Motivated to Succeed

10:00 AM - Legs were trashed when I woke up this morning from the 17-miler yesterday. Went to Emm's work and hopped on a pretty fly treadmill and cruised at 9:13 pace for majority of run. Walked to make it to 50:00 the last .25 miles. Felt good by the end though. Afterwards I went with Emm to get tea and a muffin at Dottie's cafe and then we went to TJ Maxx/Marshall's/CVS, etc. and errands.

Total Time: 50:00 Total Distance: 5.26 miles Average Pace:  9:30

6:00 PM - Sunny and temp around 55 or so. Breezy. A little cool. Long day at school. We had an official lockdown with the Adams police coming in to inspect and do a walk-through. Will be interesting to hear how it went. I fortunately was "stuck" in my office writing progress report comments. Shh! Don't tell! Got home and met Emmy and Mary Rose was on break. Decided to go for a jog and then go to Mission for open mic night. I needed to do 4 miles so I went with Emm to the Causeway. I decided to run up into the entrance of Pittsfield State Forest and back. Well going out was nice and easy but woooeeee can Emmy run. I don't think she has any idea how fast she was going.. but we were going sub: 7 pace for the last .5 miles and sub: 6 minute pace for the last .1. She is a speed demon! I am sure I will feel this workout in the a.m. :D Happy Tuesday! Splits:

• Mile 1: 9:40
• Mile 2: 9:29
• Mile 3: 7:58
• Mile 4: 7:12

6:00 PM - Sunny at the start and about 58 degrees. However it was getting late and the sun set and after the first two miles I started to get cold. Ran up into Pittsfield State Forest and hit the trails. Not too bad. A bit slippery in spots on the oak leaves from last fall, yet the surprise came around mile 3.25 when I came around a corner and ran into another Reefer Monkey Hang Out group. Grr. Just really makes me mad that they bring their junk in there. That's what I get for running late at night though. Felt good; legs were not that tired from the tempo run that Emm dragged me through yesterday. 

Today at school we were happy to welcome a woman that produced an independent documentary called "Shooting Beauty" about a group of people with disabilities that allowed them to "shoot" (or photograph/videotape) a day in their lives. I was surprised that all my kids were able to take it seriously and were actually on the verge of tears. I truly have some good kids though. Afterwards we worked on my president assignment I gave them.

My run was good. I got an extra helping of protein today because I ran into a cloud of gnats or black flies at mile 6. I swallowed several and got another one up my nose and one in my left eye (not to mention however many got lost in my hair and beard!). Fun fun :). Looking forward to this weekend. I am going to try to do a long run on the Appalachian Trail on Saturday - first official run on the trail!! Exciting! Splits today:

• Mile 1: 8:57
  
• Mile 2: 9:05
• Mile 3: 10:48
• Mile 4: 10:27
• Mile 5: 9:41
• Mile 6: 9:10
• Mile 7: 8:57

7:00 AM - Rain and overcast 40 degrees. Went out this morning with the intention to do a long run. However it was raining and then it turned to SNOW. I had trouble finding the AT because it is not well marked and the access road was closed. I jogged 1-1.25 miles on the fire road and then got to the trail but it was so wet and uncleared that it was downright nasty. On top of that it was raining and my sunglasses kept fogging up so I couldn't see (prescription sunglasses). Blargh! Decided to save my effort for another day and bagged the run and back to the car. I am hoping to get another run in later today of 5-6 miles, even if I have to get it in on the treadmill.

 Exciting news: I called "Tux Express" and made reservations for me and 6 other fine fellows to get measured for our tuxes next Saturday! This will be the first time that Emmy sees me in a suit (if I try one on.. not sure how the whole thing works).