Today’s outdoor 5-miler was pretty pleasant. It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed the gorgeousness around me and my tunes. It’s great that it’s still warm enough here during the day to run in shorts and a sleeveless shirt with no cold weather gear necessary. I tried working on the stride I attempted on the treadmill Friday night, and it seemed to work pretty well. So well that I somehow shaved six minutes off of my 5-mile time from a week ago. Which seems pretty impossible and I still don’t really believe it, but there you go. As usual, I iced my shins upon returning home and tried to stretch out the old calves as much as possible. Then I ate two chocolate mint chocolate chip cookies.
Today’s best running song was “Who Loves You?” from Jersey Boys. (You can see it here, about 2:30 into the clip.)
And … with the completion of today’s run, training for the half-marathon is officially 25% done! That makes me happy. It’s nice to be done with 4 out of the 16 weeks and feel like I’ve officially gotten into the groove of training.
Oh, I almost forgot! The highlight of today’s run was seeing my older brother pass by me in his car, squinting as if questioning, “Is that my lazy-assed, totally un-athletic sister jogging slowly yet determinedly?” When he realized it was me, as he drove off, he threw his fist up through his sunroof and pumped it in what I interpreted as encouraging, triumphant pride. Brothers are good for that.
