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January 01, 2005
Great Start to the New Year
OK, so I act a lot like an old lady at times. There was no staying up until midnight to ring in the New Year. After my short shopping trip for me and running wedding errands with my friend B and her fiancee yesterday, I had great plans to head accross the street around 10:30 until midnight. Well, after dinner and some relaxing on the couch, my body decided that it was tired and rest is more important. Into the pj's around 8:30 and into bed around 9:15 to read some. Sound asleep by 11:00. Oh well, I felt great all day today whilst others who were living it up last night had splitting headaches all day!
So this morning for the 7 AM "long" run there were only five of us. J and his brother who both swore up and down that they would be there were no-shows. It was unbelievably mild for January 1. I was still chilly, but that is the norm unless it is over 75 degrees out. Our plan was to run for about an hour, which is why long was in quotation marks. As far as I am concerned, I call my longest run of the week my long run, even if it isn't all that long. Depending on the time of year and what the current goals and objectives are, long can be as short as an hour or as long as my body is willing to go.
We lost C about 20 minutes into the run. He was the only one of the group that had rung in the new year last night and needed to purge some. We ran through a historic garden/estate that was previously owned by a very wealthy family. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and quite hilly. One of the guys was having some trouble keeping up with us at one point and told us to go on, but we told him that we would wait for him because he was tired, not hung over (he got sympathy!). There was hardly anyone else out. We saw one cyclist and no other runners or walkers. When we got back to the school, we'd been running for 67 minutes, so M and I ran around the back of the school to hit 70 minutes. We ended close to 71 and if I'd known we were so close, I would have gone a few more seconds because an even number is much nicer for my obsessive personality. I think that it was about 10 miles since we were moving at a good clip. In all, it was a very nice way to get the new year started on the right foot.
Now that it is a new year, I need to start making some goals to work towards. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to run a local half marathon. The only reason to run this race is to have local bragging rights. The course isn't all that fast, there isn't really good competition, it's usually cold and windy, and the course isn't all that pretty either. After that I'll do Broad Street with the goal of getting as close to 60:00 as possible. In the fall, I know that I'll be doing a half marathon the third weekend in September, but I'm not sure which one. I'll either do PDR which I've done for the past several years and absolutely love, or I'll do the women's half marathon championships in Des Moines. I still have a qualifying time and it is a great experience, but it will mean travelling and taking some time off from work. Other than these races, there will be some low-key, fun races and I'll find some others to focus on. One of the nice things about being on marathon sabbatical is that I can focus on many races. My primary goal is to learn how to fuel while I run.
This afternoon S and I helped B make wedding favors. If I never see a purple M & M again I will be very happy. It was nice to get to see some people today. B's mom and dad were drunk and passed out watching TV while we were being crafty. Her fiancee kept offering to go to the craft store, presumably to get away from the drunk future in-laws.
As today is New Year's Day and we are supposed to make resolutions, I am going to put mine in writing. It is something that I have been making an effort to do for the past few years and have been making slow progress. My resolution is to improve my eating habits. Mainly to eat more green (veggies) and less white (white bread, white rice, etc). I hope that everyone had a very happy, and importantly, safe New Year's.
Posted by Blondie at January 1, 2005 05:11 PM