Weekly Update - Even If It's 2 Days Late (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

Last week was a very busy week.  So busy it flew by.  As in, when Friday hit, I couldn't even remember if I worked on Monday or not.

Monday we still had snow and ice on the streets, so I took off to the gym before work for my second in a row treadmill run.  At least this time I knew what I needed to do for the treadmill, that is until I noticed that it was going to end my run after 20 mins.  Well, poo.  So I decided to end that run at one mile and then start it up without it counting down the time.  I did 3 miles watching The Sopranos and it really wasn't too bad.  I feel like I really only work on speed work when I use the treadmill.  But again, I didn't want to push it too much as I'm still really early into a training cycle (one with no real base to work from).

Tuesday I got to the gym and took my class.  That evening I went to an Agile User Group.  I'm not sure if they have them for outside IT, but basically it's groups that get together once a month and have someone give a presentation.  They have them for all different jobs within IT.  They are great networking tools as well as getting fresh ideas about your job.  I did run into someone from my last job.  It was fun catching up to see how my old team was doing.

Wednesday was a planned rest day.  I had a longer run to do that weekend and am watching how many miles I run during the week when I do have longer long runs.  I also had someone coming into upgrade my security system.  While he was there he was testing the window sensors and he leaned over my kitchen table and knocked over a full, unopened bottle of vodka.  It was from a distillery in Virginia and I was really looking forward to trying it.  Not only was it all over the floor, but landed were the cat food dishes are.  It all had to be cleaned up as I not only wanted them around the vodka, but there was also broken glass everywhere.   I wasn't really upset that he did that and he did clean most of it up.  I just wish that he would have offered to repay me.  I wouldn't have let him, but the offer would have been nice.

Thursday I went to my gym class at the gym.  Friday I got out and got a 3 mile run in.  It was 65 degrees and raining.  A huge change from the week before when it was below freezing.  I got a little bit of a late start as I was watching the radar and local news and saw that if I did wait just a little bit, most of the rain would be gone.  And then a little bit of a later start as I found my head lamp's batteries were dead.  I went back into the house to get my second one.  Dead too.  I grabbed some extra batteries but neither one of them would work with the new batteries either.  I really didn't want to waste more time as I did eventually have to get to work, so I thought I would see what blinky lights I had and see if they would light up enough to see the road.  Then I saw and remembered my knuckle lights.  And the first on I pulled out was dead.  Well this looked like something was telling me I shouldn't run.  But I wanted to run more then anything because it was so warm out.  I wouldn't have this opportunity tomorrow as it was supposed to be cold again.  But as luck would have it the second knuckle light worked.  And out the door I went.

It was a little later then I planed, but it seemed like most of the rain was gone, so it probably was a good thing I had a little extra time running around the house.  When I started it was a little bit of a drizzle.  Not bad at all.  By the time I got to the end of the first mile, it was really starting to rain.  If it had been any colder I would have been upset, but it was so warm out that the rain felt good.  I'm sure the people driving by as they went to work thought I was even more crazy then normal to run in the dark and the rain.  By the end of the second mile it had gone back to a drizzle and had stopped by the time I finished.  I so cannot wait for the weather to get warmer.

Saturday I planned on doing 8 miles.  The running group had 5 and 9 miles planned.  I took their 9 mile route and guesstimated on where to turn back to make it 8 miles.  I knew that we would start off warm and then just get colder as the morning and day progress.  When I turned on the news when I woke up they said that we had already hit the high for the day at 55.  So what to wear was something I himmed and hawed about.  Since I'm a morning runner, I'm used to preparing for temperature during my run to get warmer, not colder.  So I decided to dress for the coldest temperature that I would be out there for.  And from what I could tell it would be between 35-40 by the end of my run.

I decided that I would give myself a head start and get out there about 30 minutes before the rest of the group.  With as slow as I run, I wanted to try and get the run done as soon as possible so I wouldn't be out there when it got really cold.  And I really don't run with anyone in the group.  I'm usually doing more miles then the slower people and I'm not fast enough to keep up with those doing longer runs.  As I drove to our meeting place I noticed that some people still had their decorations up.  I thought to myself that this weekend was probably time to take them down.  When I got out there and started my run, the temperature had already dropped almost 10 degrees.  There was no way I was going to be over dressed.  I brought my hat and sun glasses (as it started off cloudy, but the news said that they were going to part soon).  I put on my hat sooner then I anticipated and never needed my sunglasses.  I really had wished I brought a pair of gloves too.

I read the directions and knew where I was going and knew I needed to turn on Grace Street.  When I got to Grace Street I pulled out the directions to read the next few turns.  Well I realized when I read Grace Street, I really should have turned on Grove.  Not a huge deal, I know the area well enough that I knew how to get myself back to the route without backtracking.  So I ran on.  I ended up passing a house that still had their Christmas decorations up and had to laugh at myself.  I was glad they did as they do the "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme.  I have run by it the last couple of years, but since I had not been training for a January race, I had not seen it this season.  I then had to take back my, "it's time to take down Christmas decorations" as I was happy to see these.





As I got closer and closer to the turn around point I needed to figure out where I was going to turn around.  I didn't know the mileage difference between what I ended up running and what the route was, so I decided to just turn around where I had planned to.  And then I second guessed myself and went down to the next light.  I wanted to make sure I got in the whole 8 miles and didn't want to run around the block over and over to just hit that.  Well it turned out I really didn't need to worry about that as I ended up getting 9 miles in instead.  The extra mile wasn't too bad, but by the end, I was ready to be done.  It had gotten really cold and had dropped down to 37 degrees with a wind chill of 28 and I just wanted a hot shower.

The clouds we so beautiful as I finished up the run.  This picture does not do it justice.

Sunday was a planned rest day.  I had Monday off and I knew I wanted to get my kitchen clean.  It wasn't really dirty per say, but it was cluttered.  I have very little storage in my kitchen, so a lot of stuff ends up on the counters and kitchen table.  Which is how my vodka bottle was broken as it should have been in the cabinet but it was as full as it could get.  So really, I wanted to reorganize and see how I could get as much as I could put away.  I got the eat in section, including my table done.  I even got on my hands and knees and scrubbed the floor.  I thought that when I shoveled snow the week before that I used muscles that I never used.  But scrubbing the floor showed me even different muscles.  I'm still sore today.  Getting my kitchen cleaned meant that I stayed off the computer so that I wouldn't get distracted.  Which is why my post is two days after I planned it.  But when I look at a clean and organized kitchen, it was well worth it!

Did you get a warm day to run last week?  For those who run in the evening, how do you dress as it gets colder on your run?  When stuck on the treadmill, what do you like to watch or listen to to help pass the time?

Linking up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap Up.