As much as I've loved having Joey the past 10 months, the kids have loved having him tenfold. They love that he is always willing to play with them, and that Joey loves "his people" more than anything. Sometimes, Jerry and I talk about how Joey may have wound up in the shelter. He's such a great dog! I just don't understand why someone wouldn't want him. He spent last Christmas in the shelter, so the kids are really excited to spoil him for Christmas this year.
Yesterday, I took Joey for a walk to the beach. I always forget about this hidden little beach on the peninsula, and it's just a half mile from my house! I've never seen anyone there, so it's the perfect spot to let Joey run off-leash. (The usual spot we go, in the woods across the street, isn't safe right now because of hunters.) When I took Joey off his leash, he had a blast running along the beach and playing in the water.
It hardly looks like December in Michigan, right?! We walked down the length of the beach, and Joey sniffed everything he could possibly sniff, and then we headed back home. I'll have to take the kids with me next time, because I know they'd love to play with Joey there.
Anyway, in honor of National Mutt Day, I am happy to have this black lab/chow chow in my life :)
I really like the new running schedule I wrote. I run on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; and it's nice to know that when I finish a run, I have the next day off! The Saturday and Sunday runs are both done at easy pace, so doing them back-to-back isn't bad. Doing the hard runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays helps me to get through them--I know that I just have to push myself for a half hour or so, and then I'll be done for two days ;)
Today was a 12-minute tempo run. Twelve minutes sounds like nothing on paper, but running at tempo pace is tough! I started with a 10-minute warm-up. Usually, during the warm-up, I'm nervous about the tempo portion; because of that, I tend to run the warm-up too fast. Today, I really tried to focus on taking it very easy for the first 10 minutes.
After that, the next 12 minutes felt like an eternity. I picked up the pace to where it was uncomfortable and I really wanted to slow down, but it was in my pace zone for a tempo (8:23-8:36/mi). I kept reminding myself that I ran a 5K last week at an 8:41 pace, so this shouldn't feel too bad; but it was rough. I tried not looking at my Garmin, but that didn't pass the time any faster. Finally, my Garmin beeped for my cool down, so I slowed to a jog. I wanted to just sit down on the side of the road and catch my breath, but I managed to keep going ;)
When I got home, I was pleased to see my pace for the tempo was right on target!
If there was ever a time to just focus on each day at a time, this is it... I was very happy with my pace today, but when I think about the fact that I have to knock about 30 seconds off that pace and run over 4 times farther, I just feel like it'll never happen. But, I am hoping that by focusing on the here and now, and hitting my goals for each individual run, I'll be able to improve enough to reach my goal for the 10K.
The best part about tempo runs is how good I feel for the rest of the day. I love knowing that I really pushed myself hard!
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