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

2 mile walk in the new Merrell's.  Beautiful Day!

6 miles in the morning on the road to P-town.  It was a beautiful morning.  Actually too warm for my hat, but I had to leave it on because it was holding my headlamp up.

I started out slow 10:30, and then after mile 1 ran at a comfortable pace.  Managed to average a 9:28.  It felt good to run and feel healthy.  The fire in my lungs has gone away from Saturday's run, and all is well.

I heard some little critter scurrying in the brush by the side of the road.  I wondered who it was, but didn't catch a glimpse.  It's hard to see scurrying critters in the dark.

So I am a major book nerd and love the Cassandra Clare books and the new Infernal Devices book two was released today, so I had to make arrangments to swing by Walmart before work.

I got up early and did Shred level 2 as well as 12 minutes on the elliptical at 75% effort.  Showered and got ready, tried to be nice by picking buccaneer #2 up from semiary and took her to the store with me, because I know she likes the books too. 

Now let me say something about advertisiting:  IF you have a poster sized advertisement at the front of your store for a book's new release, and IF that poster has a particular day listed as when you're going to have the book available, then by 6:50am, you NEED to have that book OUT ON THE SHELF!!!!!  

I had to find someone to help me (which is NOT easy at 6:50 am in the morning) and then tell them what I was looking for.  They had to radio someone else who looked around the back, and after 10 minutes, they finally found ONE book.  REALLY???  What is wrong with this store?  (Besides the fact that it's a wal-mart?)

I really wanted to get the book for a co-worker for a holiday gift.  I knew she didn't know about the release, and I wanted to surprise her.  I am SURE that they were given a shipment of more than one book, but those little dears (bless their hearts) were 100% unable to find any more books.  I even gave them some extra time to look for it while I went looking for other things I didn't need (and had to listen to #2 whine at me the whole time).

I even bought the little whiner breakfast since it was taking so long, and in the end, the "helpers" never could find the whole box full of books.  So no gift, the surprise is ruined, and I had to listen to the whine factory all morning long.  I wish that counted for some kind of workout too.

I can't wait for lunch so I can read!!

After work, went to the track and did a .3 warm up, ran 1 mile in the vibrams, then walked 1.8 for a total of 3.1 miles.  Calves were a little sore after.

Met my neighbor outside at 4:45 for some speedwork.  When we were discussing the time to meet, I suggested 5, and she said that was too late for her.  I've never had anyone tell me that!

I thought she'd balk at me if I said 4:30, but I was thrilled when she wanted to go earlier.  I was excited and kept waking up during the night, worried that I was going to sleep in and miss our run.

We averaged an 8:46 pace.  I really enjoyed the run and the company.  I think we're just going to have a standing 4:45 run on Wednesdays.  I hate speedwork and it will give me something to look forward to.

After another frustrating trip to wal-mart last night, sore calves from the vibrams, and general lack of self-discipline, I had all sorts of troubles getting myself out of bed this morning.

MR was getting ready and being noisy so I couldn't sleep, so I'm blaming him for me having to get up and run. 

My calves don't hurt when I run, but they're sore the rest of the time.  Kind of strange if you ask me, but it was nice to run and feel good.

I did a slower recovery run. Avg pace 9:35.  I've got plans for a new interval/cardio workout after work, and I'm really excited about it.

Maybe another 5K this Saturday, but it will be hilly and wayyyy more competition.  I'll be doing this one for fun!

Cardio/strengthening program was fun, less work than I'd figured so it leaves room to ramp up the intensity.

10 minutes warm up (5 walk, 5 jog), 30 second intervals of cardio then 30 seconds of walk/recovery for 10 minutes, 30 second intervals again but with strength activities (push up, plank, bird-dog, burpees) for 20 minutes.  We managed 4 sets on the strength intervals, then had a 10 minute cool down. 

ab ripper x, 45 min elliptical, and a 2 mile walk with MR at the close of the day.  Nice to walk and see the christmas decorations in the hood.  

Free races are the best thing ever!  This one had no registration, no chips, no bibs- just a start, end, and a clock to keep time.  Lots of people with dogs, strollers, or both, lots of kids, some scooters and bikes....just a good time.

Being on the base, there was definitely some good competition.  I found myself pre-judging every runner I saw trying to figure out if they were going to be super fast or not.  It's a little game that I'm not very good at.  You just can't judge a runner by what they're wearing or what size they are.

It took us a few seconds I'm saying it was around 5 to get to the start.  It was downhill for the first half, then right back uphill for the second half.  Uphills in the end are tough for me!  I wasn't warmed up enough to take full advantage of the great downhill at the start either.  I thought it was cold, despite the people wearing t-shirts and shorts!

As I was approaching the turn around, I could see the leaders running back.  I started looking for women... it took a while to see the first one.  She looked like an athlete!  I gave her a nod- she was doing great!  I counted 8 other females in front of me, and one girl on a scooter who had rolled all the way downhill.  I ended up passing 3 of the females on the hill back up, then we had 1 lap on the track to finish the run.  There was a lady in front of me that had a 10 miler shirt on who had passed me early in the race, and a girl right behind her.  My initial goal was to pass the girl behind her, but she took off like a rocket after 1/4 of the lap... so I worked on overtaking the 10 miler lady.  She was running with her husband, who was pushing a stroller.  He was on the inside lane, and she was in the 2nd lane.  I had to sprint out and around both of them, but I did it just before the last turn and beat her!  Not that I had anything against her, I just wanted to get in front of someone, and she was the one.  So I think I passed 4 females total, which would have put me at 4 or 5, but I have no way of confirming this.  It just doesn't matter.  My time was better than any of my other 5K times, so I won the competition with myself, and that's what really pleases me.

I was sure that last mile+ that was all uphill was going to put me over an 8mm, but it didn't.  I was really happy I could keep my pace fairly constant even with the hill.  I have my splits for the first 3 miles, but not the last .1 because even though I pushed my watch, and I swear I heard it beep, it never stopped.  Go figure.  All splits were in the 7:50s, and I ran faster that last little bit trying to overtake the other lady.  Good stuff all together.  The clock said 24:04 when I went under it, but I know it was at least 4 or 5 seconds for me to get to the start, so I'm giving myself a 24:00.

Good SWAG after: chickfila mini sliders, free coupons, fruit, granola bars, raffles, t-shirts for the first 100 finishers, thumb drives, water bottles & canisters, WWE people to sign & get autographs from (but I don't know who they are and care even less, so I didn't bother), bags, blankets, and lots of little things.  We also got free santa hats to run in:

And just for Brent, I'll end with the slogan that was printed on our t-shirts:

GO ARMY  -  BEAT NAVY!!