Quick shakeout with a cult classic

With a half marathon on my agenda for tomorrow, I wanted to get in a short, easy shakeout run today. I have a date with Sarah right after work, so it was first thing this morning or never... 5:15 a.m. and I was up and prepping for my run.

I felt a little blurry, too :)

I did just 2.11 miles at a slow pace...

... while finishing Pump Up the Volume, one of the most-awesome movies from my youth!

I have to say, now working in alternative education with at-risk youth, the movie took on a deeper meaning for me.

I ran on the treadmill with both garage doors wide open so I could take in the cool(ish), cloudy morning. Last night's rain smelled amazing!

My dogwood comes on early and turns early. Beautiful. Can't wait for fall :)

Brad came in to do his shakeout right after me and promptly stripped down to his undies. Fortunately for you, he would not allow me to snap a photo to commemorate the occasion ;) Undies, socks and running shoes is quite hilarious. He was a little unsure where to clip the treadmill emergency stop cord :)

No. 38

My latest read, No. 38, is Death of a Garden Pest by Ann Ripley.

It's a good murder mystery involving a garden-show host. There are a lot of gardening and plant tips - I think I learned something!

I did notice there were many typos in the text - like missing letters. That's always really distracting to me. Where's your editor??

:)

You know you're a runner when...

Love a good running joke? I found a whole site full of 'em! Check it out :)

Just a couple of my favs:

HA! :)

House guest

We're foster parents! Kind of :)

This little gal is staying in our house for the next year while her family sails away.

Avon is a sweet girl, but she's really simple. We always thought Linus was dumb, but apparently he was a genius! ;)

Intervals and lots of learning

Threw on my new racing flats for this morning's interval speed workout. I love how flashy they are - makes me feel fast!

I did 8 x 400s at 5K pace - 3.57 miles in all.

Then I went to district office for two half-day training sessions for Synergy, our new student information system.

Spent half of yesterday there, too, for more training on Destiny, our new library system.

Hopefully I'm ready to start school now :)

At lunch, I ran to nearby Winco for some groceries. This made me so happy:

:)

Early run: 25-10

25-10... that was my reward today. For the cost of getting up before the sun, I had the opportunity to run with almost no traffic ;) 

When I noticed how few cars I was seeing, I started counting cars vs. people. By 4.5 miles, when I hit busier Durham Road, I had encountered 25 people and just 10 cars. Very nice!

After suffering through several hot afternoon runs, I finally forced myself to get up early this morning. I really don't mind it... after the initial shock of getting out of bed.

Some low clouds delayed the sunrise. Fine with me - the longer I can stay out of the sun the better!

My driveway sunflowers are finally out!

Starting to peek:

Always thankful for this drinking fountain in Summerfield, a couple miles from my front door:

All done... here comes the sun:

Just 6 miles today:

Canby's Dahlia half marathon next weekend :)

No. 37

Just In Case, by Meg Rosoff, was another read from the THS library. Interesting story of a teen who thinks Fate is out to get him. He may be right :)

:)