 5:30. I had this tiny window of opportunity to run between 4 and 5 pm. I knew I wanted to get in a long run, but I knew I had to give up the "slow" if I wanted the "long". I did 3 sets of tempo increases and got my 5 miles in (the remainder was for warm up and cool down)... it was good but by the last set, I was finished.... big time. Around the 40 minute mark, it was just me and some French lady doing P90X in the gym, so I went all Brandi Chastain in the last little bit. My stomach isn't quite bare-worthy, but I was soaked through my shirt and it was not helping out my chafing situation.
Anne on mile 5...
The good news is that it's the end of my running week and I got over 14 miles in and 2 weight sessions. Next week will be a chilled out week for running as I'm doing my 5K on Thursday.
Now... on to some NRR....
This is a topic that touches me personally, and this will be a major vent. I really do not intend to offend anyone since I know some airline spouse-types read my blog and I know that the primary reason they do is because we all run and the airline thing comes second, so I'm actually not directing this at anyone that I know personally. I found the blogs of a few airline spouses on a complete accident... not because they were going on about their husbands and their husbands' job, but because they were runners. The employment of their spouse took a backseat to their own goals. I applaud that. So, with that discretionary notice aside...
I am sick and tired of these freaking airline wives. I got exposed to this type VERY early in my status as a "pilot girlfriend" mainly because the girl who my boyfriend dated before me was that creepy hangy-on type and she had a bunch of online friends who supported this behaviour. I thought it was confined to this one sort of arbitrary group, but that does not appear to be the case. After scrolling through some blogs Wikipedia-style (where you click one to get to another, to get to another, to get to another, etc), I've found that this is actually fairly common behaviour among pilot wives. The behaviour I'm referencing is this whole, "I'm dating a pilot, therefore I must worship the ground he walks on" thing.
Maybe it's because I work in the aviation industry and have for so long that I just find that particularly occupation to be not-so-impressive, but I am just appalled by any person who lets themselves be defined by someone else. My boyfriend's job does affect my life. I am certainly the only person who goes to England for a night on the weekend at my work. It makes an appearance on my blog only as a passing reference, such as an answer to a question like: "Why was Anne running in Virginia on Saturday when she lives in Ottawa?". I travel a lot as a result of my boyfriend's job, but that's all it is... a result of a job. I look at my boyfriend now the same way I'd look at him if he did anything else. I did not fall in love with my boyfriend because he was a pilot and my feelings certainly would not change if he decided he wanted to change careers.
I am so over women who spend all their free time just basically talking about how important their husbands' jobs are and how everything they talk about is related to them and their lifestyle. I non-rev, but I certainly don't go on and on about it. I may gripe, but I gripe to my boyfriend and I leave it out of the public domain. No one really cares. It's a benefit and as much as I am exposed to the shittiness of various airlines as a result of me doing all this random flying on weekends, these women act like spoiled entitled brats who are just grasping for attention. Army wives, okay, that's something I get, the guy is gone for maybe a year or so. Major effect. But your husband not being home for two or three days? You married the guy. You knew you were getting into this so don't act like it is such a big deal and the world needs to hear about it. It's a unique job and it has its pros and cons, but stop making it the most important thing in your life. Take it as it comes.
I'm tired of women sitting around saying, "Oh, when Dave flies this route, he loves listening to this song. He also doesn't like calling me after flying this route because he gets jet-lagged, poor guy"... are you talking about your infant or something? Honestly. I know a ton of pilots and guess what, a ton are jerks mainly because they get elevated to this God-like status by women who have zero self-esteem and huge dependency issues. I fully respect the plight of someone who has to raise a child with a guy who's away half the time, but get a freaking grip... I'd much prefer to hear someone say, "Well, the hubby was away this week so we did this.. and then I went for a run and carb-loaded for this race and blah blah blah"... that is SO much better than, "He's away. Again. My kids miss him. Like they do. Every week. I'm a pilot's wife. It's so hard. All the time. My life revolves around my husband". Get a grip!!!!
Okay, I'm done with that rant... I've probably ticked off a bunch of people (but like I said, this isn't directed at anyone I know in particular since I generally can't stand this type of person in the first place, so any readers are safe). It probably doesn't make sense to people who haven't met this type of airline spouse, and I'll give credit to the women who just take trips and such as they come and look at their husband as their husband and his job as his job. Why anyone would choose to let someone else's occupation define them, I'll never know.
Pilots really ARE that awesome.
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