Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Not sore at all from Friday, so a good recovery.  Did 8:11 average today, the last mile ended up being GMP.

There's a contractor that I've seen around the past few months here who looks exactly like Santa - long white hair, long white beard, round belly, etc.  Sure enough, I saw him Christmas morning in the dining facility and he had a Santa costume on.  I thought for awhile it might actually be Santa but then as we were both leaving I saw him get into a little Mitsubishi truck.  Clearly not a sleigh...imposter.

Workout today was 3 easy + 7 MP + 3 tempo.  7:33 AP.

3 @ 8:09;  (8:11, 8:04, 8:11)

7 @ 7:35;  (7:39, 7:37, 7:34, 7:35, 7:35, 7:34, 7:30)

3 @ 6:54;  (7:05, 6:57, 6:39)

Felt great to have a really successful workout today after botching one last week.

8:31 avg.

Started at 7:58 and slowly progressed to a 7:28.  Good effort but still comfortable, AP was 7:42.

Sorry, I didn't get into any fights to write about as I promised... but the guy serving the food in the breakfast line always shakes his head and laughs (and mutters something like 'whew') when I tell him all the stuff I want him to pile on the plate.  I guess I eat a lot.  Maybe I will fight him later.

8:24 avg pace.  Runner's knee is making an appearance on my list of ailments after a 9-month hiatus.  1 month of training left...just 1 more month.

Treadmill miles!  I planned to do 16 (outside) today but it rained all night and was going to continue all morning.  It was also very windy, making it sideways rain.  There is also a lot of dust in the air, making it sideways mud rain.  Anyway, I decided to try it on the TM.

I hacked into the manager's configuration like I used to do this summer and put it into marathon mode where it's not supposed to cut you off.  After the first mile I was pouring sweat; somehow they managed to re-create the sweltering atmosphere from back in July and August when it was 120 degrees outside.  I slogged away and my towel got soaked and useless pretty quickly.  On the bright side there was a placard on each TM console that said "ATTENTION!  DO NOT HOLD FOR THE CONSOLE!!  IT WILL BREAK!"  Guess they didn't translate it perfectly - for some reason that was funny to me and kept me entertained, albeit in decreasing amounts as the sweaty miles went by.  When I got to 99 minutes, the treadmill shut off anyway, and I took that opportunity to quit.  Even now I don't regret it.  Pace averaged 8:10-ish.

I was gonna take the day off but I changed my mind after breakfast and decided to do a couple laps around lost lake with 5 pounds of food digesting in my stomach, in order to hit the mileage I'd originally planned for the week.

Ran 2 easy, then a half-mile in 2:50 (1:31, 1:19) then 1.3 easy.  For the half-mile I ran a smooth first quarter, then gradually accelerated the next quarter with the last 5 seconds or so pretty close to an all out sprint.

Then I ate a donut.  Happy new year.