Snow! Training Log; 5.4 miles

It snowed today in middle Tennessee! It was absolutely beautiful! They closed the Y and postponed our Inversion Christmas party (which means I won't be able to attend), but it turned out OK: I got to make snow angels and a snow man, and I got a chance to chat with my neighbors, whom I've only seen once, and that was when they moved in.

Snow angels! There wasn't too much snow, but there was just enough to have fun in :-)

My snowman, named Dia because he'll probably last only a day

I was in the middle of running on the treadmill at the Y when they decided to close because of the snow. I guess they wanted to let us drive home safely or something. It wasn't bad when I was out (although I am used to it), but Luke just called and said that the top of Lynwood way is terrible; they almost slid into two people while trying to get to the other side, so they turned around and went the other way. I'm glad I didn't go over to their house to play in the snow with them. At least I had a little company here (tho not a 9-year-old with unlimited energy and enthusiasm).

My goal was to run 10 miles at marathon pace (8:23 according to the book; that will get me across the finish line in 3:39:39 if I can do it). I warmed up 1.25 miles, then set the treadmill to 7.2 mph (8:20 pace, which will get me across the finish line in 3:38:20 if I can keep that up).

• Mile 1: 8:17.10
• Mile 2: 8:16.43
• Mile 3: 8:17.69
• Mile 4: 8:17.00
• Mile 5: 1:20.08 (this was where they started turning the lights on and off and telling us that we needed to leave)

I can't figure out how I finished every mile under 8:20 when that was the pace I was supposedly at. Oh, well, I'm happy with the times and will probably continue to run pace runs at 7.2. I'm most happy with the fact that I ran them all within 1 second of each other (the slight variation probably occurred when I was splitting--I didn't always get it right when the mile changed). Then it was home to play in the snow!