TGIF!

Hey guys! Today is a GREAT day! Today is Bonus Day at work. The one day a year where you don't mind and even look forward to going to work. Yippeee! And since Brent and I work in the same place that's double the cha-ching. Financially we had a great year last year, so the bonuses ere extra special. I'm the person who calculates them, so it's been tough knowing since early January and not telling anyone. Yay bonuses!!!

Anyway, I have not had much time to blog or read blogs this week. Brent and I have a lot of big stuff we're working on personally, so we've been staying focused in the evening and getting a LOT accomplished. Yay for getting stuff done!

Thanks for all the top cities comments. I'll tell you what mine is later - and it's actually one someone mentioned! (and it's NOT Nashville, by a long shot!!)

The beautiful temps of Tuesday continued through Wednesday and most of Thursday. Wed we met a friend for lunch at the only place around here that has outdoor seating. I couldn't believe how many morons were eating indoors - it was 74F with a beautiful light breeze. That morning we volunteered to help sweep the parking lot, but of course no one thought we were serious! Since I had run Tues night and I am (sort-of) trying to take it easy on my foot we ended up walking Pippin. We did a little over 2 miles. He loved it!! We saw a couple of his doggy friends out walking and he just soaked up every minute of the nice evening. It was just TOO pretty not to make the most of it. Anyone who didn't should be shot! It felt so strange to be walking in just a T-shirt & jeans!

The weather guy had said temps were going to drop rapidly on Thursday, and I think he had originally they would start dropping in the morning. We had a nice "balmy" walk in the 65 degree morning and it was still perfect at lunch so we ate out on our deck. It's so funny to just watch Pippin "absorb" the nice breeze and wind. It was still 62F when we got home from work so we laced up our sneakers and went for a run. We did our usual 6 mile route through the neighborhood. Quite a few people were out walking, but nearly as many as there should have been. We didn't scare anyone but one two-some of ladies must have been British. When we run we stay towards the right, and when we meet people one of us will file behind the other, on the right. These two women saw us do that, and then moved over to the left - right in our way! My foot behaved itself for the most part. A couple of times I got a sharp pain, right when I picked up some speed on a slight hill. I slowed it down and focused on my form and was able to get rid of it. Hopefully no one else picked it up! We ran neg splits and ended up with a 9.08/mile average for the 6 miles. Lately I have been taking the first couple of miles slow and then picking it up for the last couple to see how the stupid foot feels about it.

It got colder as the night went on and this morning it was 31F. UGH! Back to coats, hats, gloves, etc. Pippin was less than thrilled about the change during our AM walk. Tomorrow we have 14 miles on our half marathon training plan. This will be my longest run since Miami!! It will be strange to return to the world of having some Clif Blocks and planning a 2 hour run. Next weekend we have the stairs challenge and the following weekend we have our local (small) half marathon. I ended up with 67 miles for February, and I lost 16 miles due to my injury. That's a huge drop from January's 146 and December's 169 during all the marathon training! I'd like to keep my mileage around 100 a month, until we start training for a fall marathon.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! I know there are several of you competing in marathons, ultras and some shorter races but all my links are saved at home! I've also got some great pics to post from this week so I'll add all that stuff later.

TGIF!