New Year's Eve

Today's Plan: run
I didn't want to run today. I didn't want to do anything today. But as I took Monday off, I was stuck with exercising in some fashion today. One should never take the first day of the week. Turns into a pattern as by the end of the week, I will be ready for a day off again when Monday rolls around.

Mother Nature finally realized that tomorrow is January and perhaps she should be seasonal.  It was 9 degrees when I went out to feed the horse. I came back inside and had breakfast.

After running to town (gotcha there, didn't I?) with the husband, I decided that it probably wasn't going to get any warmer and I better get out there.

18 degrees when I left the house. Leggings, an insulated layer and windpants plus two layers of fleece and a vest with gloves and I was ready to go. Today was a carrot and stick day: I promised myself a carrot and when I reached the carrot, I smacked myself with the stick!

 I had spent yesterday doing some heavy aerobics, so my thighs felt like mush. Ever have those days where you don't really feel in control of your legs? They found a rhythm and no matter what I thought, they weren't speeding up or slowing down.  The first half mile sucked. I think that is the technical term for it.  After that I kept promising myself that if I only did a mile, I would go back and do some yoga or weight lifting. To avoid that, to go home and be able to sit, I had to do two miles.

I was trying to avoid the wind, so my route was rather varied today.  After reading a trail running magazine, I am thinking about trying that. So when I saw a track leading off into a field today, I took it.

This is a great time of year to run in the fields, all is broken down and it easy to the holes before you run into them. Unfortunately the wind cut my excursion into the field short today. I will try again soon.

Turning around, I headed back towards home. Going down the hill to my house, I thought, I can go further. So I aimed at the half mile point beyond my house. Going up the hill to that point, I thought, why do I do this to myself? My legs felt like stone, my breath didn't reach deep into lungs, and the top of the hill seemed so far away.

I knew I could turn around where I was and still be over the two mile mark, but I had a specific point in mind and darned if I wasn't going to get there. Stupid OCD. But I made it, came home and stretched. Then I sat down!