Never Enough T-Shirts

9:30, 9:11, 8:57, 8:41

Yesterday there was something weird going on with my back on the lower left side. I used the heating pad that Santa brought me and took it easy. Today I felt much better and although it took me a while to get moving, I went out for a run around 10 this morning. It started out cool but I warmed up pretty fast. I have finally figured out (after 3 and a half years living here!) that my runs go much better if I run around a housing loop that is fairly flat before tackling one of the 3-4 hills that I must go up to get anywhere. When I was heading out of that loop, I saw my husband in his car. He was coming back from his PHA (annual physical) and told me that he needs to run tonight, so I offered to go with him. He's got this weird rash and the doctor says that before he puts the medicine on it he needs to exercise to get the pores to open up or something. So I'm going out for another run later this evening, 3 miles probably. It started raining partway through, but a really enjoyable misty rain. Hope it clears up this afternoon/evening though so David and I can enjoy our run!

A rainy jog to the gym today and then 3 8:00 miles on the treadmill! I've been attempting this workout for the past 4 weeks (skipped last week though) and this is the first time I've really done it! The first time I made it 2 miles, had a little recovery time before a half and then more recovery before another half. The second time I made it 2 miles and then some recovery before the 3rd mile. Today I made it all 3 miles. Boy was there arguing going on in my head to knock that 3rd mile out! The first mile was so easy, but then by the end of the 2nd I had to bargain with myself to go for 3! Did another 2 miles on the treadmill to cool down and then the mile home.

Didn't end up going for my 2nd run with my husband yesterday because he had some dental work done and didn't feel great. After he exercises, he's not allowed to shower for 24 hours because of this medicine he has to take...today is our wedding anniversary and we didn't think that a nice dinner and NO shower after running would be a good combination, so we're waiting until tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

 This is my 3rd attempt writing this. I hit the wrong button and closed the browser once and let it sit too long another time. Third time's a charm though, right?

It was a cold (for Okinawa anyway), windy, rainy run today! My husband & I had been planning to run together. After much debate about whether to run at the gym (his choice...he needed to sweat for the meds the doc prescribed) or outside (my choice...I ran on the treadmill yesterday), we decided on outside. Then we went outside and it started raining while I waited for the Garmin to pick up signal. I don't mind rain if I've already started my run, but it's hard to start while it's already raining. We came back in and decided to go to the gym, but then I remembered that the gym would be closed. So we headed back out to run and it wasn't raining anymore! Isolated showers in Okinawa are like none I've ever seen...it had only been about 4 minutes from when it started raining! I stood there waiting for the Garmin, but David didn't want to wait and took off without me. I had fun chasing him up the hill. It's easy to drag up the hill, but having him ahead of me was really good motivation to speed up instead. I finally caught him right at the top. When I was getting closer, I was saying, "get to the speed limit sign before he gets to the tree" and "get to the brown sign before he gets to the stop light" and "get to the stop light before he gets across the street" and finally "catch him before he gets all the way across the street"! When I caught up with him, he said he was just going to do the rest of the 5k loop, but I wanted to run more, so I did a larger loop for 6 miles. It was SO windy! My hat blew off twice and it was tough running! Somehow, even when I was heading home, I was still running into the wind. When I was almost home, the sky ahead of me was blue and beautiful, with puffy white clouds. I turned my head to look and cross the street, and the skies to the side were dark grey. By the time I was about a half mile away from home, it was raining...not really pouring, but all the wind made it seem like it! I was so glad I was close to home by that time and had just a few minutes more to go! 

Enjoy your first run of 09! 

I declined a ride to running group this morning ...and a good thing, too, because the ride slept through her alarm and missed our run... so I jogged the mile to the gym to meet my "group" which turned out to be just one guy! When I was on the way there, I saw this guy walking down the street carrying 2 cartons of milk in a grocery bag. I thought it was very strange because the grocery store wouldn't open for three hours, and the shoppette (about a half mile away from my house...maybe give or take a little from where this guy was going) wouldn't open for another hour. There is another shoppette on the other side of base, about 3 miles away but I thought that 6 miles would be a long way to walk for milk. I wish I would've asked him. I'll probably be wondering about this forever!!

Anyway, my running partner Mike and I decided to run 10 miles, one of my favorite routes. We run along the main road for a while and then cut in to run on the sea wall for a few miles, and pass by lots of fishermen and a marina (I was really surprised that we didn't see any surfers...the waves were big!) Then we cross a pretty red bridge and take a pit stop at the Family Mart (like Japanese 7-11 with sushi instead of Slurpees!) and then head back. The weather was great and our run was peaceful, other than tons of "motorcycles"...the kind that sound more like bumblebees than well, motorcycles. 

I thought maybe I'd make it to Power Yoga which started at 9, but when I went into the gym, I learned that it actually starts at 8. So I ran back home for a total of 12 miles. My knees were a little creaky today, but other than that I felt really great!