Terrier tracks

Last Saturday morning, I went for my final run of 2006. I did 5 miles with the Striders followed up with a trip to a local diner for brunch. As I had already decided not to worry about my eating for the weekend, I splurged on eggs, sausage and hash browns. Nothing like a grease fest after a good run.

That evening I headed out to Chelly's. She had planned a party for Saturday night, a New Year's Eve Eve party. Since we were running the following evening, we decided to get our celebrating out of the way first. I had a blast - ate too much chocolate, stuffed myself on pizza, and drank a good deal of champagne. This lead to the required off-key singing of classic '80s pop tunes and silly dancing. I didn't get home until 5:30 the following morning.

I met Chelly, as well as a number of the Striders, in the park at about 10pm. There was a DJ and costume contest and the park was full of revelers, most of who, probably, didn't run routinely. This made the actual run very chaotic. I hadn't made any plans to achieve a particular finishing time, just have fun and get some miles in. It was great fun. I wore a party hat and beads and such and also donned some of the lights and reflective wear I've acquired for running in the dark. There were loads of people participating and we also passed more spectators than I've seen for some of the real races. It was like one big roving party. I must have wished a few thousand people Happy New Year and slapped hundreds of hands of people on the sidelines as I passed.

I went to breakfast with Chelly after the run since she had to go to work a few hours later. Got home at a more reasonable 2:30am and fell asleep only to be awoken at 5:30 by my pup's tiny bladder. The rest of that day was pretty much spent on the couch watching TV and trying to grab a few minutes of sleep.

I got in a tempo run on Wednesday night. It was supposed to be 3 miles at just under a 9 minute pace with a mile of warm-up and a mile of cool-down. It didn't work out that way and I actually did 5 miles with an average page of 9:12 - I went too fast on the two slow miles. I'll have to work on that or I'm going to die as the tempo runs get longer.

This morning I got in a 6 mile run for a total of 15 miles for the first week of 2007. That's pretty much on target for where I should be in my half-marathon training.

This afternoon I did some shopping for the first time since before Thanksgiving. I try and stay out of the stores during the holiday madness so I was looking forward to wandering through some of my favorite stores. Didn't buy much, just looked. I did get a new pair of running shoes, however. I really needed them. I've been running in Asics Evolution, which is a heavy motion-control shoe. I had been fitted with them when I was still fairly new to running and I was also somewhat heavier. I didn't think I needed so much shoe anymore. Also, it isn't a popular model and often isn't available at the running stores. So I got the Asics GT-2120. Aren't they pretty? The only hesitation I had is that they're pink. Well, not really pink, but they're trimmed in pink. I'm not sure that I like pink shoes. None of my running togs are pink and I don't want to get a whole new wardrobe. Ah, who am I kidding, I don't really worry too much about coordinating my running wear, but I do prefer the primary colors over the pastels that the manufacturers seem to be determined to make us wear.

I'm participating in a run-along that Rachael put together - Run-a-go-go . There's a button over on the left sidebar for anyone else who is interested. Rachael has challenged a whole lot of people in the knitblogging community to complete 100 miles by April 1. You're allowed to complete in whatever manner you please, walking, running, biking, swimming. It should be fairly easy for me, but a lot of the knitbloggers are not athletically-inclined, so this is a big motivator. More power to you!!

Labels: metrostitchers, new year's, running, striders