Same Time, Same Channel

I just wanted to let you know that the choir performance went really well. My thanks go out to the many ward members who came out and sang, and particularly to Michelle for anchoring the soprano section and doing an awesome job on the obligato in Mary's Lullaby. I got lots of nice comments from people afterward and one woman came up to me in tears and said that it was the best Christmas program she had ever been to. Now if I can just round up the one missing choir folder so that I can return the music to the library. And I need to hurry and buy some new music and use up my choir budget for the year.

Easy run + 7 x 10 sec. hill sprints + level 3 shred.

6:20 am, 39°F, 31% humidity, wind 8 S, gusting to 14.

It turns out that it's easier to get up at 4:30 when I have to get the kids off to school than to get up at 5:30 when I don't have to get the kids off to school. I guess I need some kind of external deadline that is firmer than just needing to get myself to work to get myself out of bed in the morning.

That being said, I enjoyed the warm weather and had a pleasant run today. I ran the County Line/Quebec loop. I was feeling good for most of the run, except for the last bit of the uphill part on Quebec St. going directly into the wind. After some consideration this morning, I've concluded that east on County Line plus south on Quebec is harder than east on Highlands Ranch Parkway.

AP: 9:05. Splits: 9:41, 9:02, 9:06, 8:44, 9:00 (this was the uphill into the wind part), 8:41, 8:40, 8:40. Paces on the hill sprints were: 6:16, 6:09, 6:23, 6:51, 6:25, 7:15, 5:56.

Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

Easy run.

5:46 am, 39° at the start, 34° at the end, 45% humidity, wind 9 SSE.

Yesterday I talked about how it was easier to bet out of bed when I have a firm obligation such as getting the kids off to school. It turns out I can hop right out of bed when I realize I've over slept and I've promised to meet someone at a certain time. I was planning to meet the Michelles at 6:15 this morning and I set my alarm for 5:00 so that I'd have ample time to get read and run at least 3 miles before meeting up with them. I looked at my clock at 4:40 and thought about getting up and running even more before meeting them, but decided against it and went back to sleep. The next time I looked at my clock it was 5:34. I had neglected to turn my alarm on. I needed to leave the house at 5:45 in order to get 3 miles in before meeting the Michelles (I could take a shorter route if I needed to). That gave me 11 minutes to get out the door. I made it in 12 minutes. And then my adrenalin must have been pumping a bit for the rush and I ran there a little faster than I normally do.

So I ran a little over 3 miles to Michelle's house and then ran 4 miles with the two Michelles, then ran a little less than 3 miles home. Then I went in my house and changed into my new Vibram Five Fingers that I bought last night at the huge gigantic REI store in downtown Denver. I want back out and did a half mile in the Five Fingers. I neglected to put my gloves back on and the temperature was dropping, so I was a little chilly on that last bit of my run, but my feet were okay. My stupid little stubby pinky toes don't like to be separated from their neighbors and they complained about about being shoved into their own little pockets in the Five Fingers, but it was bearable. Maybe they'll get used to it.

AP: 9:25. Splits: 9:39, 9:04, 9:00, 9:59, 9:55, 9:30, 9:27, 9:23, 9:21, 0.82 @ 9:29. 0.52 @ 9:19 in the Five Fingers.

Tempo run of sorts (not as fast as I hoped it would be).

7:35 am, 28° F, 57% humidity, winds calm, light snow.

I ran on the snow-covered Highline Canal Trail with Nan this morning. A huge thanks to Nan for driving down here on the snowy roads to run with me today! I enjoyed running and talking with Nan this morning, but I felt bad that I didn't have the strength to get going very fast. I was really tired for some reason. Maybe I should blame it on the weather. The trail had about an inch of snow on it and it was more slippery than I thought it would be. I very nearly fell one time, but managed to stay on my feet. My tracks in the snow revealed that I don't pick up my feet very much when I run. I should probably work on that.

AP: 8:37. Splits: 9:08, 8:39, 8:20, 8:20, 8:38, 8:35, 8:50, 8:28.

After the run, Nan and I both enjoyed a piece of the fabulous wheat bread that Michelle made.

Frozen run.

3:30 pm, 23 dropping to 20°F, 57% humdity, winds calm.

Well, I finally made it out. I got up early and went to work in the morning because I needed to put in 4 hours and I had some things to finish at work. Then I had an appointment with the eye doctor at 11:30. After that, things just kept getting in the way. Also, I was feeling kind of sick to my stomach. Maybe it was what I ate, or maybe I was "see" sick from seeing too much because the doctor had dilated my eyes.

I wish I had gone out earlier because it was quite sunny earlier, but by the time I got out the sun was starting to go down. It set about halfway through my run, I think. I ran the loop that takes me past my work and I had a really rough time coming back on Highlands Ranch Parkway because when the sun was up, the snow had been melting, making little rivers on the sidewalk. As soon as the sun went down, those little rivers froze. It was very slippery. I fell down once. It wasn't too bad of a fall.

I've run in temperatures lower than this before but for some reason I was really cold during this whole run. I guess I was inadequately dressed. But I had my double gloves, which have served me fine before, and I couldn't feel the fingers on my left hand by the time I finished this run. Under normal circumstances, I would have run down my street a little ways to get to 10 miles, but I got to my house at 9.82 miles and I couldn't make myself go any farther.

This has turned into kind of a complaining post. I don't mean to complain. It was just a really tough run. But I'm okay, though I would rather go to bed than stay up and put presents out at this point. Maybe my husband will put the dollhouse together while I take a nap or something.

AP: 9:20. Splits: 9:35, 9:16, 8:51, 8:49, 9:11, 9:20, 9:41, 9:40, 9:28, 0.82 @ 9:29. I was just getting warmed up (though I never really got warm) on the first two miles, and things started getting rough starting with mile 5, but I felt really good on miles 3 and 4.

 Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Crunchy Christmas run.

10:23 am, 25°F, 48% humidity, wind 7 NNE, overcast.

I was up until about 12:45 am last night. I helped my husband assemble the doll house. The kids were instructed that Christmas didn't start until 6 am. They got up about 5:45 and hung out in my room until 6:00.

Here's a picture of the doll house from this morning after it had been moved to my daughter's room and some dolls had moved in:

Also, for your viewing pleasure, here's a picture of the one present that has not been unwrapped and may not be for a long time:

Now for the run. It was crunchy because I had to run across A LOT of frozen snowplow scrud. I was hoping that we'd get some sun today to melt some of this ice, but it looks like it's not happening.

Here's a list of Christmas presents that accompanied me on my run today:

• base layer pants and shirt
• SmartWool socks
• heart rate monitor
• Perpetuum Jazille "Africa" album

The album lasted almost exactly the length of my run, so that was cool.

AP: 9:46. Splits: 10:12, 9:47, 10:02, 9:28, 9:33, 9:34, 0.14 @ 9:45. Avg. HR: 141.

Super Slow Slippery Snowy Slog.

7:37 am, 17° to start, 23° at the end, 85% humidity, wind calm and then 5 W. Light snow. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground and plenty of frozen snowplow scrud.

Michelle and Michelle ran to my house and then we met up with Carly, who lives about 4 houses down from me, and the four of us ran a 7 mile loop, then Carly went home. I ran back nearly to their neighborhood with the Michelles, then they peeled off to go home and I continued on by myself. It was a very slow run. I think Michelle and I were both tired and it was really quite slippery. This was the same group today that I'm going to the Canyonlands Half Marathon with in March. I think this was Carly's longest run yet, and she did really well.

We saw some bare foot tracks in the thin layer of freshly fallen snow, so there must be a hard core barefooter around here, but I don't know who it is.

AP: 10:05. Splits: 9:48, 10:01, 9:53, 10:01, 9:56, 10:36, 10:11, 10:31, 10:27, 10:09, 10:00, 10:05, 9;53, 9:51, 9:59, 9:54. I wore the heart rate monitor, but it wasn't getting my heart rate at first because I had my sleeve over the watch and then it started getting my heart rate, but I have no historical data because I neglected to ever start the timer on that watch.