Feeling Warm & Fuzzy!

I got some more miles in tonight, thanks to Daniel offering to stay home with Ethan so I could get some gym time.  Turns out our little man has a lingering ear infection now that he's mostly over his croup.  Not sure if he'd still be contagious or not, so we went the safe route and Daniel stayed home with him.

My workout was such a blessing!  I did my upper-body weights routine again, and realized that tonight's workout officially marks 16 straight weeks of completing my upper-body routine.  I only do it once a week - according to the plan I put together with the personal trainer - but I have definitly seen a difference in how toned my arms look, how strong I feel, and how many pull-ups I can do.  :)  I'm still using the most assistance possible on the pull-up machine, but have gone from barely being able to do 3 sets of 8, to having done 4 sets (12, 10, 10, 8) for the last two weeks.  I might even get brave enough to switch out to a lower amount of assistance.  Right now the machine is actually lifting about 112 lbs of me, so I'm only having to put out a about 84lbs of lifting.  My goal is to be able to do one complete pull-up unassisted, and then build up to ten.

After completing my upper body workout, I was able to hop on the treadmill for my first baby-free run since I took my break.  I originally intended to do 5 miles, but got into mile 2 and realized I only had about 20 minutes left before I told Daniel I'd be home.  Woops!  So I decided I'd finish out three miles and call it a night.  I'm really thrilled to report that I felt A.MAZ.ING while running tonight!  I did a warm-up mile at about a 4mph pace (for the first lap at least - I eventually got up to 4.5mph for the last two laps) and then was planning on doing speed intervals.  My plan was to do a lap at 5mph, then take it back down to 4.5mph for a lap and repeat until I was done with the mileage.  I felt so great at 5mph that I ended up doing the entire mile and calling it a "tempo" run.  Hehe!  Then I finished off with taking it down to 4.7 for the last mile.  At the end of it all my total time for the three miles was 38:33.  Not a PR - but definitely the best feeling run I can remember!

My  new shoes are working great!  They feel buttery soft in the cushioning realm, but yet still manage to provide a firm sense of stability.  Maybe it's just that I've missed out on those endorphins from taking a break these last two weeks, but after that run I'm in love with everything and everyone.  lol!

I'm planning to jump back in to my long run schedule, and have 9 miles staring me in the face for Saturday.  As of right now, I'm going to bask in the glow of my wonderful 3 miles and not worry about the cold 9 miles I'll be tackling alone on Saturday.   Kaylee is out of town so it looks like it's just me and the pavement.  Unless someone wants to join me for part of the journey!

For now, I'll just have to slip into dreamland thinking about this cute little Minnie-Mouse-ish skirt I've got my eyes on for the Disney race;