Good job me!

I'd just like to publicly pat myself on the back for finally making it to the gym BEFORE work. It's been a long time since that has happened. During the summer/early fall I got into a habit of running after work instead but not that it is basically pitch black when I leave the office (and I haven't yet acquired a headlamp or any reflective gear) if I hit snooze too many times I'm not able to get a run in at all. This morning I set my alarm for the comical time of 5:42a and after almost an hour of wasting time (I seriously have NO IDEA what I was doing, but I blame Charlotte for being extra cuddly this morning) I was finally out the door. As I walked to my car I realized that it was still 60 degrees and I should probably run outside but I had already mentally planned on going to the gym and I just couldn't deal with changing my plans at that point because my brain wasn't working yet. I was very sad to see that my usual Boy Meets World episodes had been replaced by That 70's Show, but I dealt with the disappointment and settled in for about 4 miles on the 'mill. I wanted to run something between easy and speed work so I did a progression run:

5 min warm-up
10 minutes easy
10 minutes increasing 1mph each minute
1 minute recover at easy pace
8 minutes increasing 1mph each minute
2 minutes increasing 1mph each 30 seconds
5 minute cool-down

I maxed out at around 8mph and that's pretty fast for me. My legs were like lead at the end.

Breakfast was 1 egg + 1 egg white, 1c. baby spinach/arugula mix, toast + hot pepper jelly

Post-run I was feeling a mix of accomplished and discouraged. Good job me for getting to the gym but the reality is that I'm still a bit out of shape and out of my normal routine. What that says to me is that I desperately need to get back to a training plan- it just works better for me.

With a potential marathon date of 5/4, a 20-week training plan would be set to begin on 12/16, which is way sooner than I even realized! That gives me a measly 11 days to continue to focus on base building, which is really no time at all. My goals for the next two weeks are just to get back into a habit of running 4 days a week and working some cross training back in. I plan on starting my weekend long run tradition this weekend with a completely unimpressive distance of 5 miles (since the first "long run" of my training plan is 7). It's crazy how fast Marathon Training: Round 2 has sneaked up on me!


And in completely unrelated news, we picked out our Christmas tree last night! This is K.'s first EVER real live Christmas tree and I was just so excited to go hunting for it. Nothing says Christmas tree shopping like a 60 degree day in December :-)

Terrible picture, no decorations yet. Still so pretty!

Seriously the best part of my morning was coming back from the gym and being overwhelmed by the scent of pine- no scented candle can recreate the actual smell of a Christmas tree!