Work will win when wishy washy wishing won't

It felt good coming back to my own territory.  Friday and Saturday I felt so sluggish on my runs.  Saturday night when we got home from Manti I fell asleep on the couch at about 7:30 p.m.  I finally pulled myself into bed at about 10:00 and slept till 7:30 the next morning.  That's 12 hours of sleep!  I'm not quite sure what happened there.  I guess I all of a sudden had 6 straight weeks of running 6 days a week.  (I think I had one 5 day week in there).  Maybe I just needed a little nap.

Anyway, it felt good today.  I ended up with no buddy, no dog, no mp3 and no wind.  Just me with the sunshine on my shoulders makin' me happy.  We do need to see some winter sometime though.  Yesterday in church a local farmer said the invocation and I could feel his sincere desire to receive the much needed moisture.  So when we finally get dumped on please help me remember that humble farmer friend of mine.

Back to the run.  I felt good today and had a hard time keeping to the 11:15-11:30 that I am suppose to be doing.  The first mile was 11:10, but I kept speeding up.  2nd was at 10:57,  3rd was 10:50 and 4th was 10:37. 

Wow!  Today was Kimi's running adventure!  I set out to do my 7 miler for this week.  For some wild and crazy reason I decided to take the first 3 miles straight up into the mouth of the canyon where our famous Spanish Fork wind comes from.  It was a the cold of the wind that was bothering me more than the force of the wind.  My face gets so cold to start out with. 

I went to areas that I haven't gone to before so I came across a few adventures.  One street led to a dead end so I turned to go up another one.  It led to an undeveloped cul-de-sac so I had to do an unplanned trail run to get to another street.  (I almost sprawled myself on the ground there.)  On the other road I ended up on a lonely stretch  with about 10 yards of weeds between me and the main highway.  There on the highway was a hitchhiker going the same direction as me.  It kind of gave me a weird feeling to be right there so I pushed into the wind to get out of an uncomfortable situation.  When  I reached the top of this road I remembered they had closed it off to traffic.  I thought I could just go through some weeds for a bit and get onto the next road right ahead of me.  But as I reached the end I realized they had put a barbed wire fence up all along the area.  I looked around and found a place where someone had bent the fence down so I climbed over there.  On the other side the wind was waiting as fiercely as ever for me. 

Later on a dog came my way, he made me a little nervous as he came toward me, but then passed me like I wasn't even there.  I was happy for that.  The whole run felt great!  I actually had to pull myself out of the 9s once in a while.  At about 4 miles I felt like I could take on the world!  I actually got the chills and it had nothing to do with the chill in the air.  I just liked the feeling of what I was doing!  At about 6.5 miles I could tell I was on track to be a little over 7 miles so I made a few turns into the wind again to take it up to 8.

My overall time was 1:24:14  

Average pace  10:35

10:43

10:57

11:24

9:58

10:11

10:03

10:22

10:32

And now I am sitting here freezing so I shall go take my nice warm shower!   

Today is the nine month mark for our son who is serving a mission in Japan.  I am looking forward to a special call on Christmas from the land of the rising sun!

Here are my current daily mileage goals.

Bronze=4 miles

Silver=4.5

Gold=5

Long run once a week= 8 and above as I work for the Painter's half on Jan. 19.

Today I hit gold.  Average pace 10:38.   Felt great. 

I smiled at everybody I passed today.  It's fun to watch reactions of people when you do that.  It's amazing how we just don't smile and wave as often anymore. 
 

 Beth hasn't been able to get out with me at all this week because of her husband's work schedule.  She was planning on today and I was looking forward to running with her.  However when I went to get her she said he had returned home last night at 4:00 a.m. and was called out to leave again this morning.  I would hate it if Tom's schedule was like that.  Anyway, I was glad I had thrown the mp3 in my pocket.  I commend Beth for being a mom of small kids and having to do it alone so often!

Starting out today my left leg felt like it was still home in bed.  It took about 2 miles to not be thinking of forcing my leg forward.  During the first 2 miles I was thinking I would just hit my bronze goal of 4 miles today.  But if you get yourself far enough from your house you don't get much of a choice.  Actually the last 2-3 miles were much more enjoyable.  So Gold for today!

Beth was able to join me today.   She was able to go 4 with me, (we kept it real slow).  I threw in one more on my own to reach the gold! 

I was going to mention yesterday that after my run I had a Sasha recommended honey and banana sandwich for my breakfast.  I wasn't sure what I would think of it, but I quite enjoyed it and am going to go have one again right now.  I put it on a piece of whole grain toast.  I think I'll add a cup of hot chocolate today.  It took me all day long yesterday to get warm.  Maybe that will help warm me from the inside and give me some of the calcium that I tend to neglect.

I had all intentions of going with Tom today to watch him in the tu tu run.  I was going to hang out for  the pre race warm up, do some running myself, watch him and Michelle come in, and do some running after with Tom while we waited for awards.  However, our youngest daughter came in to me in the middle of the night and said, "Mommy, I feel like I might throw up."  We barely made it to the bathroom on time.  I decided I had better not be gone quite as long in the morning since big brothers weren't likely to be much help to a little sister who is throwing up.  So I was going to drive in separately and watch the race and then come home.  When Tom got in to the race area he called me and told me to forget about coming in.  The traffic, roads and parking weren't worth it, especially since the weather conditions were going to mess with the great race he had planned on running.

By that time the girls had woke up and they both ate breakfast and you would never believe that one of them had thrown up in the night.  All was well, even after she ate some breakfast!  So I decided to go get my run in.  

 I decided I would be happy with the bronze today since there was a few inches of snow everywhere I would be running and it was still coming down good!  But once I got going and feeling the beautiful, peacefulness around me I knew I would get the gold!  I decided the bronze is there to get me out and going and the gold is there to keep me out. 

I felt a little like a celebrity runner today.  Almost everyone who saw me wished me a good morning, way to go, you're ambitious, good job, beautiful day, ect....I didn't run into any other runners but lots of people out shoveling snow or playing with their kids.  They all seemed to go out of their way to wish me well. 

I haven't heard from Tom yet so I'm not sure how the race ended up.   

Snow, beautiful snow!  And much needed snow! Have a great day and a great weekend!