With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

I thought the route I picked would get me somewhere between 13 and 14 miles.  I was wrong, and thought maybe I'd finish up and make it 13 after I got back in the 'hood- but the last mile home the rain started coming down.  I thought for a while about how tough RAD and Terri were last week running in the snow, sleet, and cold.  I thought to myself, "if they struggled through the horrible elements, I can try too!"  I thought that until I got to the driveway and ran into the garage where it was dry and warm.  MR was waiting for me and thought it was silly to go out another 1.7 miles.  I gave up my resolve to finish and went in for a warm shower.  

Sorry RAD and Terri- I'm just not as tough as you gals are!  54 degrees and rain took me out of the game.  I did manage a 1 and a 3 in my numbers, so there was a 13 there for 2013 either way.  Happy New Year Y'all!

am run in the hood

pm run home from work

tired of cloudy cold days

morning run- what a treat to see the sunrise in the morning again!  No clouds to break up the happy mood of the happy sunshine!

first few days back at work after a 2 week break of sleeping in and staying up late made me cranky and tired- feels like a cold is coming on too.  Not the new year "bang" I'd hoped for- guess the cannons misfired.

at least I got to see the pile of  "cotton candy" that's still on the side of the road this week.  The bag's gone, but the fluffy pink stuff is still there!

Ran the All American trail today as part of my training for the trail run in February.  I felt good after 14 miles, so I feel confident about 18 in February as long as my fitness level remains.  I'll probably not get back out to the trail again before then.

MR rode along and got a good workout riding through the sand and along the rolling hills.  Got stuck in some deep sand a few times.  It'll stop a bike in no time at all!

There were lots of people out on the trail today.  Runners, walkers, and a cute young couple that were in the bushes off the side of the trail enjoying eachother's company.  The trail's been closed for months due to hunting season.  It just re-opened yesterday.  I haven't been on it in a couple of years- it was nice to be back out there.

Here's a riddle for the day:  What's worse than leaving your bike on top of the car when you pull into the garage?  Doing it twice.  MR's bike fared pretty well- it'll need a new front rim.  The car, bike rack, and brickwork above the garage didn't fare as well.  Lucky for us, we already know how to get them all fixed and replaced since we did it before 3 years ago.  :-(

90 minutes elliptical- needed to finish the book I've been reading.  "Life of Pi" is a good story.  I'm not sure how the movie is, but I enjoyed the book.

morning came too early- got in 2.16 miles before it was time to get ready for work

pm ran home from work 5 miles.

Did my 10k route to the p-town light and back in the morning.

after work I went to my first zumba class ever- and I had a blast.  There were parts of me jiggling that I didn't know could jiggle.  I could hear Bill Cosby giggling in the background.  I'll be back to the zumba classes a couple times a week until it stops being so much fun.

Morning run to the chicken farm and back.  The smell this morning was horrible!!

 Pm ran home from work- it was beautiful with the sun out and in the 60s.  My legs today are sore from zumba yesterday, so I was a little slower, but it was worth it!

2 days after zumba and my legs are still feeling the sorry soreness from the pirate booty shake down.

My plan to stay in bed until noon eating pancakes and chocolate covered raisins, thus storing and conserving my energy for a nice long run didn't work out the way I'd imagined it would.  It was one of the toughest runs I've been on in a while, but there were some great parts of this run too. 

best parts of run: 2 horribly decaying opossum, one super smelly deer rib cage with legs and some smelly meat still attached lying in the ditch, 70 degrees and sunny.

bummer parts of run: into full wind for the first 5 miles, had to change plans around mile 7.5 for bathroom emergency stop, needed to stop for walk break/rest when it was time to re-fuel (usually I just gu up while I run). 

I was glad when it was over, but I was also thrilled that it was such a beautiful day out for a run.  Sun and 70 degrees in the middle of January is delicious!!  I wish I would have had some company, but MR's big wheel wasn't up for the long distance and Wyatt was home sick.  It was just me & the Duke (and he doesn't say much).

little 2 mile walk around the hood with MR

Around 3 am, I felt something crawl over my foot in bed.  After  a frightening few minutes, I realized it was just MR's hairy foot (not Hobbit hairy, but hairy nonetheless).  I laid in bed for over 20 minutes and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got dressed and headed out for a run.

At 3:50 am, it was 53 degrees outside and just perfect!  No moonlight, some starts, a little bit of spotty cloud cover and a light breeze.  Best part of the run was there was almost no one else out on the roads and I had them all to myself. Just me & the Duke out on the roads.

I saw a car at mile: .36, 5, 5.4, 6.8, 7 (2 cars), 8 (2 cars)... so in 9 miles, I saw 8 cars.  And most of them were in the 2nd half of the run.  After 5 am, the traffic started picking up.

I stopped at 5.56 to adjust my knee brace, and when I tried to start my watch back up, it gave me an error message that the memory was full.  I just ran the rest of the way home and figured out my overall pace by doing a little time/distance math.  I was happy with my overall AP and saw that the last 4 miles were faster than the first 5, so it was a good morning run.

I decided to run home today instead of staying for Zumba because it was beautiful outside and it may be the last day without rain for a while.  It was over 70 degrees and sunny.  I wore my shorts and tank top and even though my legs were tired from my awesome morning run, I enjoyed the run until the last mile when I hit the gnat patch again.  It's just a half mile stretch, but it was soooooo icky.  It's the down side of not having freezing cold temps to kill the bugs.

Zumba tomorrow.

Lucky for me, I didn't have anything waking me up at 3 am, so I slept in as long as possible. It was marvelous.  I didn't get 9 miles in, but totally worth less miles for the sleep.

I went down a road I usually don't run in the dark by myself.  I didn't have any troubles, but it's a winding road with lots of turns and I think it's just a bad road to run in the dark.

Nice paces.  After mile 2, my legs were tired, but we kept on truckin' and I managed a nice progressive run. It was beautiful outside- 64 degrees with a cool breeze.  The weather is changing though; the wind is blowing from the north now instead of the south like it has been for the last 4 days.  It's supposed to rain for the next few days.  Glad I had a little taste of delicious weather before winter comes back.

Hadn't planned on running exactly as far as I did yesterday- but when I pushed stop on my garmin in front of my house, it was.  Coincidence, because I ran through the hood today since it was too foggy for me on the busy road in the dark.

Zumba after work.  I just love doing zumba.  We did it on the stage in the auditorium and I was having fun pretending like I was performing zumba moves for the audience.  

My sinuses are slowly filling up with sticky dried-out rubber cement-like snot.  More so on the left side than on the right, and so w, hen I woke up, the left side of my throat hurt too.    I decided to go out for a short run to get the snot reducing machine warmed up, and then run longer on the treadmill after work.

My plan didn't work out the way I'd hoped, and by 2 pm I was ready to sell my soul for some relief.  I took 3 decongestants and it didn't do a thing.  So by 4 pm, I had given up my dreams of an afternoon run.  I really hope I start feeling better soon.

I have a neti-pot and some distilled water with my name on it. 

Took the day off of running to try and fight this cold.  I was up at 3 am again today, but cooked chili, corn bread, and 2 cool-aide pies instead of going for a 9 mile run.  Yum!

I thought I heard a critter chewing my plant in the corner of my room when I woke up at 3 am.  I snuck over and listened as carefully as I could to find out where the mouse was in the plant, but it was too dark to find it.  I turned on a light in the room next door to help me catch the mouse in the act.  It took me at least 5 minutes to figure out it was just dead leaves on the back side of the plant blowing in the  air from the heat vent.  My imagination at 3 am is a little too crazy for my liking.

Slept in and tried to rest.  Less snot, but still tired.  I spent the first half of the day with MR cleaning out my closet and dresser.  As motivation, there were back to back episodes of hoarders on tv playing as we culled the herd of clothes.  6 full kitchen trash bags later, he was on his way to the good-will store and I set off for some kind of run.

It was sunny and in the low 50's.  Really perfect weather for a run.  I went 9 miles and it felt good.  It wasn't a fast run, just a slow, easy run.  I hope that next week I'll be ready to get a good long run in.

Highlight of the run:  A woman on a golf cart in the yard of a home that burned down, with a border collie that was running circles around and "herding" a large all white turkey.  Rather than asking myself "what's wrong with this picture," I had to ask "what's NOT wrong with this picture?"

Speaking of pictures, here's one of MR's tire rim from the garage/house vs the bike rack throw-down a few weeks ago.

10K route again to the light & back. Had a little run in with a mean old dog and his super cranky owner. Dog got a shot of pepper spray. Wish it could have been the owner instead.

Nice to run in the sunshine on the holiday.

Up again with the dark, cold sky. Beautiful stars, but 29-30 degrees. Not the 64 I enjoyed last week.

I did enjoy the mess out of zumba  after work.  I didn't know it was legal to have that much fun in a band room :-)

Nu running today- this morning was mini-me's birthday and MR and I surprised her at seminary with cupcakes, yoo-hoos, and a dozen roses.

The zumba class was amazing- as usual.  I'm happy I'm enjoying some cross training and cross strengthening.  It's been cold this week and having an indoor fun workout group is really nice.

Barely above freezing, but still beautiful to be out and see such a beautiful dawn at the end of my run.  

The weather warmed up to 44 today, but the wind picked up too.  Lucky for me, 90 percent of my run home was right into the blustery cold wind.  I had a choice to treadmill or run outside, and I don't regret my choice at all.  Enjoyed the last hour of daylight and a warm soup dinner with grilled cheese sammich when I got home.  Some days the world is good and right.

Twenty one degrees outside this morning.  Coldest morning all season.  I managed to warm up and have a good run- even got extra warm at one point, but not hot enough to consider taking off a layer.

The cat in the ditch was waiting for me again- I've been seeing his eyes reflect in my headlamp the last couple of mornings I've been out.  He was in the bushes this morning when I went out and on the other side of the street when I came back....unless there's more than one.  

Beautiful sky this morning- as I ran north east, 1/3 of the sky was high clouds that were painted a dark pink/red.  It was just amazing and breath-taking to see.  The dead opossum on the side the road was still hanging out and giving me a thumbs up (paws up) as I ran by too.

Went out on a new route today because I couldn't stand the thought of running the same route again.  I figured if I went out too far, I could just call MR to come pick me up after I'd met my goal.  I wanted to run between 16 and 18 miles.  

I listened to podcasts on how stuff works and learned all kinds of useless trivia that made the hours pass by before I knew it.  I had to stretch at mile 9, then I had MR meet me with water and took a little break at mile 13.  At mile 15, I was feeling out of it and stopped for a gu, water, and a stretch.  18 miles was a long way for me to go- it's been more than a year since I've run so far and my legs were tired and worn out, but it felt good to get the miles in.  I feel confident I'll be able to do the run next month.

My miles ended up being perfect for the route I took.  It was exactly 18 miles to the entrance to my neighborhood.  Couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried.  I saw the white turkey again- it seems to live in a fenced in area in the yard of the burned down house.  I'm guessing someone nearby is taking care of it.  There were 3 opossum on the roadside at various stages of decay, and something that could have been a  fox or dog. 

Wyatt said she'd be ready to run again next week, so I hope I get a chance to run with her a while.

Aarrggghhh...... I hate Mondays.  Monday morning is always so hard to wake up and get out.  Then all the stupid people feel the need to cross my path throughout the day and I end up wanting to throw them all overboard or volley cannons into their starboard side.

Best part of the day was the mega cookie pie and ice cream that mini-me whipped up for dessert.

I ran home from work, and it was a wonderful 50-something degrees outside.  I thought a week of freezing temps would have killed off the gnats, but there were more out today than ever.  I breathed in a bunch, hacked up a couple, spit out a few, and I'm pretty sure I still have one stuck inside my nasal cavity.  Maybe a neti-bath for the nasal cavity later tonight for fun.

A little foggy out in the morning, but the fog was low and the moon was full and bright.  So nice to have him back out with me in the morning.

As I was running in the fog, there was a clearing near a field and I looked out and saw a white stallion standing in the clearing looking at me.  "Hello Goober!"  It was a neat thing to see.

I listened to a podcast and learned that mice, horses, and platypus are the only 3 mammals where the male species does not have nipples.  What do you know?  I doubt it will ever be the final jeopardy question that will win me the big bucks, but I'm a better pirate for the knowledge I've gained.

zumba after work...sort of. Two busses broke down on their way to drop off students, so I got to man the phones for an extra half hour.  I burned 30 calories doing it, so yippie.

Took a couple benadryl last night before bed and felt like a groggy headed ninny-muggins this morning.  Got out for a run, watch was dead, so I ran a familliar route that I would know the distance on.

Goober horse was in the same place I saw him yesterday.  No fog today, lots of wind.  Learned things about Andrew Jackson and Martin VanBuren- useless trivia, but it helps the time pass.

I'll do zumba after work- hope the busses are fixed today.

Did I mention it was 64 degrees out this morning and I wore shorts and a long sleeved shirt?  The shirt got too warm and I had to push the sleeves up. At 6 am. :-p

Up all night, sleepless in the south- wind, rain, and chickens awake & about at midnight made me wonder what was going on.  They are never awake after dark.  Ever.  I threw them in the hen house & shut the door.  Maybe the wind had  blown them off their perches?

So I stayed in bed and slept in- went running home from work.  Thought the wind would have died down by then.  I was wrong and it was wicked windy the whole way home (except for the last .4 mile just before getting home.  I thought it was blowing straight on as I ran South-west, but I was unhappy when after 3 miles, and went straight west, it just got worse.  GAK!

Felt like I was running in syrup.  Fairly sustained winds of 20-25 mph.  And it was supposed to be warm (54 degrees, but the wind made it feel more like 40).