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

nice walk in the morning to enjoy the clean air (until the crazy neighbors started burning all their leaves again).

Training plan said 4 today.  I was going to do more, but I ended up close to home around mile 4, and it had started to rain/downpour, so I finished up.

For reasons I don't understand, I started counting my breaths.  I realized I was doing it around #30, and I just kept counting the whole time.  I am pretty sure I lost count when it got up high, but I ended up around 1400.  I don't know why I was doing it, but once I started, I couldn't stop.  I don't think I'm going to try that again any time soon.  Time for the mp3 player I guess.

Times started slow at 10:40, then 9:48, then 9:06, then 8 something...

Ran 6 in the morning. slow, easy pace. shred 1 after work.

I was going to run my 8 this morning, but a 3 am phne call that led to me having to drive to seminary put my plans on hold.  I could have gotten ready and run at 3:45 am, but i just decided I'd rather sleep another hour or so and run after work.

It's my last speed workout 4 miles @ 8:25 with 800m rests in between, warm & cool down.  My race is in 2 1/2 weeks.  Yikes.

My problem is coming this week end.  I have a 20 miler scheduled 2 weeks before ther race, and it's going to be freezing rain & sleet all day saturday w/ a high of 30. What am I supposed to do?

I ran 15 last week, but I ran 20 miles both weeks previously.  Am I going to be ruining my chances for success if I don't do this 20 on Sat?  I'm thinking I can maybe run on Sunday morning before church if I have to.  Stupid weather.

Got my 8 in. The faster paces went okay, and I was able to keep it above the 8:25.  Around mile 5, my watch started beeping like crazy because the laps section was full...it didn't keep track of my times after that, but for the last pace section I left it on so I could hear the "your'e too slow warning."  I only heard it once for my last speed mile, so I'm sure I kept it in the range.  After that, I turned the watch off for the last 1.5 miles of cool down. I know the distance was good, and the time didn't matter.  I was just sick of listening to the beep beep beep.

4 morning miles.  I'm not sure if I'll do a shred after school or not.  My times were slowly increasing today, 10:40, 9:32, 9:28, 9:10.

I wasn't trying to go very fast because I'd just run the 8 last night.  I was surprised that my legs weren't more sore this morning.  My own little victory.

Temps just around 32.

Not sure what's going to happen tomorrow with the weather.  It looks like it's going to be bad, but they've been wrong before.  So I did 3 miles this morning and a seminary pick up.

Paces were 9:48, 9:28, 9:17.

Beautiful full moon.

Early dismissal from school because of the bad weather that was coming.  I took the opportunity to run since there wasn't any precip yet.  I'd had a huge steak for lunch, not thinking I'd be running a couple hours later.  It wasn't too bad during the run, and the steak was delicious.  I don't think I'd ever do it again intentionally though.

I was planning on running till the sun went down, or the rain started.  But by mile 11, my legs were starting to cramp a little behind my knees, and I was feeling tired, so I quit at mile 12, just before 5 pm.  It was getting colder and windy outside, but it's 10 pm and we still haven't seen any precip down where we live. 

If it's still dry or not too icy tomorrow, I'll try and get out for another 12 or so.  It's not the ideal way to run 20, but I thought it was better to get something instead of nothing.

Tasty home made rocky road cookies just out of the oven when I got home from the run.  Delicious!

I just heard some rain/sleet outside on the window.  I guess it's here for now.

Woke up to white snow on everything covered with a sheet of ice from freezing rain that lasted most morning and early afternoon.

It's the first saturday I haven't run for a long time.  It seems more like a sunday since we're all home together all day & not going out to do a million things.

Tomorrow will be a repeat since church is cancelled.  Maybe if it's warm enough to melt some of the ice, I'll get to run tomorrow...maybe.  Depends on whether I make those oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or not. 

I was thinking it would have been a good day for yak-trax, but then I enjoyed the break so much, I'll keep them off my wish list for the time being.

The best part of today was watching all the birds at the birdfeeder all day long.  It took them a year to find it, but they finally did, and they ate all day long.  I counted 20 birds at one time.  Some waiting in the tree, some on the snow below eating the stuff that fell down, and some on the feeder.  Most of them were little birds, but there was one that looked like a dove, and a cardinal.  Pretty cool.