Caution: Bragging Ahead

Well I'd say I've had a pretty decent week since my last post.

Quick layout of the week's activities:  Wednesday night was belatedly declared a Rest Day (remember how I've said it was dangerous for me to go home to change my clothes for a workout?).  Thursday I had a right-proper training session at the gym and I tried something new.  All the bikes were taken when I arrived so I hopped on the Stair-Climber thingy.  I would call it a StairMaster but I'm pretty sure that's a brand-name and I don't know that's which brand it was but I digress...) AAAAnyway, it's not the old-style pedal type of stair-climber but more like a mini-escalator.  I've never used one before but I've seen them on The Biggest Loser.  I took it easy, slow, level 2 I think.  Though my hip started telling me to get the hell off at the 12-minute mark, I pushed on for another 3 minutes. Then I did a pretty standard full-body strength training session, about 45 minutes.

Friday really was a rest day - it was freezing out but I took the dog for a quick walk before heading out for a few Friday-night adult beverages with my man.

I had a group-run planned for Saturday morning, 9am sharp.  Managed to get there on time (wonders never cease!) and had a pretty decent but not outstanding run / walk of around 5 miles.  I made a couple of classic mistakes:  1) I did not have a specific plan of how long I was going to run, either distance-wise or time-wise.  2) I hadn't planned a route (partly a result of not having a specific distance or time goal for the day.  and 3) I forgot to turn my watch off when we got back to the car, so the Garmin seems to think I did the last 1.5 miles in 8 minutes!!  Too funny.  I think it ended up finishing 5.2 miles in about 70 minutes or so.  It wasn't awesome, but it cured my mild hangover within 10 minutes of the start and was a GREAT start for my day.  Headed home, laundry, etc... and to Peoria in the evening to see a friend's band play!  Stayed up WAY too late but had an absolute blast listening to Draft Culture original songs!!

A couple of pics from the Saturday night show:

Thanks to Jim Gardner for the photos!  

Thanks to Jim Gardner for the photos!  

Thanks to Jim Gardner for the photos!  

But the REAL action was on Sunday:  my weekly weigh-in put me 1.8 pounds down!  Yay, me!  The weather was uncooperative and we had freezing rain all day, wind, cold, blah-blah-blah and let's face it I was feeling a bit lazy... did not get any exercise.  I just enjoyed my rainy day at home.

Today headed back to work until 3pm, then the dentist for a cleaning, got a couple of errands done, and home by 4:30 for a run with Coty.  Lesson from Saturday learned:  I made a plan.  I decided to do a Test Mile tonight, which means brisk walk / jog a little to warm up about a mile to the track, run a mile on the track, easy walk / run home.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL!! 54 degrees!  (Yes, it's Illinois, we go from 1 degrees last Tuesday to freezing rain on Sunday to 54 degrees on Monday.  It's insanity here.)  I wore my short-pants and a light shirt!  NO windbreaker and only one pair of socks!

I was feeling pretty fleet-footed tonight.   It was foggy and misty, a little wind but not raining, and like I said - it was warm.  My last Test Mile was 10:22 and you remember how happy I was about that. The track was a wee-bit creepy in the fog but also sort of cool.  I was once again kicking myself for not bringing my camera.  I would love to have taken a pic of the creepy-track at dusk with this fog!

OK so I'm dying to tell you:  my Test Mile was 9:50!!!  This is HUGE for me.  I never thought I'd get there so quickly.  A Test Mile under 10:00 was a long-term goal for 2013 - something I thought would take MONTHs to get to!  I am definitely going to have to come up with a replacement goal for 2013 on that one.  Clearly, I underestimated myself... 3 weeks ago.