Still no running for me.  Lifting and stepperfication this morning.  I thought running with this injury was painful, but the lack of running hurts even worse.  My weight has ballooned up to 176.  Meh. 

I don't like the tone of this (too whiny), so let me start again.  Tonight is tae kwon do, and PBJster #1 gets her yellow belt.  PBJ Jr. and I already received ours on Saturday.  My yellow belt testing assessment was that my endurance is good (no shocker there), but my fexibility needs improvement.  How true.  Time to work on it.

Have a terrific Tuesday everyone.

Good morning!  Well, no run for me, yet.  I might go out for a short 3 to 4 miler later on, we'll see.  Since I'm not working, I get to go to my grandson's and granddaughter's preschool Christmas party.  Then I get to come home and be Santa Clause for my DW's daycare kids.  Yeah--all 130 pounds of me playing Santa Clause.  I don't know why they just can't wait for the real one--he'll  be here in a few days. 

I also picked up a part-time job writing test papers for 4th graders in Texas.  I write a little story and then ask 2 questions.  the questions depend on the subject they're being tested on.  I've done two, already, and they were pretty fun.  But this one is on Similies and Metaphores.  I'm okay with similies but the metaphores are driving me nuts for some reason.

Okay--that's it for now.  I gotta go practice my Ho Ho Ho-ing.

Thanks for that link, Marj.  I have all of my routes mapped out on this RA's mapping feature but I've always wanted to get a GPS so I could venture off on different trails that I come to or go off in a different direction because of how the wind is blowing.  But, after reading that, I might just save my money.  I had a Timex-two piece-thing a long time ago that worked for about a month and even during that time was terrible.  I thought they had all the bugs worked out of them by now.

Hey!  Cool pictures!  Really cute kids!  That reindeer dosn't look like he's enjoying himself though.

I RAN THIS MORNING!!!   Only 3 miles and they were slow ..... negative splits though!!        It was all I could do to get out of bed and Brinkley was anxiously hoping he could go with me.   That part is harder than getting out of bed.   Well....sort of .....   Before I left I turned my leg lamp on in the front window so I could find my way home.

Nono - your pictures are adorable!!  

MikeE - you are not working?   Oh, I have missed so much.    Your part time writing story sounds like fun though.   Ho-Ho-Ho.

Tim - you are now certifiable.....nuts that is.

Karin - so happy that the J's are all improving.   Here's to a happy and healthy 2012!!

Rose - I believe I saw that same man in the sky this morning.

Cheers!!

A solid track work out this morning. I must take advantage of this weather. It's not often that you can still get an outdoor track workout in this time of year. I have a 4 mile race targeted for the first weekend in Feb.

7.5 miles total. 6x800 intervals on 300m rest.

 

4 more days 'till Christmas - any procrastinators still making their lists???

Any chance you can buzz over to the pro shop and pick me up a Clay Matthews Jersey for my wife?

I've been garmin free for well over a year now. I broke free from the chains !

Mike...The garmin has a way of turning you into it's slave. I have literally bagged runs because I forgot to put the Garmin on the charger. There is no sense in running if you can't measure it. I have also cut runs short because the battery died in the middle of a run. This is most likely to happen on the days of your planned long run. 1 1/2 hours into it...It dies. The screen goes blank and there you sit. The only thought weaving thru your brain is how are you possibly going to log this run. You don't even know how long the screen has been blank. Now your log is totally screwed.

You have to allow extra minutes for the satellite link. It links faster if it's stationary so you lay it on the ground and pace back and forth in your driveway checking occasionally  to see if it's linked up yet...all this time your nieghbor is peering out the window trying to figure out what the hell your doing.

Then you'll find that you set out to run 7 miles...You turn down your block on the tail end of your run, check your distance...carp, your off .12 so you run down to the end of your block, turn around and come back...dang it, need another .08. So that's another trip to the other end of your block. (The nieghbor is watching again)

You'll learn that you can custom set the splits so you set it to beep every mile. Every mile it beeps and you obediently turn your wrist to check your split.

Even though this thing takes over your running you'll love having it.

Sometimes with the Garmin, sometimes without it.  I'd use it more often if I had more confidence in its accuracy.  You recall I wrote an article about this some time ago.  We've been through this before.  I wear mine out of town when I don't know the route and I want an APPROXIMATE distance run.

5 miles this morning at the park with my RP, crisp, windy day, and the first day I felt as if I had any energy after Saturday's poor race. 

Mike, think of a metaphor as being the same as a simile but without the "like".  Remember Alfred Noyes' famous poem "The Highwayman," was always used as a great way to show a metaphor:  "the moon was a ghostly galleon upon a starlit sea."  So there the moon is a metaphor for a ship on a sea.  Were it a simile, it would have said, "the moon was like a ghostly galleon..."

Nono, you know how I love those kids.  Great pics.

My sister, Joe the Streak's wife, sent this to me today:

A TOUCHING CHRISTMAS STORY

A couple was Christmas shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve and the
mall was packed.
Walking through the mall the surprised wife looked up and noticed her
husband was nowhere around and she was very upset because they had a lot to do.
She used her cell phone to call her husband because she was so upset,
to ask him where he was.
The husband in a calm voice said, honey remember the jewlery store we went into
5 years ago where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we
could not afford and I told you that I would get it for you one day.
His wife said crying, yes I remember that jewlery store.
He said, well I'm in the bar next to it.

I'm shooting a training film in Pittsburgh tomorrow and all packed to fly out this afternoon.  See you all on Friday.  Spareribs