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

2 mile easy walk to help wake me up and work out any of the left over aches from Saturday

Beautiful morning.  Took my jacket off after mile one.  Lovin the Spring.

I found that other excuse I was looking for!

Someone has a birthday at our house today, and I wasn't prepared for it. So I went out early to get back in time for a shower & trip to wally-world for b-day b-fast and treats.  So up at 4:10 am, but I still only had time for 3 miles due to warm ups, cool down, and showering before 5:30 take off for seminary.

It was warm outside, so I didn't wear a jacket.  It was also lightly raining when I started out.  No biggie, I just watched out for the puddles on the road to keep my feet dry.

By .75 miles, the rain picked up....and by picked up, I mean turned into a torrential downpour.  I was getting drenched, but still trying to avoid the puddles.  Until I took a turn on a darker street's corner and landed ankle deep in a puddle.  Then the game was over, and I just decided to have fun.  Everything I had on was soaking wet, and my shoes were full of water.  I had to take of my glasses because the wind was blowing the rain everywhere.  Then I just had fun running in the rain.  It was renewing in a way & I ended up really enjoying it.  Who would have known my rainy Monday morning run would be so fun?

Just as I finished my run, the torrential rain let up and turned back to the sprinkle rain.  I guess the monsoon was just a little gift for me :-)

Paces were 9:50 for warm up, then 9:05 (a little faster than I wanted) and 9:13.  Hard to think about pace & form when you can't focus. 

Lucky for me I had my new pink Mizunos in the closet waiting to be broken in, because my shoes from yesterday are still saturated/soaked from the rain puddles.

Pinky Gladys Gutzman- because Pinky is my favorite color....a little shout out to my favorite kindergarten student Junie B. Jones.

No rain, no clouds, awesome moon that lit up the night.  Shorts & light jacket.  Perfect weather.

Just ran a comfortable pace.  Overall pace was 9:28. 

Some people in our 'hood are already running their sprinklers in the mornings.  Which confuses me since we got 1.5 inches yesterday.....but what do I know?

Monday's shoes are still damp.  So Pinky and I went out again this morning.  Paced a little faster, and tried some speed work, but ran into a cramp on the back of my knee where my brace is.  I think the brace was too tight, and that caused the cramp.  So I stretched out the cramp, loosened up the strap and just ran the faster pace without the speed work. 

Average pace was around 9:05. 

The moon was brilliant.  Enjoying my time with it this week.

Woke up just a little earlier today and got in 7 miles. 

Progressive run starting with 10 for a warm up and mile 7 was 8:15.  The back of my knee didn't bother me at all until I was almost done with mile 7, and my speed was increasing.  I think it's related to speed and the knee strap.  The back of my knee where the strap sits just cramps up really bad.  So I slowed down and finished at a slower pace, then stretched out. 

I guess I just need to keep my pace slower (above 8:30) and I should be good.  Not a problem :-)

Loved the beautiful moon light again.  The weather was wonderful.  Skirt & long sleeved shirt were comfortable to run in...only my hands were cold. 

Average pace was 9:06

Easier pace to recover and prep for tomorrow.  I've run almost 2x as many miles this week by Friday than I have the last 2 weeks, so I'm feeling the tired legs a little. Avg pace 9:40.  But enough of that...

Happy Good FRY-day!  It's one of my favorite days of the year because we pull out the deep fat fryer and fry everything we can find.  On the menu today is: chicken wings, egg rolls, hush puppies, cocktail weiner-corn dogs, cheese cubes, pickels, oreos, and of course twinkies.  

It will be interesting to see how my run goes tomorrow after all that grease tonight :-)  Oh, and a cabbage salad too...not fried.

This turned out to be more of a food blog than a running blog today. My apologies to the running die-hards and healthy eating crew.

slept in, which was nice...but it was too warm by the time we finally got out.   First day this year of hot running...I forgot how hard it is to run in the hot, hot, heat.

We started about 10mm pace, then things went downhill for MR around mile 5.  We'd gone for an out and back, so he'd only gone 1/2 way and had to take walk breaks.  I would run ahead, then back track to see him (share some water) and then go out ahead.  So my last 5 miles were faster than my first 5. 

I think the combination of the sun, the heat, the grease from the night before & the sigh of relief that spring break had finally started was all too much for me.  I ended up needing 2 naps that day just to stay awake late enough to go to sleep at 9.  Exhausted!

Pine pollen is everywhere.  There were yellow clouds of pollen that we were running through.  Glad I've got my allergy meds!   Dogwoods in bloom!!!