Never Enough T-Shirts

First of all, I love it here! I didn't run yesterday because I felt sick to my stomach the entire day, but this morning I felt much better (though still a little off) and I went right out for a run. I feel like I need to be more accountable now that I'm posting here! 

I ran 6 miles...and somehow, they were mostly uphill! I miscalculated the distance of the route and it ended up being 7.5 miles. I walked the last mile and a half home... and of course, that was the part that was mostly downhill!

Mile 1- completely uphill- 10:14 Mile 2- fairly flat with some down and up hills- 9:20 Mile 3- up a huuuuuge hill- 9:23 (I was so pleasantly surprised with that!) Mile 4- finally some level ground and downhills!- 8:36 Mile 5-mostly uphill but leveled out in a few places- 8:31 (*see my note below!) Mile 6-flat & downhill 9:14

 *Last week, I played a little game to make myself run faster on a 5 mile run. I told myself that if I ran my 4th mile in 9:45 I wouldn't have to run a 5th. I missed it by 4 seconds. Today, I did something similar. I decided that if I ran my 5th mile in 9:15 or less, I could "take it easy" on my 6th mile. Well, my 5th mile was way faster than 9:15...and even my "take it easy" mile was less than 9:15! Probably because I was thinking of all my new Fast Running friends while I was running! 

Another beautiful day here... I did think of all of you bundled-up runners and made sure I was extra-thankful for being out in shorts & short sleeves.

I ran the mile to the gym and then hopped on the treadmill to run 3 miles. I had a podcast to catch up on, and we're not allowed to run with headphones on base so that's why I opted for the treadmill!

I ran 2 miles at 8:00 pace on the treadmill and then slowed it down for a half mile. Ran one more at 8:00...this was very difficult for me, because it started at 2.5 instead of 2.0 and once the treadmill got to 3.0 I really wanted to stop instead of do that last half mile! I did do that last half mile though. I knew it would just take about 4 minutes, so I started counting, knowing that by the time I got to 160 I'd be finished. I always lose track and never get to 160, so it doesn't seem so bad. Anyway, the last .25 I decided that if I ran faster I'd be able to stop sooner, so I cranked it up to 7:40-something. A half mile to catch my breath before heading back outside for my mile home.

Of course, I was wearing a gray shirt, soaked with sweat and saw a girl I know on my way out... Good thing I know her from running group, so she's used to seeing me looking sweaty & gross!

Went for an evening run today since I spent my normal running time doing errands at the post office, bank, commissary and outdoor rec. And I spent the afternoon baking cookies. So far 3 dozen candy cane cookies and 2 dozen nut cups. 

After snacking on dough and the cookies that were too ugly to share with guests, I felt like I really needed a run! I'm glad I didn't wait until tomorrow. I ran 7 miles and it was dark during the last half. I'm not good at running in the dark because I am a fraidy-cat. I'm not afraid of the people that are out, I'm afraid of the cars and the curbs and the snakes and the bats, even though I've never seen a snake here and I know the bats won't hurt me. They love to swoop and they are humongous!

Here's a funny thing about my run: All of the streets on base are named after military guys...except one. It's called "Rolling Heights" and it's very clear why. There was another route I could've taken, but I was hit by a momentary bout of crazy and decided it would be "fun" to lug myself up Rolling Heights. Crazy! I'm glad I did, though, because so far the familes on Rolling Hts. are the most well-decorated as far as Christmas lights go!

Came home and went for about a quarter mile cool down walk with my husband, then sent him to pick up our dinner...Japanese fast food tonight SO good and much healthier than its American counterpart--salad, rice & curry. Mmm!

I missed running group this morning because we signed up to do a garage sale in order to get rid of some things before we move next month. We had to be at the military recreation area to set up our "booth" (which was really a parking space) by 5:30, and there was no way I could get my group to meet at 4:00 instead of 6:00 so I could join them before the garage sale!

Since I was up until 12 gathering last minute things to sell, I wouldn't have shown up at 4:00 anyway! So it was another evening run for me. The scale was really tipping toward the "no run today" side because: 1-I had no clean running shirts and had to wear a dirty one. 2-My long sleeved shirts were too stinky for me to wear, even for a solo run, so my only choice was a dirty short-sleeved shirt in the chilly dark. 3-I was super-tired from being up so early and doing "business" all morning. 4-My stomach was feeling heavy (that probably had something to do with all the cookie dough I was tasting this afternoon). 5- I have a big headache, either from wearing my glasses for too long, accidentally getting strong smelling lotion on my hand during the garage sale, or spending a half hour in a room with strong candles this afternoon. But, even though I had five great excuses, I told myself to quit being so lazy and go out for a run. Plus I keep reading about so many of you guys running on ice & snow I'd feel kind of bad not being grateful for the pleasant running weather I have here.

When I got outside, I realized it was actually 6 great excuses because my Garmin had low battery. I thought maybe I could get 2 miles out and then turn around before it conked out, but I didn't even get 1 mile out! I didn't start out my usual way, so I wasn't absolutely sure about the turn-around point, so I ran 20 minutes out and then turned around and ran back and decided to call it 4 miles.