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Might be a while. Quite a while. Maybe until the next earth-bound asteroid.

Saturday 17 Feb

What a week.

I've had midterm breaks - but as the schools I work in are all over the place, in different areas some schools have them this week, and some have them next week. But I've been home on most days. Which is nice for a change.

When I've got free time I tend to just melt in front of the computer as you can tell, and I sometimes feel guilty about that, but it's a indulgence which I won't get too often, so I won't be too hard on myself.

Running-wise, erm, not so good. The left knee was a bit funny in the middle of the week, and I've only run twice, on Tuesday and today, both for about 20-25 minutes. I did, however, do a quick lap of the neighborhood in 11:12 today, only 2 seconds off "ultimate" pace. Ever since last week, when I did those 7 miles in 52:00, I've almost not wanted to get out of the house. Why? The "pressure" of living up to that pace. I've kept thinking that each time I have to either run 5 in 37, 38 minutes or 7 in 52, 53. It's time to lay the watch aside on the next few runs.

The house purchase has gone through. We're moving into a new sty soon.

Have a good week everyone!

Snow What and the Seven Miles

[rant]
We had our first significant snowfall on Thursday morning - that's if you consider two to four inches "significant". It was enough for many schools to decide to close for the day. The school that I was going to decided likewise - good to know after I'd arrived at the school office. They later turned students away as they arrived, and the reason for closure was not because the roads were congested and driving could be dangerous for the parents, but because not enough staff could get in. When the students can make it and the teachers seemingly can't, it sounds like an excuse to me. I was bit irritated too, because the bad conditions had been forecast and discussed, and the school had hinted the day before that it might close - on the day, they could have had a system of calling teachers early in the morning, then asking them each to call their students, to save every one making wasted trips. Like we did at one of my former schools. Inefficiency seems so much an entrenched part of this culture, and everyone seems to accept it. The idea seems to be to "wait for something bad to happen, then formulate a plan to deal with it".
[/rant]

I thought about running in the snow but decided against it - I didn't want to needlessly do myself any injury. The snow remained for much of Friday, turned slushy, and it's all but gone now. Rain is forecast for almost every day of the next week.

I did 7 miles this morning - four times around the usual loop and then a quarter-mile more. I've been running that loop for ages, but I didn't mind - it's easy to keep track of where I should be at any particular time. I could have run in the opposite direction, but that would have easily short-circuited my puny brain. I did the first two laps in 12:10 each, the third lap in 12:40 (passing 5 miles in 36:40), then continued for one more. The last lap was the hardest, seeing as I've only run further than 5 miles, shamefully, maybe two or three times in the last nine months. I had to mentally pull myself from lamp-post to lamp-post, car to car, fence to fence, shop sign to shop sign. That seemed to help. With about three-quarters of a mile to go I looked at the watch and it said 45-something (I think) and I felt okay enough to maintain that pace. Ended with a little sprint. Final time, 7 miles, 52:00, 7:26 mins/mile.

That's my running tokens from this week used up. I'd better stretch. Happy running!

Fahreeze

There is a chill in the air. January might have been a month for precipitation records on your side of the Atlantic; over here it has been the hottest January in Britain for 60 years - but that's all disappeared in the last few days as we moved into February. This morning's weather while I was GROWing was 29F. I don't know if I've ever run when it's that cold - usually I wait until it's warmed up, but circumstances dictated the time of run today. At least it was bright by 7am (we're getting about 10 hours of daylight each day). I did the usual 20-minute run under 8:00 pace, followed by some pressups to warm my hooves. I'm going to have to resume my romance with the BBC 24-hour weather web page.

My left shoulder and knee are funny. I expect that from my knee, which is like that when it's cold - although I wouldn't go as far as to claim the "arthritis" word. My shoulder - that's a new thing from last week. It feels a little pulled forward, so I'll have to go even more economy on the already-economy weights regime.

Today's weights:

3 sets, pressups
2 sets, bicep curls
2 sets, tricep kickbacks
1 set, bent-over lateral raises

2 sets, leg extensions
2 sets, calf raises
1 set, leg lateral raises

(Don't mention the "ab" word.)

I did all these quickly, and in front of the TV while watching the Superbowl video (still playing). Don't tell me who's won. I'm not sure about the Prince half-time singing - thank goodness for the fast-forward button.

This time next year I'd like to get an exercise bike. With the stepper, we've never had the need for a bike, but I think riding a bike and getting used to a higher-than-running cadence might help. I look forward to doing bricks too.

My next immediate goal is to comfortably run 7 miles under 54, 55 minutes.

Pig out!

lacking structure

My Thursday school called to say they were having an Academic Review Day and students would be in for short appointments only. I should have checked earlier for these sort of one-off events, but now I've unexpectedly got a day off - good, maybe, but that eats into the days that I'd set aside for moving. With the day off on Saturday I had as well, it feels like I'm out of sync with the working week. Sometimes the week feels longer when I've had an extra day at home and the structure's disturbed.

I only did two laps of the neighbourhood lap today, but managed to get the first in 11:10. I finally finished under 24 minutes, and if my Brainmin is correct, that's a grand total of over six 800m intervals in 3:33, back-to-back-to-back. Or, if you prefer, three "Devil's miles" - 800m in 3:33 = 1600m in 6:66? In a way, I'd rather a long stretch of quick running than do intervals, because I think it develops that "push" mentality which I lack.

I've also done the usual round of weights during the course of the day, but apart from that, the only running I've done is chasing up the paperwork for the house.

Can't wait to get back to work. Freak, I know, but this is the blog about it all right.