Each Day Is a Gift

HEY!  It's a new day, week and month!!! 

11 weeks 'till Boston!  SOOO EXCITED! 

What a gorgeous day to be out running under blue sky, snow white mountains and plenty of sunshine! 

Pfitz's plan says to run two recovery runs today: 6 miles AM and 4 miles PM.  I decided to lump them all together for one run this morning.

I could feel the accumulative effect of last week's mileage.  The left ITB and Vastus medialis were a bugging.  Took it nice and easy soaking in some Vitamin D.  Didn't look at the pace or time 'till the end and was delighted to see it at 1:40:00 exact!  What a treat for an OCD like me!  :)

AM/PM Yoga.

Core workout.

*****Just found out my friend, Marcie, is on the same red-eye flight to Boston, seated 2 rows behind me...close enough to have a conversation and keep everyone awake around us!  Yahoo!  Wish Teena and Kelli are on the same flight with us!****

When I went to bed last night, the legs and feet were very tired; so I was concerned about today's MLR.  I had high hopes to run up Suncrest.  With the ITB and Vastus medialis not too happy, I opted not to.  May be another day!

Ran the same route as yesterday's 10 miler plus a hill loop for the extra 4.  The first mile or so were sluggish.  Then put on the auto pilot (as Andy puts it) and got in a pretty good rhythm.  The hill was from mile 12.5 to 13.5.  I imagined that to be one of the Newton's Hill and kept the effort steady.  "Sprinted" the last 0.65 home.

TT: 2:18:10  Splits: 10:28, 9:42, 8:52, 9:22, 9:24, 9:26, 9:26, 9:26, 9:15, 9:05, 9:26, 9:22, 9:45, 9:26,  8:40

EZ PZ recovery.  

Today I accepted Amber's invitation and committed to have NO SUGAR for the month.  I'm proud to report that I did it!!!  Hubby surprised me with a movie date, the Avatar.  We had no candies.  Right after the movies,  I went to a baby shower where there were treats galore.  I hadn't had dinner and was starving and only ate the veggies (broccoli, carrots, celery, cucumber and olives with dip and apple slices).  Now I'm having a bowl of beef barley soup.  I'll probably have an orange before I go to bed.  One down, 24 more days to go!  Wish me luck! :)

I love tempo days especially when the legs are fresh!  Had a good night sleep and the recovery run yesterday must have helped with the knee issues I had earlier in the week.  I checked my training log to see what my tempo paces were when I was training for SGM'09 using the FIRST program...I'm not quite there yet.  

Warm up 3 miles:  9:55, 9:36, 9:22

Tempo 6 miles:  8:43, 8:48, 8:36, 8:38, 8:26, 8:26

Cool down 3 miles: 9:05, 8:54, 8:58

12 miles TT:  1:40:04.  AP: 8:20.  Today's time was almost identical to the 10 miler recovery time on Monday, interesting! 

Going to dinner and the Peking Acrobat at the U tonight...will there be "sugar traps"?  Gotta stay strong!

6.6 recovery in 66:00, weird!  What happened to my sunshine and blue sky?  The soft snow turned into rain drops that seemed to drench my whole being this morning. 

I missed my children, my "life before running friends" sooo terribly.  I felt that sometimes running has taken over my life. 

After the run, I went back to the scriptures still sitting at the breakfast table, like an old friend, waiting to talk to me.   These scripture passages opened up to me as if dews from heaven:

Alma 5: 14, 15, 16, 19, 26, 27 

I noticed so many action words:  look, hear, feel, walk, exercise faith, come, change....I know what I need to seek... that companionship which is constant, kind, and full of love and peace.  

***A note about last night:  Dinner at TGIFriday.  Had honey glazed pecan grilled salmon on coconut rice pilaf, salsa and broccoli, 2 tall glasses of water.  Passed up brownie alamode, vanilla bean cheesecake and peanut butter pie which hubby put in a take-home box and still sitting in the fridge.  I made it for day 2! Yes!

The Peking Acrobats were fabulous.  These artistic athletes have incredible core strength, balance, agility, flexibility and grace.  How in the world does that girl rode a uni-cycle on top of a spinning umbrella held by the feet of another acrobat who was in a pretzel position? 

The nail-biting moment came when the guy balanced his entire body at horizontal/plank/upside down positions with one arm/hand holding a sideway propped up chair which was on top of 6-8 other chairs with the bottom chair's legs on top of wine bottles.  We sat on the first row in the balcony and he was at eye level to us.  The audience sitting down below must be fearful of him crashing down on them.  Amazing strength, control and balance.  Mass transit meant the entire acrobatic company (must be over 20 people) riding on ONE bicycle!

Tonight is another opportunity to test my will power at the Ogden Chamber of Business Gala to honor hubby's colleague.   Please let there be NO chocolate dessert, please, oh please!