Where's the Beach?

Running, Relaxing, Relishing This weekend as another fairly low-key one for us. Saturday I got up for my 6 mile run. The temps were just under 70 degrees. The humidity was still in play, but man at least it wasn't 80+ degrees. Made such a difference. It ended up being a really good run. I tried to just run by feel rather than paying attention to my pace. I only checked the speed at each lap/mile. Overall average ended up being 9:04. After scrubbing the master bath, I spent some time on the patio reading before we went to a late lunch. We were actually able to sit outside on the patio and enjoy outdoor dining for the first time in months! The temperatures were hovering around 90, but there was a nice breeze. And face it, 90 feels like 70 when it's been 110. We had just finished our lunch when I got a message from our friends. They wanted to meet us exactly where we already were. I told her we were there and done with lunch but would gladly stick around and wait on them. S...

Morning Run This morning started out painfully early. I woke up around 4:30 to potty. And my alarm was set for just after 5 so we could run. In other words, no point in falling back asleep obviously. But man that makes for a long long day. By 10 am, it felt more like 3 pm. We set out for the run just before 5:30. At least there was a slight breeze today. That definitely helped with the heat/humidity. I will say that our pace was just all over the place though. Zero consistency going on this morning. Our first mile was a slow one (though I thought we were going a bit faster) at 9:58, but then mile 2 was 8:31. Really? How'd that happen? I'll blame it on not being awake. And oddly, that might have been the best feeling mile for me. My legs started to get pretty heavy and I had to concentrate on my breathing. So I felt like my form was getting a little sloppy, which can make you less efficient of course. So, after a slow mile then a fast mile, so continued the varied pace: 9...

Running  These dark, cold mornings sure make getting out of bed on Monday morning even more difficult than it already is. It was a very chilly 47 degrees for us this morning. Of course, it warmed up into the lower 80's. So hard to dress for such crazy temperature swings isn't it? Anyway, the one good thing about it being cooler throughout the morning is that I was able to get in a run at lunch and it was still in the lower 70's. Another gorgeous day here, no clouds, crystal blue skies. The kind of day that makes getting outside for a run (or walk or ride) a must. Technically my half marathon training schedule this week called for 3 miles today, 2 miles tomorrow then a 6-mile tempo on Wednesday. I decided to combine today and tomorrow's runs for a 5-miler today. I know that this plan was put together by the pros, but quite frankly it's just annoying to get all ready for just 2 miles. Not that there's anything wrong if that's all you run, but for me, just...

Nice Day for a Run Today turned out to be a sunny, warm day (well, warm for January). It was in the upper 50's so that may as well be 70 degrees right about now. I had a long-ish run scheduled for today that included some intervals. Here's what the weather looked like when I set out for my run. It was simply too nice outside not to take the run to the river trails (even with the wind gusts), plus, the Big Dam Bridge provides the perfect incline for the incline intervals the run called for. 6 miles, 4 x 1:30 incline intervals, 6 gentle pickups I had a really really good run. For the first time in ages at the turnaround I didn't feel like I had been smacked by a wall of wind. The wind actually felt nice as I had on long sleeves so was getting little warm. The 6 miles really was just a blur. It flew by as I just bee-bopped along with my music, soaking up the sunshine. I felt really strong. The incline intervals were no joke. A minute and half feels long a long as tim...

Freezing Outside Well, I know almost every single state has snow, but I have to bring up our frigid temperatures. It was warmer on the days it snowed here! Walking into work at 7 am, it was 16 degrees with wind chill of 2. Yes, that's a single digit friends. I thought I lived in the south??!! I guess the only saving grace was that it was sunny. Sometimes really cold days are some of the prettiest - so crisp (literally). Tomorrow's high is only 32 and that's not the wind chill of course. It's going to make the scheduled 4-miler a bitch. Gym Day Speaking of workouts, today I did 15 minutes on the elliptical then hit the weights. I did biceps for STS Week 2 of Meso 3 (sort of). Since I was at the gym, I didn't have my weighted gloves that allow me to micro load (in 1 and 2 pound increments). So say I did 15 pounds last week and needed to increase 5% this week. I could use the gloves to do that rather than trying to jump from 15 to 20. Also, the incline curls are s...