Sticking with my regular exercise program can be a relatively straightforward matter most of the time. The regular routine is easy enough to amend to build it in but those days when you're in the office until 1:40 A.M. can make things pretty rough the next day. On the upside, at least it's possible to walk over to somewhere on Gay Street at that hour and get a quick drink and help to change gears before heading home for a few hours' rest. (Tip Top was open, conveniently enough, even if the crowd there at that hour wasn't exactly my scene.) The downside is that such a trip delays the ultimate objective of sleep by a half-hour.

Then there's the other downside of getting to deal with two commitments in conflict. In one corner is the commitment to health through a vigorous regular exercise program and in the other is the need for just another hour of sleep. Or maybe two. The real issue, of course, is that getting this whole exercise program had as much to do with stress management as anything else, which means that now is precisely not the time to go skipping the exercise.

I found resolution because the issue that had me running so hard had a deadline of just before lunchtime. So off I went for a light lunch at the Athletic Club, and then I headed upstairs for the workout that I didn't feel much like undertaking. A bit of cardio training, forty-five minutes on the elliptical machine on the “Around the World” program at level thirteen. A bit of pushing, that, covering more than five miles.

All of what was happening around me conspired, of course, to prevent me from getting to cut out of the office early that day but I managed to handle that well enough. I sure don't miss that feeling like I'm going to explode.