From Yellow to Neutral

My running mojo is still in good standing. But man oh man - I have been busy on all fronts. Thankfully, some storms have been sporadically cooling the weather. I have now been officially brainwashed, because I get excited when it is "only" 80 degrees out there. That's what happened Friday morning, so Isaac and I actually got to make good use of the stroller and walk 4 miles. Yay!

Saturday, on 5 hours of sleep and on the advice of our realtor, I repainted our living room. Chasen had a stomach bug, so I did 99.9% of it myself. From the minute I removed the first picture from the wall and started moving furniture to the minute I officially put down the paintbrush, 10.5 hours had elapsed. Painting is hard work! Up, down, up, down. I don't want to see another ladder for a while.

Bye bye personal yellow that went great with out furniture and floors.

Hello "cafe au lait" that will hopefully appeal to the home buying masses.

I knew getting up at 5:15 on Sunday morning would be difficult, but I also knew that it would be the coolest available time slot. Believe me, I tried to hit snooze, but my body would not let me. So off I went for six miles of speedwork.

After a warmup, the first mile was solidly run (i.e. no walk-run method) because I had to get to a restroom ASAP! Ha. That mile was done in 11:30. Whoo hoo! That's a full minute faster than my current dream race pace. The next mile took a nosedive. It was mostly uphill, and the solid running just doesn't work well for me in this darn heat and humidity. It was 12:50. Not zesty! At that point I remembered talking to Kevin about doing the 30:30 method for longruns. This was no longrun, but I thought it might be wise to apply that same logic somehow to my speedwork. I decided to run 1 minute and walk 30 seconds. Bingo! 11:57 and 12:03! Then, I left the somewhat shady neighborhood I was in and the sun was in full force. Yuck - so bright and hot. It really, really made a difference. After a stop in the local McDonald's for some ice cold water, I got back to it. But not until I did something I have NEVER done before -- I dumped ice cold water over my head. Yowsa! Now that was frigidly refreshing. I happily accepted the remaining 13:06 and 13:30 (where I walked tons more).

This weekend, technically, I am supposed to do 26 miles. Since I never made it to 23 miles several weeks ago, I think 23 or less would be a more appropriate goal. We shall see. It'll be in the 80's no matter when I run, so I have to factor that in. Come on, winter!