quickly!

I have to leave to give a presentation in class in 15 minutes, so this will be brief.

On Saturday I went out for a wonderful trail run at the nearby state park. It was awesome, except for the fact that I kept getting lost and having to stop to look at the trail markers to find out where I was. The problem was that there are a bunch of unmarked paths that intersect the marked ones, but it leaves you not sure which way to go when you reach an intersection... grrr. Anyways, I am now fully aware of why trailrunners wear different shoes. The ruts and limbs did a number on my ankles! It was also really chilly out, 24 degrees or so and slightly breezy. I wore a thin technical long sleeve with my super thick Hind long sleeve (I love that thing, even if it did cost me a gazillion dollars), some cotton tights under my Hind munich pants. hat and two pair of gloves topped things off. My time was a little on the slower side, around 10:00/mile, but I wasn't worried because of the constant stopping/ankle twisting. Plus the path was a bit snowy so I had to make sure not to go slipping and sliding down the hills. about 5.75 miles all together.

On Sunday I headed out to KMP for a little bit longer, faster run. ended up with 7 at 9:19 pace. The last mile was the only one that was really difficult, because I was running into the wind and I freaking hate that stretch (there's a gradual uphill that lasts for about 1/3 mile that's really boring). It snowed Saturday night, but KMP always plows 4 miles of the hike-bike trail, so I got to run on a clear path. yay! I was thinking back to last January when I was running the same distances, and I remember how difficult it was for me to be in 9:20-9:30 range for pace runs. Yesterday I felt fine, even after a fairly hilly, rough trail run the day before. So, I'm pretty happy with the way things are progressing.

I have finals this week so it's going to be hell. I'm going to try to get in some activity though, because it will keep me sane and less stressed out.

Great job to Rae and Brent, who kicked some butt this weekend in the Memphis half, and also to Partyrunner who completed the Vegas marathon. Way to go y'all!