First Run Outside!!!!

Today was absolutely beautiful!! The sun was powerful, the snow and ice were melting, and there was very little wind!!! Can you believe it? Days like this are rare -- so I giddily went for my inaugural 2008 outdoors run. Mind you, the wind was blowing (just not as hard) from the west, so I had my neck warmer pulled up to my sunglasses. I am used to getting strange looks from people -- but the air is just too cold for me poor little lungs.

I actually got used to breathing with my face covered on my Nepal trek. The air is so thin and dry at 18 000 feet -- our guide and our porters covered their faces with bandanas and strongly encouraged anyone who had the slightest cough to do the same. At first, it felt claustrophobic, but it passed -- now I wouldn't dream of running outside with my face exposed (when it is blowing cold!).

Anyways, my workout today called for a 2 x 10min tempo pace after a 15 min. warm up. My legs were really sore and tight after the weights yesterday, so I warmed up for 30 min. instead. It was so beautiful, I just wanted to keep running. I ran sans doggies -- up one side of the highway and back down the other. On the return trip, it was positively blistering with the wind at my back. Neck warmer down, gloves off, and sunglasses firmly on. Ooh I can't wait until summer is here and I can run outside all the time! All in all I ran 7.21 miles.

I went to the gym afterwards (because I don't have a Swiss ball) and did my core routine. Plank is still at 2min 10 sec, but I got up to 45 sec for right and left side planks today!! After the core work, I then did some major stretching.

This morning I swam for 70 min. I like warming up and using the kickboard to strengthen my legs so I am always in the pool a little longer than I have to be. I do like tooling around after the workout too. I recently learned how to do the breast stroke from youtube, and I like to do the breast stroke at the end of a workout. It stretches out my legs and feels so good! My main set was 5 x 400 with 30 sec rest.


Meanwhile, after reading an article about "geriatric" dogs (heh heh!) I have been taking the babies out on two small walks a day. They had a great time outside with the sun shining. This pic illustrates why my Mom calls Diva and Toby, "The Bookends." Our evening walk was amazing with the lunar eclipse. Again, there was very little wind.





I tried taking some pics of the eclipse, but this was the best I could do!