Buy a lottery ticket!

That's what my husband said to me just a little while ago, because you know, good things come in threes!
Woke up to this

Yes, I live in a construction zone. This was around 7:00 this morning. You can't tell but snow was falling pretty heavily.
Here is Shelby waiting for me to go running. She loves my running socks. She always manages to find one and curl up with it or hide it behind the couch to curl up with later.

Nothing smells better to her than my running socks!
First Good Thing of the Day:
By 7:30, Shelby and I were out on the road, in the snow, like good Canadian girls Temp. -1C- love it!  and... drumroll please.... I ran 10K for the first time ever! It's hard to believe that only 4 wks. ago I had only ever run 7- 8K and that was with taking 1 minute walk breaks after every 10 mins of running. I was so stoked about running the full distance. I realized something too, no wonder my runs seem more challenging in the evenings. I've been up 12 hrs. and have put in a full day in a very physically and mentally demanding job. Duh! And I thought it was just me being wimpy!
This morning's run was so nice. The first couple of k's were a little slippery but I thought that would just be good practice for the Resolution Run on New Year's Eve, those were the conditions last year. Then by 3K my MP3 player died. I had a momentary panic but adjusted within seconds to the sounds of the quiet falling snow, which gives this insulated sound to everything and to Shelby's footfalls. I looked around at all the beautiful snow covered trees - so pretty. That stretch of road, about 1 k was a dirt road which was gravelly and slippery so my pace slowed. Then I got to the pavement on some back roads which were only wet, and no cars - so I was able to fall into a nice rhythm and felt really good. The next 5k was really nice, quiet, country, no cars, not slippery. Once I got back to the main road I had about 2k left. I picked up the pace and felt really good but then I had to start going onto the gravelly, slippery shoulder every time a car came by, and had to finish off on some slippery sidewalks until I got back to my neighborhood and did one little loop to make it a full 10K - YAY! Everytime, I'd get to the end of a long stretch of road, I'd look back and say - Hey, I just owned that whole stretch of road! Empowering!

Second Good Thing of the Day:
Got a call on another job I applied for and was offered the position. I accepted. It's not the library job, but that one still might be a possibility. What a relief to be able to leave the job I am in. This new job has more flexible hours, pays more even though I'll be working less hours and is less physically demanding. It will allow me more time to focus on family, and I'll be able to get some morning runs in. It really is time for a change! I've been feeling kind of burnt out, and it's the running that has kept my energy levels up and sanity intact.

So that is why my husband said I should go out and buy a lottery ticket. Good things do come in threes. As far as good days and bad days go, so far this one is pretty high up there on the good list!

All Signed Up!

Officially registered - for the 10K

Last year we got those bright yellow jackets.

This year it's

 Not too bad
Ran 5k tonight without a break - I learned to run by building up to running 10 mins./walking 1 min. and just kept doing that, but the 10k training I'm doing is different. I managed to do the 5k, no problem, breathing was nice and steady, I did feel it in the legs, the last 100m. But then again, I'm used to having a rest day in between runs, and this plan only has 2 rest days out of 7. I'll see how it goes. So far so good. Definitely kicking it up a notch. Tomorrow, tempo run.

4X400

So started my 10K training today. First on the list - 4X400 - On paper that sounds pretty easy. Saying it out loud, sounds pretty easy - doing it - not as easy as I thought! But I did it and felt great when I was done.
It's my first time training like this and I think I'm going to like changing it up, with the tempo runs, long run, and what I did today, I can see how a person could barf doing that type of interval training. I like the idea too of some days running for distance and some days running for time.
Here's my Garmin screen capture:

Round, and round.... where the red lines jut out  shows me walking to pick up dog poop during my cool down walk at the end. I let Shelby off leash at that point and, well, dogs will be dogs. Then you can see where I had to walk past my car to find a garbage can. Love my Garmin!

OK - here I go

Today my friend Patti from church gave me the 10K training plan and I have to say, It's got me excited about running again. I think I was getting tired of doing the same thing day in day out, not changing it up enough.
We are going to try to run together on Fridays for our long runs with a couple of other gals.
Here is an actual archive photo of the local high school's track. The school's been around for a l-o-o-ng time.

So tomorrow I'll be running here doing 4x400 - sounds like a nice change.  I also like that the schedule changes up to be running some days for distance and some days for time. I think this will really help get me back on track.