Work will win when wishy washy wishing won't

A new month.  Last month was my best running month ever!  I was happy to log 170 miles and did some great workouts!  I feel like a real athlete, (maybe not the top athlete, but still an athlete!)  It is great to be 41 years young and feel like I am in the best shape of my life!

Now that it is getting warmer in these parts, Tom needs to get his harder workout done in the mornings.  So today I went out one with him, (then he went to do hills, I'm glad my hills aren't until tomorrow.  My quads are needing one more day of gentle after our big race last weekend!) and then past to pick up a friend who wants to start joining me.  She came out for 2 with me and the rest was on my own.  It was so fun to be with K and do some gabbing and laughing!  I hope she decides to join me at least 3 times a week.   

It's funny how getting out of bed and starting my run is less enjoyable than the last of 7 miles of a good workout with 6  two minute hill repeats!  Did that make sense? 

I am loving these beautiful mornings to run in!  It's kind of sad to think of all those mornings in my life I have been in bed instead of out enjoying what my own two feet can do for me!  I notice things so differently while I am out running.  Kind of like the spirituality discussion going on on the discussion board.  I feel the crisp morning air, (sometimes very hard as the wind slaps us around!).  I hear birds of all kinds, (including peacocks that you can hear all the way across the fields.)  I smell the different flowers as I pass people's well cared for yards, (also a few smells down at the river bottoms that aren't always pleasant.)  I see beautiful mountains, rolling hills, flowers, trees, wildlife, people and a really great husband by my side.  Taste is usually something I enjoy more when I get home rather than on the run.  Sometimes that might be a nice mug of hot chocolate to warm the innards up. But definitely NOT the squid jerky that Camron sent us from Japan yesterday!  Blech!   It all makes me so grateful for all the many blessings I have. 

Drizzly morning.  Most of the run alone.  Joined for 2 1/2 miles by my friend, K.

Rain dropping, puddle jumping, worm dodging, wind blowing, 6 x 2 minute striders with Tom morning!  =)  

Striders ranging in pace from 7:40 to 7:10.  It's fun to run at that speed.  I hope someday I can do it for longer than two minutes at a time. 

This morning Tom had to get in a longer, quicker run and the gal who is starting to run with me once in a while is out of town. So I decided that since I would be running alone anyway, I might as well get an extra hour of sleep and go out a bit later. I thought maybe I could talk Jansen into joining me, but that was a no go. He was enjoying his teenage slumber.

My Garmin's battery died in the first mile, so I made sure to stick with my 6.1 loop so I at least know the distance. As far as pace, I probably went a bit faster than I was suppose to. But when I am alone, I hate to mope around.

Three fun observations of the day....Two of the huge windmills at the mouth of Sp. Fork canyon were up and running today! Kind of cool to see them in motion. I don't know if they are in full swing or just testing them at the moment. One thing for sure, there WAS wind for them and for me. Another thing I enjoyed was the GREEN mountains! We usually see white, snow covered mountains, brown, dried up mountains or black, burned up mountains in these parts! It's so refreshing to see green! And finally, it was fun to pass a farmer and his son out cutting the hay with an old fashioned sickle (sp?). Their clothing and tools were just as if they were thrown here from 100 years ago!

This is the third time I am trying to write this.  It has disappeared from me twice.  I was really excited the first time I was writing and I used lots of !!!!.  The second time I was still kind of excited, but now I just want to hurry and tell the basics and get this submitted before it disappears into cyber space too! 

Tom and I met up with a few from the SF group and had a nice run in the rain that included my first trip up Harry's Hill.  It was great!  I feel very good about today and this whole week!