Friday morning run

This is what I looked like before my Friday morning run. (see Glenn - thats my headlamp! Sorry for the bad quality - I took these with my Mac because I loaned my camera to my mom for the week)



As you can see behind me it is DARK out at 5am but none the less I had a great 4 mile run. It even started to snow a little bit mid run! The temperature before I left said 34F degrees!!

4 miles in 32:54 (8:14 pace)


Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Three Things Thursday

1. I have been slacking on my hip PT exercises! Opps.

2. Morning vs. Evening running?? I am really seeing no difference between the two right now as it is dark at both times and cold out!

3. I heard Starbucks has a Gingerbread Latte - has anyone tried it? I was thinking of getting one tomorrow!!

It has been a busy week and I am ready for the weekend!
Happy Thursday!

Why do I run? (and some books to read)

This post has been along time coming. I decided to post it because I read Amanda's post yesterday on reasons to run.

When you don't run for 3 months straight, you begin to ponder why you were even running in the first place. Strange thoughts would creep into my head while I drove home from a tough day at work, "Do I even miss running at all?"

At first the knee pain was so great that running was a horrible experience. And honestly I did not miss running. But once the pain faded and I still didn't have this urge to get out on the road, I wondered why didn't I miss running? It had been my favorite source of fitness for almost 5+ years, so what went wrong?

Slowly I began to remember why I love to run. It started when I came across this post by Amy and it really hit home with me. I hadn't had the same experience as her, but I understood.

A week or so later I came across this video with Kara Goucher on The Laminators Blog and it reminded me of why I love to run.

Then I saw this article on Runners World about staying in decent shape all year round. After reading it, I knew that is what I wanted to do. I wanted to just run - run for fun and enjoy every minute of it but be able to race if I felt like it.

And I know that many of you already do this but this whole summer and fall has been a transition for me. I always was preparing for some race or season and now my life is wide open with no deadlines.

So I think that the reason I love to run is because of the way I feel while running - its not totally about the racing or competition. Its about getting up when everyone is asleep and being out on the roads alone with my thoughts. Its about finding new routes and exploring new places.

I want to have fun when I run and so I am not sure that I will be following a training schedule anytime soon. When I trained for basketball in college I would just run each morning and decide the distance and pace depending on how my body felt. I would listen to my heart and just know what would be good for that day.

So....why do you run?

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Switching gears now - it is Wednesday and I have been slacking on my Literary Wednesday! I was able to get to the Library on Saturday for some new books! I got caught in the 'C' area of the fiction section and grabbed four books.

Snow Angel by Jamie Carrie
The Chocolate Snowman Murders by Joanna Carl
Sarah by Orson Scott Card
The Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella

I have only started the first one so far but I thought it was fun to get books all by authors with last names starting with 'C'. I totally judge books by their covers and titles so hopefully these ones will turn out to be good!

Happy Wednesday!!

Welcome November!

I need longer weekends! There is just not enough time to get everything done!

It rained Saturday so I put off my run until Sunday morning. With the daily savings I wanted to use that extra hour to my advantage. I woke up at 6:30am, got dressed and headed out the door. I ran 3.5 miles around the local neighborhoods and ended at the local grocery store. I had packed my shopping list, credit card and cell phone. I got a cart and started walking around the store. A few weird glances later I was checking out and calling Brian to pick me up!

It was barely 8am and I had groceries and my run completed! The rest of the day involved walking up and down lots of stairs helping my mom move things around the house! My knees were feeling it by the end of the day.

Monday I was still on the old time schedule and so I woke up at 4:30am (usually my alarm goes off at 5:30ish am). I couldn't fall back to sleep so I went to work. I got to work at 5:30am and I was the only one there (besides the production line people who get there at 5am). It was a long day but when I got home I still decided to go out for a short 2 mile run around 5pm. It was almost pitch dark by the time I got back and the full moon was gorgeous in the sky!

This morning I went swimming with my dad again. It was so busy and there were no lane lines in the pool which made the water very hard to swim in. I tried breathing on the opposite side I usually do and got mouthful after mouthful of water from the waves! I guess I will just have to keep practicing.

Since it is November I thought I would sum up my October!
Running: 22.6 miles
Swimming: 13,870 yards

Hope everyone is having a great week!!