M+B=E2O2

3 weeks to go!

 

Another week of training done, 6.2 miles into the new week! I am happy with my training, aside from the one bad day, I have felt pretty good. My legs are non-stop tired, but it is a feel good kind of tired. I think I have found a way to tape my left foot that works. I ran a 10k this morning, and felt no pain at all. I was supposed to try and run it at race pace, which I always find hard, when I am not actually racing. However I set The Nag to encourage me to run faster than 10:45/mile. I really don't know what kind of pace I can do for 13 miles, that is what today was supposed to help with. I ended up with an average 10 min/mile pace. I was really happy with that! Unfortunately Mapmyrun decided my device was not capable of capturing data for graphs etc. Weird since it is the same device I have always used and been able to see my splits. I like seeing where my slower splits are and seeing if I can negative split my last mile. Oh well.

 

I managed to see some pretty amazing sunrises this week, and somehow missed running in any rain. I have no interesting stories of random people this week. It seems as though we don't really have any "regulars" that are consistently regular. Oh wait, I did see one interesting thing on Tuesday I think it was. There was a young couple, maybe in their early 20's, on the public access dock. It was 5:30am. The guy was in shorts, no shirt or shoes. The girl was properly dressed in jeans and a sweat shirt. They were wrestling. Pushing, laughing & clearly having fun. At 5:30 in the morning. In the dark. On a dock. Over the cold water. On my 2nd pass they had brought it up to the grass, and he had put a shirt on. They said hello, so there was at least that.

 

I am proud of Reina, this was her longest run to date. Also the fastest. She was a trooper. My mom sent us a set of dog shoes for Reina. In Vegas they have to put shoes on their dog in the summer when going out for walks. She had two sets, so we are borrowing one set to see if I can get Reina's feet healed and allow her to run with us still. They worked beautifully! Her pads had no extra wear on them and she didn't seem bothered by them in the least. Yay! Once she has healed I will take her out on shorter runs and walks without them, hopefully getting her to the point of not needing them on the long runs.

 

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Hitting the Wall & The Ending of One Part of a Journey

I'm pretty sure I have hit the proverbial wall in my training. The run that should feel easy and almost effortless, hurts and drags. Today was an "easy" 5 mile run. I was quite happy to get up and go. I should have known that it was going to be an ugly run the moment that I let the dogs outside and realized that the TWC's version of 56* was much colder than reality. I mean it was supposedly 16* warmer than the last few days, surely I could wear my arm warmers and a tee. Ummm no. It was too cold. As I've mentioned I am somewhat lacking in the Proper Attire For Running in Cooler Temps department. Moreover, I get all my stuff out the night before so that I don't have to search around in the dark for anything. Now I needed a jacket, or something. I finally settled on a fleece pullover. It was ok, but was far from ideal.

 

I was worried about Reina's feet, they still had not really had time to heal. At one point I had bought little booties for her, but I think I must have given them away. I spent a good half hour looking for them last night to no avail. So I improvised. I have these elastic reflective bands for the dogs, but I rarely put them on their ankles. I do have a few looped on to their collars though. So I dug into the lonely sock bin and found two socks and put them on Reina, held in place by reflective bands. Really I should have taken a picture, but it was really embarrassing for her. The first on came off at around mile 1. I had decided to run to the beach today- mostly for Reina's sake as well. I thought being on the sand would be gentler on those tootsies. Once in the sand I ended up taking off the other sock, it was just getting mucky and wet, and probably would do more damage than good. Running on the sand is hard. Especially when the tide is such that the only real choice is to run on the soft sand. After what was surely a mile I pulled out my phone to check how far I had gone. One. Half. Mile. I think I may have cursed at this point. When all else fails and I am not happy, my MO is to look for something to take a picture of. In this case it served a duel purpose in that I got to stop and rest.

 

 

Fortunately one of the dogs pooped, so I had to leave the soft sands and find a trash bin. Then I had to find a bench to sit on and dump the and out of my shoes. I'm pretty sure that is why my 3 mile split was 20 min.

Everything seemed to hurt on this run. We've been playing with various KT Tape applications on my left foot. If ever I feel any discomfort running it is usually on the bottom of my left foot, precisely where the tendon tore two years ago. The most recent variation seems to be good. I can feel the tape, so I am aware of my foot, but I dont really feel any pain. I even remember thinking about that somewhere during mile 2. I was thinking how cool it would be to be completely unaware of both of my feet. I briefly marveled at how unaware in was of my right foot. Reality soon set in. Mile 4 was all about my right foot. And my hips. And my lower back. Oh and the top of my right foot. None of this was at the same time, but it was as though all my parts and pieces wanted to be sure to make themselves known. Eventually I made it home. I think my average pace was around 14 min. It was long & slow and felt horrible. I am pretty sure this is supposed to happen. Every once in a while anyway. I remember the swimming version of it anyway, so the former athlete in me knows that this is now a mental game to get through the physical. I know I can do it & I will. Tomorrow is a 3 mile easy run. I do hope that those 3 miles are as easy as Last Friday's 4.5 hard.

 

On to a totally different topic now. I have been on one heck of a journey for the last 3 years. It was in October of 2009 that I first consulted with my surgeon and subsequently made a life changing decision and embarking on a sometimes painful, often uncomfortable journey. The first part of that journey began Dec 22, 2009. On that day I got my braces on.

(I will insert a photo here, but I have to get to my desktop to get the proper one)

I do have a blog that I started but kept private when I started this whole thing. I will open it up soon and link the handful of posts at some point. This photo is not quite accurate though, I was pulling my lower jaw forward in order to show my bottom teeth. My natural bite was such that my upper teeth covered my lowers.

Anyway, this is where I started. By March of this year my bite looked a bit different.

 

 

Better, but still not done. Major upper & lower jaw surgery on March 21, recover, recover, recover. And now here I am. 8 months post op. Still in recovery mode, but I get to complete one part of the journey.

My last photo before heading in to the office.

 

I actually got my lower braces off 3 weeks ago, but that is not as much fun to show off, plus, those uppers were still there, so I still had braces.

 

When you are a grown up getting your braces off, you get to choose, water bottle filled with candy, red, or white wine. That was an easy choice!

 

I admit I was having some fun taking these pictures so I could tease Ben.

But finally, here I am. And I have to say, I cried. As soon as Maria (the assistaint who has been mine through out this whole process) took them off and sat back and looked at me. Before I had even seen myself, she smiled and told me how good my smile looked, and I cried. I can not even begin to say how good it feels to be at this point. I can breath, my teeth all meet and touch where they are supposed to and it worked. Surgery worked.

 

So despite hitting that wall & feeling every aching muscle from the waist down today. I am so incredibly happy and so very thankful that I am now that much closer to the finish line!

 

 

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Hard Run, Wine, Long Run

I've come to realize that my fears in running have very little to do with distance. There is a brief fear of being cold- this is mostly because most of my running attire consists of warm weather stuff. I'm slowing getting things I need to keep warm, but the fear of being too cold, then getting too hot is definitely there. It was 42* Friday morning. I layered up, but not too much since this run was meant to be a "hard" run, 4.5 miles. I set The Nag to pace me at 10:45. I managed a 10:28 average pace and felt really good through out. The dogs kept up well, but it was tougher on Reina. A few months ago, she could barely walk over 2 miles without being overcome with exhaustion, tongue hanging nearly to the ground, the pads of her feet bleeding from being worn down. Now, 10 lbs lighter, she is running and walking over 15 miles a week (maybe more) and she can last 5 miles, tongue hangs low, but her feet have toughened up. Then I ran her 4.5 miles hard. She did fantastic, but both her back paws had wear spots and tracked little spots of blood all over the house! Poor thing. Good thing Saturday is our official rest day & I only take her 2-3 miles of Sunday's long day.

One other Reina note. She is a rescue, we got her when she was around 3. She has always had severe anxiety around small dogs. I have my theories on that, but I won't get into that now. If a small dog is around her whole being just amps up. Sometimes to the point of shaking all over. I don't think she wants to hurt them, but I don't trust her since she did once kill a sweet, precious chinchilla that she clearly thought was out to get us all. The groomer we take the dogs to loves her to pieces and is very good to her. Usually they have to crate her and cover her crate so she can't see the other dogs, especially the little ones. Buka usually has the run of the joint, wandering about as he pleases. Friday when I came to get them you could have knocked me over with a feather. My Reina was calmly, quietly sitting on the floor, tethered, but not attached to a person. She was sitting there watching a little dog get groomed. No anxiety, definitely very attentive, but so incredibly calm. It was amazing. I never thought I'd see the day! Buka was the one in the crate this time- he was getting to be too much of a busy body getting into everything. LOL! I am a huge fan of Caesar Milan, and have never been consistent with the most important of the three things dogs need (in order of importance). Exercise, discipline, affection. She rarely needed discipline, and she got lots of affection, but rarely enough exercise. I feel like we might be changing her life for the better a second time and it feels so good!!

 

Saturday is rest day. Sleep in day. No alarms at 5 am day. Except the car alarm that went off down the street and woke me up anyway. Grrrr. That's ok, I fell back asleep and got up at 6:30 so all was not lost. We had lots to do, Ben had to go to work, which meant the boys had to go to ballet with me. Just as we were leaving the house, right after inset the alarm, I heard a thunk on one of the back windows. I disabled the alarm and went to investigate. Sure enough a little American Goldfinch knocked herself silly on my back window. Poor thing. I held her for a minute, then went and got a tea towel for her to recover on. We were already running late for class so I couldn't stay with her to see if she broke her neck. I figured the least I could do was give her a warm little spot to recover. In the few minutes this all took she was already almost able to perch on my finger, so I felt ok about leaving. Came home to a towel with a couple of turds and no birdy! Yay!

(Please excuse my awful nails!!)

Saturday night we had a wine tasting/silent auction fundraiser for the girls ballet production. It's is our 3rd or 4th year going, I can't remember (I don't think it has anything to do with the wine either!) We always have a wonderful time. The venue is a personal estate and it is just beautiful. It was too cold to mingle outside unless you were under a heater, so I was sure to go up to the top of the property as soon as we got there to catch the sunset and take in the gorgeous view. This year was especially fun because we knew more people than we usually do. We had lots of great conversation, yummy food, a bit of wine and we bid on too much stuff, but love what we won & it is for a great cause.

(One of our auction wins...just a wee bottle of wine!! The one in the background is to give a little perspective).

 

This morning I had all my alarms set to go off in the dark, but it was 40* and the Weather Channel app said it felt like 37*. My fear of being cold kept me in bed for another hour or so, then I had no choice but to get on the road. It didn't make a bit of difference, TWC app said the same thing at 6:30 as it did at 5:30. Oh well. I put on 500 layers (of every different obnoxious color I could manage) and got moving. I didn't want to push Reina too hard so I ran the 'hood for 2 miles then dropped her off at the house along with a layer of gear. She was not happy. After the bleeding paws though, I really wanted her to heal.

(Me in all my colorful glory- sporting my Santa socks)

 

Buka and I then took off for the beach. I am testing out various things as I go along this journey. Today I wore a water belt. It holds two small bottles. In one I put plain water and in the other I put one that was flavored and had caffeine type stuffs. I also brought chocolate flavored Gu. Before leaving I ate half an Ezekiel English muffin. The water belt has a pouch that could fit my phone, but it would be on my back, I don't think I would be able to hear The Nag, so I also wore my regular pouch on the front. Everything seemed to fit well and was comfortable. For the long run days I actually do not use The Nag, however I do have her tell me each mile point. Helps me know when to turn back for home and also let's me know my pace, though I am not concerned with pace, just comfort.

 

 

I had to take a quick peek at the ocean, it was so clear you could see Yellowbanks out on Santa Cruz Island. I let Buka take a quick dip in the ocean and were off again. I felt great for the whole run, very comfortable. My left foot had some pain in the spot where I tore the tendon two years ago, and at one point my lower left butt cheek hurt, but nothing was run stopping and mostly I felt awesome. The only time I picked up the pace was in my last mile. I wanted to negative split and I want to get used to picking up the pace and pushing the last bit of the race. When. I hit 8 miles I dropped to a walk and checked out my splits. Have to say I am very happy with them! I averaged 12 min miles which is great as far as I'm concerned. Except for mile 5, I was either at a 12 min/mile or 11 min/mile. Mile 5 was nearly 14 min. Might have been when I was on the beach, not sure, will have to look t the map. The best part was that mile 7 was a 10:09 split, then my last mile- 9:55! I won't be bringing home any prize money, but I think I have a good chance at being a strong middle of the pack finisher LOL! I spent a half hour stretching, using the foam roller and working out any aches. All in all a great week of running, time with friends, and we will finish it up celebrating Gampy's birthday tonight.

 

And for those of you that are wondering, no sign of Mr. Cranky Pants, Barefoot Bathrobe or the Odd Couple. I think I have scared everyone off.

 

 

 

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Fun day!

I had to go to SB to see my surgeon this morning, so I decided to make a day of it with the kids. I was done by 11am so we had plenty of time to play. The plan was to go to the Maritime Museum, however we got slightly sidetracked by all the random pianos on street corners. We found a place to park and went to investigate. Turns out it was a project called Pianos On State St and it was very cool! They had 12 pianos set up. We did three of them before the kids were hungry and ready for lunch. I would have loved to have gone with a bunch of our piano playing homeschool friends, too bad the installation is over on the 12th!

 

 

We headed to the harbor for some lunch, then couldn't resist a short beach walk before hitting the museum.

 

 

 

The museum was awesome, very hands on and kid friendly. We spent well over two hours there and could have probably stayed longer, but I really wanted to get home before dark. Unfortunately, we were driving while one of the most beautiful sunsets was happening. I made sure all the kids turned around to look since I couldn't.

 

 

 

I love spending time with the kids like this. This is by far one of the best parts about homeschooling. Impromptu piano street concerts, awesome lunch time discussions (we discussed which super power we would want and why, also talking about the downfalls of various super powers), walks on the beach and a near empty museum, full of amazing stuff to play and learn with. A fun filled day, capped by an amazing sunset and homemade chicken soup in the crockpot waiting for us. I don't know that it could get any better.

 

 

 

 

 

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Maybe I'm the Crazy One

The other day I posted about people who don't smile or say hi to fellow morning exercisers. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does. When I was in college, I remember noticing a huge difference between the general friendliness of people in Northern California verses Southern. Maybe it was because I was in a college town, or maybe it is just the case that northern Californians are friendlier, but in Chico, everyone said hello to everyone when passing on the streets. Or at least made eye contact and smiled or something. This was over 15 years ago, so maybe times have changed, maybe there are just more Mr. Cranky Pants out there. I don't like it though. I like saying hello, I like connecting, even if it is for just a brief moment with other people. So I smile, I say good morning, I try to connect & yes, get annoyed when it is not reciprocated. I haven't seen Mr. Cranky Pants in a few days. I hope I haven't scared him off. I wonder if he goes home and says to his wife "Man, there is this crazy lady who runs with two giant dogs and a flashy thingy who is always yelling and talking." Or maybe he is just trying to work out the time change and will be back soon. I kinda think that all of us who are getting up in the dark and cold to raise our heart rates are a bit on the crazy side. That is the thought that goes through my head nearly every morning as I get out of my cozy, warm bed. But then I get out there, and I run, or I walk and I feel good and not so crazy. Plus I get to talk to the blue herons. Sometimes I scare them off too.

 

Today I had some interesting experiences. I will often go around the block before heading over to the harbor for my run. As I rounded the corner today I came across a man. He was not a fellow exerciser. He was in his bathrobe. Barefoot. Seemingly coherent and awake. And he said good morning. So how could I be annoyed? It was weird though. Very weird. Kinda creepy actually. Not sure where he was going or what he was doing, but he disappeared around the corner and I continued on my way, thankful for the 80 lb German Shepard, 75lb lab and big bag of dog poo in my hand. It is no fun to carry poo on a run, but in cases like this, when meeting strange men in bathrobes at 5:30 in the morning, a bag of poo is way better than mace.

Since Mr. Cranky Pants was unavailable to harass encourage friendly manners, I found someone else. Well really, they were just there. I've crossed paths with them before, I think I've mentioned it. It is a couple, maybe 5-10 years older than me. The lady begrudgingly says hello or good morning, the man, well, he might be Mr. Cranky Pants younger brother. He looks down or straight ahead, aways wears a baseball cap and is always the one talking. Maybe that's why he doesn't say hi? Today on the first pass, I got a "good morning" from The Lady, nothin from Baseball Cap. Then I passed them again. She was not happy about having to say hi again. As I approached them for a 3rd pass, I couldn't help but think of Shakespeare. Macbeth, more specifically.

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightening or rain? When the hurleyburley's done, when the battle's lost and won."

I was seriously giggling to myself as I got closer. Neither one said hello this time. I ended up sharing the quote with the dogs instead. I don't think they were impressed. I did end up passing them a fourth and final time, but this time I was coming from behind them. The sun was up by this time, maybe that makes people friendlier. Both turned back to see who was coming up behind them. Both said hello and both smiled. Baseball Cap even made eye contact. Score 1 for me & the dogs!

 

One of the training tools I am using to help me make it through this half marathon safely is a feature on Mapmyrun (app) called "Voice Coach". I just think of her as "Coach", or "Naggy Lady". I tell her what my intentions for the run are and she keeps me on track. For example today was an "easy" day with a distance of 4.5 miles. According to my training guide, "easy" means I should be able to have a conversation while running. (Good reason to say hello to everyone I see, I need to know if I'm going easy!) I'm still kinda figuring things out as far as pace and such, but it seems as though "easy" for me right now is around a 12 min/mile pace. I forgot to tell Coach that though. She thought I wanted to go 11 min/mile pace. She nagged me every 2 minutes about this. Most of the time telling me I was going too slow and to speed up. She has a one track mind though and I couldn't change it without starting over, and I wasn't about to redo those first two minutes, so I let her nag away. I managed to keep a 12 minute pace average throughout the 4.5 miles, mostly ignoring the nag.

 

 

My lower half is definitely feeling the increased mileage. It feels good, but my legs are tired! I have a 3.5 mile run tomorrow, hopefully I will remember to tell Coach the proper pace!

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Long Run

Today was my "long run" day. I think I really like these longer runs. I went 7 miles today. Long and slow. I took both dogs for the first 2 or so miles. I started late, well, with the time change, I don't know really-late?early? What I do know is that the sun was already on its way up and there were way too many people out. Good news is that I did not come across Mr. Cranky Pants or anyone else against saying hello.

The half marathon that I will be doing encourages the participants to wear costumes or dress up in fun, festive ways. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do, but I do know that I want to have a little fun. Also, not knowing how the weather will behave I want to have a few options. Lately my morning runs have had a nice chill in the air. Nothing impressive, but cold enough to want to cover my hands and ears.

Once upon a time, when I was living in Colorado and running with (NOT ON) the Western State College cross country team, it was truly cold when we'd run. As in, anywhere from -25* to the nice warm 30's. One thing the coach always insisted on was that his runners covered their hands and ears. I don't remember much from those days, but the coach hollering "hands and ears" to everyone as we came out of the locker rooms is something that has always stuck in my head. Not sure why since I am a California girl and it really doesn't apply all too often. However we are coming into the time of year where there is the potential. I have plenty of knit gloves (thank you Target 75%off section for the .$39 two packs). But my ears have been cold every so often. I have ski caps and headbands, but that is just too much, so I went on the hunt for a light-weight headband that I could either push back off my ears as needed or loop on to my waist pack. One of the first sites that came up in my google search was a company called One More Mile. Once there I recognized them from my friend Kris posting about them. 10 minutes later, purchases were made and I eagerly awaited my new stuff. I copied Kris and got the shirt she had blogged about. I also went with "berry" color so that I could wear it to Santa and be festive. I got a matching headband as well, but felt I had to pick a different saying. I also decided I really needed arm warmers, that way if it gets too warm I can just take them off and still have my awesome new shirt showing. Plus I wanted one other saying. They arrived yesterday so I had to test run them all today, despite the slightly east wind blowing and lack of chill to the air.

I have also decided that I want to wear the socks we bought at last year's Santa 5k. They are too awsome not to wear, so they are officially my "long run" socks.

 

The bottom line and moral to this whole post is that if I can't be fast, at least I can be funny and festive.

 

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Pierogie Fun

Every September I get a new calendar. It's one of those planning type calendars where I can write everything we need to do in life & that sort of thing. However I'm not very good at the calendar. I start off strong, but usually lose momentum by December and it becomes more of a place to hold various bits of paper. Last year a few of our friends came over and helped me with the process of making pierogies. We had a great time, and with 4 of us, it was roughly a two day process. There was the minor setback of my neighbor having a heart attack in the middle of the street mid way through one of the days & Ben and I had to go do CPR. (He is alive and well today and would not have made it were it not for Ben). However that aside, it was fun, social and we got the job done.

Making pierogies is the Polish equivalent of making tamales. It's not hard, but it is labor-intensive, it's a production line, but it can be fun if you've got friends around you as it is a very social experience. So one of my friends who came to help me last year was happy to join in again this year to help. So we busted out our brand-new calendars and looked at dates. We decided it would be nice to try and get it done early this year so that there was no feeling like we had to rush. So we marked off November 3 as a possible date to do them. As it got closer to the date it seemed almost ridiculous to be doing them so early but at the same time kind of exciting to think we could get some done.

The week before we went trick-or-treating and mentioned to some friends what we what we were doing this weekend. They expressed interest in coming over so we happily opened up the invitation to them as well.

Saturday mornings for me from October through early December involve spending a good portion of my day at the ballet studio. I'm sort of the unofficial, backstage, behind-the-scenes candid photographer for our studio's production of the Nutcracker. I also help out here and there in whatever capacity needs helping, moving costumes around helping girls in and out of them, writing the names on costumes - whatever needs to be done, I do. Knowing that I'd be spending from 9:30 until about 2:00 ballet studio, I made the potatoes for our pierogies on Friday night. Figuring that it was primarily going to be me, my one girlfriend, possibly her husband & Ben and maybe the friends that expressed an interest in coming over, I didn't make two batches of potatoes. I know how things come up and I didn't want to bank on having a full crew of people and then have tons of food that I wasn't prepared to make all by myself.

One batch potatoes is a total of 10 pounds of potatoes and 2 pounds of sharp cheddar cheese. It works better to have the potatoes made ahead of time so they have a chance to cool. When I got home from ballet, I was able to get the house picked up a bit, pulled out the potatoes that were already made, clear off the table, make some cheese platters and set up a couple of snacks and food stations, and generally get things ready for when my friends were to show up around three 3:30. My friend's husband decided to join in the fun this year, so that meant at the start we had four adults plus a few kids working at making the pierogies. In my experience kids are happy to help but only for about 10-15 minutes, it's repetitive work and really not all that fun when you're a kid.

 

We seemed to be a well oiled machine & quite efficient so much so that that first batch of 10 pounds of potatoes was nearly gone by 5:30 when part 2 of the crew arrived. So we sent someone off the store to get another 10 pounds of potatoes and set to work at making batch number two. The second batch of potatoes we always add in some sort of a chile. In the past I've used the New Mexico Hatch chilies, or when I haven't been able to get them from family I'll use just your basic canned, diced chiles from the grocery store. This year a friend of mine recently gave me six or so jalapeños from her garden. I decided to roast them on the stove, my mother-in-law peeled the skin and chopped them and we added them into the potatoes. (That Gampy was hand mashing)! You could tell just from the smell after they were roasted that they were good and hot, just the way we like. Making the potatoes into potato balls or even just sorting them out so that you can easily put them on the rolled out pasta is not very easy when the potatoes are piping hot. We did our best to separate the potatoes and a few bowls, put them in the refrigerator and generally cool them down. In the meantime I got more pasta dough made and rolled out and we finished up the last of the plain cheese pierogies.

 

A 10 pound batch of potatoes will yield anywhere from 250 - 300 pierogies. And that's about how many we got. Waiting for the potatoes to cool down a bit was a great time to refill drinks have a snack, have a sandwich, feed the kids, notice that we had kids around and that sort of thing. Once the potatoes were cool enough we got going again and cranked out the next 250 to 300 pierogies.

 

When all was said and done, from start to finish, not including total cleanup, we made pierogies from 3:30 until about 10:30, and in that time we reckon we made somewhere around 600 pierogies. Part of the deal when you come help me make pierogies is that you get to take some home with you. I leave the choice with you as to whether you would like for me make them to completion, which includes smothering them in a ridiculous amount of butter and onions or if you'd like to take home a couple of bags of frozen pierogies that you can then do on your own.

What it came down to was a really great evening, with good company, lots of great conversation, and lots of hard work done in a way that didn't seem so hard. This is really what the holidays are about for me. Spending time with friends, spending time with family, making memories, and just having a good time enjoying one another.

 

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Morning training and the people you see

37 days and I will run my first half marathon! Really enjoying the training that I'm doing right now. Getting up at five is not my favorite thing but once I'm out there feels really good I love the cool crisp air. My new running shoes seem to be breaking in really well. This is the first time I've used a shoe aside from Nike in over 20 years. Aside from being totally cute and very comfortable and they seem to fit I would say as good if not better than any Nike I've ever worn. Today's run was 4 1/2 miles. It was meant to be at a hard pace. My goal pace was around 11 minutes per mile, which is 30- 60 seconds faster than I think I might be able to do the hal,f but now I'm not so sure. My splits were: 10:55, 10:33, 9:38, 9:18. I don't have a split for the half-mile. I'm pretty sure 9:18 is the fastest mile I've ever run and that includes when I was regularly running 5ks. I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor so I don't quite know where I was at in that regard, however I felt pretty good and didn't feel too terribly taxed. I came home and dutifully used my foam roller and spent a good 10 minutes stretching. Tomorrow is a rest day for me and then Sunday is a long slow 7 miles. I'm not sure where I'm going to do that run or if I will take the dogs. Buka seemed to do pretty well and was still ready to keep moving when I got home. However Reina was definitely tired and I think ready to be done so I think 4- 5 miles is her max right now.

One thing I love about morning walks and runs is the people you come across. Most people say "hi, good morning", or at least give a quick nod or wave. I'd say at leat 90% of those I come across do, maybe more. I'm always sure to make eye contact with people when I see them. Especially men. I want them to know that I am able to identify them in a lineup if I should ever have to. Mostly I see other runners and walkers, no one I'm really all that concerned about. A few weeks ago, when I saw a cholo at 5:30 in the morning it did give me a little pause for concern. Didn't quite fit in with the neighborhood I was running in; a private, gated, albeit public access walkway. But the classic uniform of white socks pulled all the way up to the knees, khaki shorts hanging down, white T-shirt and dark blue dickies jacket, he just didn't fit the M.O. of your typical morning exercise kind of dude. However he smiled said hi and made eye contact with me when I passed by. I haven't seen him since, so I don't think he's made a routine of this morning thing.

Then there is Mr. Cranky pants. I've seen him at least 3 different days. He is a walker not a runner and he stares straight ahead the entire time he's walking. The first time I said hi I thought maybe he just didn't hear me. I happened to pass him again in that same morning. This time I made sure sing out "good morning" as loudly as I could. He didn't flinch, he didn't look my way, he didn't even remotely acknowledge that I was existing in the same space. Hmmmmm. That wouldn't do. I didn't see him again that morning but had already decided that if I did come across him again I'd be sure to try a little harder. Sure enough, two days later I saw him again. So again I called out as loudly as I could "good morning sir", and he again did not look my way or aknowledge me in any way, shape or form. So I added in a much too cheerful "have a great morning!". I passed him twice on this occasion, both times trying my very best to get him to, at the very least, flicker his eyes in my direction or down at my dogs or even completely away. Something different than just the staring straight ahead blank look on his face. Score 4 Mr. Cranky Pants 0 me. Didn't see him for about a week but this morning I saw him again YAY! Another chance. One of my dogs was actually peeing as he approached us so I was at a standstill as he came up to me. I gave it a good hearty try, lots of "good morning" and other cheerful words as he stared straight ahead, never flinching, never changing his pace, never turning his head, just walking straight on past as though we did not exist even a little bit. I even had a very cool flashy, blinky, seizure inducing button light attached to the neck of my shirt, He had to look at that! Nope. *sigh*. Since I was nearly done with my run at this point I didn't have much hope of passing him again and having a second attempt. However as I came around the corner I looked across the harbor channel and there he was. I think maybe he was glancing my way but I couldn't be sure so just in case I raised my white gloved hand and cheerfully waved across the channel and called out "good morning!" He didn't look. Ah well, I have at least 3 early morning runs next week, I won't give up!I may be down by 6, but I am not a quitter!