Sorry for not posting in a week or so.  I really haven’t been in the mood and typing was a little painful.  I actually had a piece of a glass Winnie the Pooh soapdish that had taken up residence in my right hand pointer finger.  It happened last Saturday and I thought I had gotten it out, but every time I put pressure on the finger I felt like was getting stabbed.  Finally yesterday I saw a white line that showed that the glass had made it to the surface.  It still took a little digging with a sterilized race bib safety pin to get to it, but I finally got the tweezers on it and felt it break.  I got the top section off, but the longest piece was still in there.  I soaked my finger in a little hot water and then squeezed.  A 1/4 inch piece of glass shot out of my finger so quick it actually made me a little nauseous.  All is well now.  My finger is coated in antibiotic cream and bandaged and happy as it can be.  Now I can type and not get stabbed with every keystroke.  Life is good!

I am ready for my race on Sunday.   It is supposed to be about 30 degrees at the start line of the Half.  That is fine by me!  Actually sounds a little toasty when compared to the 18 degrees I ran in this morning.  :)  I look forward to catching up with Jeff at the race.  I plan to bring my camera so I can get a snapshot of me with my blog running friend.  I also can finally give him the poster I created for him for the Baltimore Running Festival Relay he ran in October.  Should be a good day!  I am sure I will have a nice post-race recap for you on Sunday.

Yes, I am feeling much happier today thanks in part to reaching a goal I had set for myself this year.  This morning I headed out for my 5 mile tempo run, but in addition to using percieved exertion to judge my pace I set the pace alert on my GPS.  I set my min pace at 12:45 and my max pace to 11:00.  I am happy to report that my max pace alert was going off much more often than my min pace.  In the end I finished my tempo run in 59:28!  Yes, I reached my goal of bringing my pace run under an hour.  Now I know I still have it in me, so I just need to remind myself that when I go out for my runs and maybe, just maybe I will get my 5 mile tempo runs back around 55 minutes.

Ok, time to shower and go to work because right now I am bringing a new definition to the word stink.  Whew!

I decided to clean my bedroom tonight.  This involved mostly hanging up the pile of clothes that collected on the quilt rack because they were rejected during my daily wardrobe selection process.  While I am happy that the bedroom is now clean, hanging out in my closet made me sad.  I have a ton of clothes in there I bought when I hit my lowest weight that don’t fit.  I want to be in my size 12 jeans again.  That is when I was my happiest and healthiest.  I pulled one of those size 12s out and I have it hanging on my bedroom door so it is the first thing I see when I get up in the morning.  I need to remind myself why I need to count my points.  I go overboard with my food when I don’t count my points.  Counting my points is what got me to my size 12s in the first place, they will get me there again and beyond.  Tomorrow is a new day.

 

Took another day off.  My ankle felt pretty good today and I didn’t want to push it.  I plan to run my 5 miles in the morning.  It is supposed to be 28 degrees with 5 mph winds.  My cold gear should do just fine.

This morning my ankle was feeling good, so I decided to go for my long run.  I iced my ankle before my warm up and then hit the treadmill.  All was going good and feeling great.  I suited up in my winter gear and grabbed my Garm to get my satelites.  As I as fastening the strap it came off in my hand.  Not only did it detach but the little arm that leads away from the face where the band attaches actually broke off.  There is no fixing it.  I decided to just run with it in my pocket,  but that is proving to be a problem.  As I reached in my pocket to check my mileage a couple times I accidentally it the start/stop button.  I noticed right away and switched it back on, but if I hadn’t had noticed I might have lost some valuable mileage.

I ended up hitting my 10 miles without a problem aside from a little ankle weakness from time to time.  I decided that when I was done I was going to bite my bullet and go ahead with my very first ice bath.  When I finished my cool down walk I headed into the house and did some light stretching.  I then grabbed the ice tray out of the freezer and headed upstairs.  I pulled off my sweaty clothes and sat on the floor of the tub.  I then started to fill it was cold water.  I thought it would make it easier to adjust to the temps if I filled the tub slowly.  My feet quickly reacted to the cold water filling up on me.  It was very painful, but I knew it was good for me.  I pushed through and lasted 15 minutes.  I am still a little sore from the run, but I know it is much better than it could have been if I hadn’t had iced my legs.  I am hoping to be able to do this after each long run going forward.  We will see. 

I was going to say Ankle!  Get your head out of the gutter.  Seriously though, the past couple days my ankle has felt a little tender so I have been taking it easy.  Still hoping to get out for 10 miles tomorrow, but I am playing it by ear.  My ankle feels much better today than it did yesterday, so that is a good sign.

In the meantime I am looking forward to August when I make another trip out to Anaheim for the Disneyland Half.  I am hoping to do better time wise this year.  That will be up to mother nature though.  If she sends another humid 108 degree day at me there is only so much I can do.  I will also get a bonus medal for participating in the Disney Marathon and the Disneyland Half in the same year.  Yay!  More Bling!

You may have noticed there was not Take it and Run Thursday yesterday.  The topic was music and podcasts.  I used to run to music all the time, but with my full marathon training I actually started leaving my iPod at home.  I found that my long runs went by faster without having my music with me.  I don’t listen to Podcasts.  I just didn’t feel like there was anything I could contribute so I didn’t.  If you want to read about music and podcasts I would go check out what the others had to say.  Next week’s topic is Strength and Flexibility.  I definitely have some things to say about that.  😉