Wintertime Love

while it warmed up a hair today, meaning it actually got to the freezing mark, it was not raining, snowing, sleeting, or wintery mixing. Nope, nothing but cold air.

Today was 9 miles, 4 at tempo. It's gotten into my head that I don't like tempo runs. I don't know what I think that. I think they're going to be hard and they're going to hurt and I generally don't look forward to them. I do them and I get going and really, they're not that bad.

I was shooting for 8-8:10 pace. All but the 2nd mile, which included Cat Hill, were 7:56 pace. Cat Hill was 7:59. My heart rate always flirts with the 180s when I'm doing Cat Hill. That's fine. I'm trying not to be such a slave to the HR this time around. The only exception really is recovery runs. I want to run those like I should, slowly.

Another plus of today is my weight. Ok, I know for a lot of non runners (and maybe even some runners) this may sound silly. Due to RWOL (Runner's World On Line) and some shenanigins that go on over there, I made a goal of loosing 5 lbs. I know it doesn't sound like a lot. For a long time, my weight hovered in the 1-teens. When I went to Big Sur, I did what just about everyone I know who goes out there does: I gained weight. I had a hard time getting it off too. 

Anyhoo....my goal is to get down to 120. I was a bit over 124 when I started this, closer to 125. I weighted myself this morning and I was 120.4. Granted, I think most scales are a bit off, I am very happy to see my weight be 120. This has almost all come from just eating better. I know I'm in good shape, lack of burning calories certainly isn't an issue. I have made an effort to eat less crap and be more aware of when and what I ate. So far so good!