Reflection...

I'm home alone this weekend.

The wonders of technology:  watching a movie on the computer (Good Will Hunting kicks ass.),  various tunes from my iTunes library, and reminiscing on the last 4.58 years by going back and looking at my blog.

Wow, have things changed and time flies even when you're not having a lot of fun.

And It's Back

Winter.

Snow returned Sunday.  About 12".  Another 1" or so last night.  Forecast calls for another 5" (approximate) between tonight and Sunday.

There's no way this is all going to be melted by the 16th when spring sports start having home games.

A Small Reprieve

Mother Nature took pity on The Mitten this week.  Temps soared on Thursday into the low 50s.  The massive mounds of snow melted and for the first time since Jan 1, 2011 we can see the ground.

We'd better enjoy it, because in less than 24 hours were supposed to get another 6-8" of the white shroud.

BUT, I took advantage of the break to get some quality runs in outside this week:

• a workout of 3x1000m at a goal pace of 8:36 on Thursday - hit 8:16, 7:51, and 8:00 for those.
• a long run today of 2x10 min at tempo pace - goal pace was 9:20 and I hit 8:58 and 8:48.

I know, I know - might need to rethink my paces there.  That's on the goal sheet for sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Some sort of time trial (at least 5k) to not only gauge my current fitness but to see just how much I need to adjust my paces.

Woooo Hoooooo!!!!!

It might only last a few days...okay, it might end tonight, but the weather here in this part of the mitten is unbelievable today!

Temps are in the low 40s and the sun is out.

Perfect conditions (minus the at times stiff breeze) for a run.  7 glorious miles with T today.  Felt great to be out there.

One Day At A Time

Great TV show I know (okay, great may be taking it a bit too far), but no my focus with this one.

One day at a time versus the big picture?

I've got the next 16 weeks or so mapped out via my training plan for the half marathon at Bayshore Memorial Day weekend.  But I think sitting back and trying to look at all 16 weeks is too daunting - especially when I start to realize just how busy my spring is going to be thanks to an unmerciful spring sports schedule.  I'm trying to figure out long runs, workouts, peak mileages, etc, etc. and in the process I'm losing sight of the fact that I need to run "x" miles today.

So I'm trying to change my focus a bit.  I'm only looking "big picture"-wise at this week with my focus being on what I have to accomplish today.  How many miles are on the schedule today?  Is it an easy run or a quality run?  When am I going to run?

I'll worry about tomorrow (when it will then be today) and I'm going to focus on today.

Best Super Bowl Commercial

Feedback

Dear Readers:

Please let me know through the comments if the current color scheme (mostly the background and text of the posts) is easy/hard to read.

First of the Year

First book done.  You can see it over there on the right in the 2011 Reading List.  It took me a bit longer than I'd hoped but it was worth it.

On to The Emperor of All Maladies!

We Made It

Survived, no thrived through the Blizzard of 2011.  Lots of snow on the ground here in the mitten, but at least most of the afternoon we've been under a brilliantly blue, sunny sky.

It did however give both T and I a snow day today, which was utilized to clean the hell out of the house, do laundry, fold laundry, and shovel snow for approximately 1 hour (and mucho thanks to the friendly neighbor who cleared the sidewalk off the entire block with the snowblower...we might still be out there if he hadn't).  Hell, the city of Grand Rapids has already plowed our street!

So back to work tomorrow, but today was a good day.