Sometimes It's Nice to Sleep In

We slept 12 hours last night. How cool is that? Of course, Moana was up at 3:30 and 6:30 to eat, but each time we went back to bed. An awesome thing about Moana is that she's pretty good about entertaining herself these days. After the 6:30 feeding she was ready to be awake and play, though her dad and I were not. So Scott put her on her quilt underneath her play gym and she quite happily talked to herself while batting those animals until she fell back asleep on her own. Love that.

Our lazy morning involved french toast, coffee, and a big English Premier League soccer game on TV. Before I met Scott, I didn't know there was such a thing as the English Premier League. Now, since the games are on at our house every weekend morning throughout the winter, I know the players on the big teams better than I know any of the players currently catching footballs on TV (which isn't saying much since prior to the pre-game show today I couldn't have named a single player on either team)... The funny thing is that Moana really gets into the soccer games now too. This morning I was feeding her but she was facing away from the TV... afterward she was arching her back and straining her head and generally acting very dissatisfied... until I turned her around and let her see the tube. Apparently her dad is teaching her all about the game while I'm out riding on Saturday mornings. My daughter may be the next Mia Hamm.

So if you've been following my blog, you know that I'm all about becoming a better runner this year. Today I'm proud to say that I went to the track! First though, I need to admit shamefully that while there is a high school track that is a 20 minute jog from my house, I have lived here 4+ years without ever stepping foot on it. Until today.

You're starting to get it aren't you? The reason why the run is such a weakness of mine? I've never exactly put the work in to make myself a runner. With a track so close to my home going completely unutilized by me, it's not that hard to figure out. But all that is over now.

I jogged over to the track with the intention of running some 800's. I was hoping to figure out what 7:20 pace felt like... thinking that a 45 minute 10K seems like a respectable goal. That would be challenging yet attainable for me I think, though really, what do I know since I don't know pace like that.

Castle High School has a dirt track, with no painted lines to speak of. The inside lane was a mud puddle in some places, but overall, not a bad place for me to go run. I drew my own line in the dirt so I could get my splits, and took off on the first 800 with no real goal other than to establish a baseline for myself and for future workouts. I came through the first 400 in 1:45 and thought to myself, "Wow, 7:30 pace is harder than I thought..." Clearly, I was unaware of 400 splits and couldn't do math at all. I didn't figure it out until I finished that 800 in 3:32 and realized that 1:45 is 7 min pace, not 7:30. Duh. I did some more 800's like that and then jogged back home with a sense of satisfaction and hope for the future. As Bruce is singing right now, "I'm working on a dream..."