This fun bloggy world

I am having so much fun with this blog.  As you can see from the address I did attempt another blog (I didn't think to change it until I was well under way with this current blog) but I don't think I made it past one post.  With that said I am very much an amateur when it comes to running and modifying my blog (I'm guessing most people are at first).  It has been fun, and sometimes frustrating, to figure out new ways to manipulate and personalize my blog.  Last night I was up way, way, way too late because I finally stumbled upon FREE (amazing!) blog backgrounds and couldn't go to bed until I looked at every single one - and tried out a good handful on my site.  I was thrilled when I finally figured out how to get widgets on here through the HTML/Java gadget (so simple- I know!).  I am still trying to figure out how to format a picture in my header (right now it's just one huge pic) but since I don't read the language of HTML it might be awhile until I get that one right :).  I guess the bottom line is that I am having a great time figuring all this out and I'm getting more and more "into it" everyday.  I sit down every morning before work and every evening before bed and read everyone's blogs - it's pretty great :)!

Today's run was a mix of good and bad.  It was my first official day on my new and improved training plan and it called for 3 miles.  I wasn't too worried about the distance because it wasn't much farther than what I've been running the last few weeks (plus I've been dying to up my mileage so it was great).  I did, however, miscalculate my route, big time.  There is a bike trail right by my house that goes back into the woods and connects up to a bunch of trails all around town.  On my way home from work today I caught a glimpse of the trail closest to my house and it looked clear and dry of all snow- I was psyched because this meant that I could just go right out the front door, no driving somewhere to run.  YEAH!  Well, R (the BF) and Coop came out with me- they were going to walk and I was going to run- and I kid you not as soon as we crossed into the first part of the trail from the sidewalk Coop stepped on a piece of glass and cut open his paw (some jerk tossing a beer bottle I'm sure : ( !!).  He was bleeding a fair amount so R took him home but I really needed to get the run in so I kept going (I know, I should be hauled away for not helping out my injured dog).  The first part of the run was great and then at about .75 of the first mile I hit the other side of the trail.  It was awful!  Completely covered in slushy snow, soooo hard to run in- I was slipping and sliding everywhere.  I was able to go for about 1 mile out and back but it was brutal and I had to walk quite a bit.  The goodish part of this is that I felt good physically- I think if the whole thing was pavement I would've done pretty good.  For the last 1.5 miles I was fairly wiped from "running" in the slush so was a little on the slow side but I was just glad to get the mileage in.  I also got to use my Garmin (love it!) which was nice since most of my runs have been on the treadmill the last couple of weeks.  Overall I was happy with my run (not very happy with my pace due to the slushy snow).

Stats (hmmm, so official sounding :)):
Mile 1- 16:00
Mile 2- 17:08
Mile 3- 15:15
best pace 8:14 (don't know if I trust the Garmin on this...)
slowest pace 22:00 (very slushy snow)

Here I am before heading out for my run...

...and right after- talk about sweaty!!

My poor Coop after the cut.  It seems to be ok but we really need to watch it-I'm worried about infection.  

I just want to say CONGRATS to everyone that ran Boston yesterday.  I've read a couple of great race reports and look forward to reading many more!

'The training is constant.  You just have to stick with it and you'll be successful.  I use running to stay healthy and burn off the day's stress'

Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger