Being Thankful

Happy Turkey day to all of you! I hope you're all stuffing yourself silly with all the delicious foods today, regardless of if you got in a run to counteract some of the calories. Woof. I'm feeling especially grateful this year, so I wanted to write a post of gratitude. Cliche post, party of one!

The people I've met and friendships I have formed through running. Some of my very best friends I've met because of running and social media. Whenever I travel for a race (and meet someone for the first time while crashing at their apartment for the weekend, oh hai Krista!) I'm always floored by how amazingly awesome runners are.

My family and their health. My dad had a terrifying health scare this past spring and I am forever grateful for each and every holiday that I get to spend with him, my mom, and the rest of my family. I'm pretty lucky to be a member of our clan even if they do drive me crazy some/most of the time. :)

Kyle and the pug. My two besties, I'd be lost without them. The two best snuggle partners and partners in crime a girl could ask for.

Being healthy. Well, semi-healthy. I currently have a rib out of place keeping me from any turkey trotting or any "making room for turkey" calorie burning via running this morning. Super rude. But honestly, I've spent a LOT of time being frustrated with my body breaking down over running the past few years. I'm glad it's allowing me to do what I want to right now.

My job and all most of our patrons. :) While getting out of bed to go to work is never fun, being there almost always is. I adore all the teens that I get to work with planning and implementing programs that make the library fun for them. I had a teen come in to the library on Tuesday night, run up to the desk and say "I saw you in the paper on Sunday!" (there was an article about a book club I started in the paper). First of all, you're a teen and you read the paper? No wonder you're one of my faves, and secondly, he made my day. :) I look forward to seeing my little storytime munchkins in the library and my heart melts whenever they point me out as "their storytime teacher" to their family members. And everyone in between who'll stop in to say thanks for helping them find a book or recommend a title to add to my always growing to read list. Uff.

Also if anyone wants to spend the evening watching the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends that's totally going to happen over here. RSVP to Ollie.

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.