Restarting Sleep, Starting Solids, and Wrapping Up USAs

I’m not sure why I thought I could undo eight awful nights of sleep with just a few nights of slightly good sleep. I don’t think it’s right to call it optimistic; maybe aspirational, or desperate, would be better. I really wanted to get back out there.

I ran eleven miles last week and most of it felt pretty bad. I haven’t quite rebalanced the scales yet.

The good news is my son is back to his regular sleep patterns as of the end of last week. The even better news is I was able to get a long run in with the boys on Sunday.

The bad news is all that stuff I said earlier, plus I’m irritable today, plus my son has not enjoyed starting solid foods recently. I haven’t exactly been on this side of the highchair myself, so it’s new for all of us. It’s all new all the time with this guy.

It feels like ages ago when my wife and I were in a comfortable routine with the baby, and things were clicking, and yet it was only a month ago. That’s comforting and maddening in equal turns, though not as maddening as realizing USA 800-meter silver medalist Cooper Lutkenhaus wasn’t even alive when Obama was elected, and now he’s run 1:42. Compared to that, I can fathom a difficult month.

Speaking of USAs, what a meet! It was certainly more interesting than the rest of my weekend of yard work and carrot puree interpretations of Jackson Pollock, and I will sound a lot more pleasant if I write about that, so here are some rapid-fire takes:

• Donovan Brazier’s comeback is the feel-good track story of the year, Cooper Lutkenhaus is the future, and you should never leave home without Bryce Hoppel. The men’s 800 meters was the highlight of the meet and one of the strongest teams we are sending to Tokyo.
• Another feel-good story in a meet full of them: Emily Infeld is my age and she just won her first national championship! I’m not saying I could be racing in Eugene next summer, but I’m not not saying that. Too bad the 10K was only on Joymo, which is a real streaming service and not something Alex Predhome made up as a joke.
• The biggest bummers of the meet were that Yared and Athing didn’t make the team, and that Shelby did. I hope Goose can sneak into Tokyo via the Diamond League final, but admittedly I have no idea what that looks like. Maybe Citius Mag can crunch those numbers now that the 10K teams are settled.
• Sydney is going to get a rare challenge in the 400 meters. It’s exciting to see her in a position where she may not win. I think the American record goes down in Tokyo no matter what happens. She always shows up for championships.
• Don’t let Cole Hocker dictate the pace in a 5K! And certainly don’t give him the inside lane with 100 to go! Unless you want me howling with excitement at my TV. Then, go right ahead, but be warned I don’t pay as well as a Nike contract bonus. Grant and Nico must be fans of the blog.
• Everybody seems to love Noah and Kenny’s spat in the 200-meter final, but I don’t. It immediately erased what I saw as the real story of the event—Noah Lyles has been injured for months, only returned to racing very recently, and just ran 19.63 looking smooth as hell! He is extremely talented, and in far better position than we might have thought to defend his title next month, but instead of getting excited about that everyone is focused on the pro wrestling of it all—including Noah! Pass.
• Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is still on a heater. She looks like a favorite in both of her events. At the very least, I think she’s my wife’s favorite runner right now; Grand Slam may be broke, but the athletes certainly got paid in exposure! Seriously, though—get these folks their money.

See you next week, when hopefully I’ll have better sleep and a happier baby at the dinner table and more miles in my legs. As always, we’ll see what happens.