EEEEEK!

Happy Thanksgiving kiddos!  I want to share my thanks with you guys, since that seems to be the trend.  Plus, my family totally skipped the going around the table say what you're thankful for, business.  Geez.

I'm thankful for:

-Fabulous friends who stick with you through thick or thin.

-An awesome family who drives me up a wall, but loves me unconditionally.

-A healthy and strong body that takes me farther on foot than I ever thought it could.

-All my great bloggy friends, whom I've begun to appreciate on so many levels throughout my training.  

-Elf playing almost non-stop from now until Christmas (it's my favorite movie).

Wednesday night after work, I headed off to the gym for an intense speed workout.  It was COLD and crazy windy, so the gym won without a question.  On the schedule I had a 1 mile warm up, 6-8 800 m. repeats at 3:40 pace, with 400 m. walk breaks, and a mile cool down.  I was going to play the 6-8 by feel and see how I felt since I haven't done a hard speed workout for a month because of my injury.

The first interval felt great, but the rest/recovery quarter mile seemed to take FOREVER.  After that first one, I decided to shorten it to .15 instead.  I ended up doing all 8 x 800's and ran them all at or below a 3:40 pace, and the pace felt great.  I definitely miss running hard and fast.  :)  I did compromise with myself that if I did all 8 and hit my pace, I could shorten the cool down to a half mile instead of a mile.  DEAL!  Also, when I was done running, I realized I was only .2 miles from 7 miles total, so I did some speed walking so I could count a full 7 miles towards the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge !

Warm up	1 Mi	9:44	9:44	9:44
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:35	13:19	7:10
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:39	21:25	7:18
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:39	27:54	7:18
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:39	34:21	7:18
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:39	41:05	7:18
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:40	47:47	7:20
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:39	54:33	7:18
Interval	0.5 Mi	3:38	1:00:59	7:16
Cool down	0.5 Mi	4:49	1:08:37	9:38

Recovery/walk times and distances were omitted because the chart was ridiculously long (even more so than currently).  No one cares how fast I walk (I'm guessing).  :)

Turkey Day I woke up bright and early so I could get to the gym and knock out my easy 5 so I'd have time to shower and get ready for the holiday.  When I walked outside to my car, I realized it was MUCH warmer than I thought it was.  I checked weatherbug, and it was 30* with a 26* wind chill.  When I looked before I went to bed, it was supposed to be 17* at 9am!  Outdoors it is!  And I'm sooooo glad I ran outside.  I hate the gym, and really want to save it for runs that HAVE to be done there for safety purposes.

I saw a bunch of grade school aged boys playing flag football, and desperately wanted to go home, grab my Favre jersey, and come back and ask to play.  I love me some flag football.  Sidenote:  In college I was the captain and QB of my girls flag football team (The Packer Puffs, natch), and we went undefeated for 4 seasons (fall & spring) for my junior and senior year.  We were KIND of a big deal.  :p

Otherwise the run was pretty eventful except for the brutally cold wind during the last mile.  Uff, my face was burning by the time I was done.  I did 5 miles in 47:13 for a pace of 9:27.

1. 9:24
2. 9:25
3. 9:29
4. 9:31
5. 9:22

My miles got slower, so that was fun and special. :)

In exciting I-might-poop-my-pants-news, I received the following email yesterday:

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!  I'm planning on signing up on my golden birthday, which is one month from today, WHOOOOO!  (Yes, I will be running my FIRST 26.2 miles in my 26th year, which also happens to be my golden year, hurrah!)  But I've been so concerned with my poor wussy foot and the Dallas White Rock HM, I kind of forgot that I'm going to start training for a marathon soon.  Holy guacamole.  Anyway, if I had been wearing a heart rate monitor at my desk, it would've probably gone in the "danger zone" upon receipt of that email.  Hah.

Hope everyone had a great turkey day.