good way to start a day

It’s just a hair shy of midday, and even though I haven’t gotten anything work-related done, I’m still feeling pretty good about today.

A bit of backstory… yesterday’s rest day was incredibly welcome after the blistering long run I had on Sunday. I had intended to do my 12 miles at approx. 8-9:00 min/mile, and ended up clocking about 1:27, or about 7:30 min/mile average! Not only was 12 miles a new distance PR for me… that pace is undoubtedly the top fast/far combo I’ve ever done! And since I spent all of Saturday skiing, I was pretty stoked about the whole thing.

So, rest yesterday, speed today. Fartleks, round 2. This time, however, I felt great. Well, it was actually quite painful; the end result felt great, though. Thankfully, there was no snow and it was actually super nice outside. Perfect speed weather at about 30 F. Then I made a great egg scramble for breakfast, and headed to school (where I am currently procrastinating).

I have lofty goals today, so I’m going to get back to work. Tonight Jorge Cham (PhD Comics) is speaking on campus, so I’m pretty pumped to see him. If you’re a grad student and you haven’t read the strip, you need to start. It’s aimed more toward natural science/math grad students, but there are a few cameos from humanities/social science characters.

Here’s hoping the rest of the day is productive!

stupid snow

After a happily-accepted rest day on Monday, yesterday was the start of our speed training. To inaugurate the new habit-to-be, I ran three miles of Fartleks. I hadn’t actually done them since high school, and certainly forgot how draining they can be! That said, the worst part of the workout was the four inches of snow we got the night before. Which brings me to the title of this posting.

Ordinarily, I love snow. It’s beautiful. It makes me want a wood stove and someone to sit in front of it with. You can throw it at other people and not hurt them (most of the time). But one place where I do not love snow is under my feet while running. I think most people will attest to the fact that you run all funky when it’s icy/snowy out. Very different stride and overall mechanics. Worse still, is when you have to try and sprint on it! I imagine myself at the start of each speed interval looking like the Roadrunner – legs spinning around in full circles, dust kicking up behind me, until finally I got some traction and took off…

*sigh* Okay, that’s the end of the that rant….. almost….. this morning was equally icy and I cursed it a few times, too. I’m just looking forward to runs in warm, dry weather again!