Sunday, 12/1/2013 to Saturday, 12/7/2013

I ran 2 times this week, 16.3 miles.

Sunday, 12/1/2013: Rest day

My darling Christine and I cocooned and relaxed all day. I did make it out to Dibella's to get a sub for supper. Christine wanted horseradish on her half but it was put on both halves ... wow!

Monday, 12/2/2013: Another rest day

I took a couple of hours off to take my darling Christine to her mammogram appointment at 3:30 PM. After the radiologist told her that she was OK for another year, we went home to eat an early supper since we were both hungry. I should have eaten a bowl of cereal and went out for a run instead but ... woulda, coulda, shoulda. But I went with food instead.

Tuesday, 12/3/2013: 9.3 miles, 1:14:25, 8:00 pace, 36F, 69% RH, night, calm.



I was antsy and needed a run so out I went. I wore my trail shoes since my road shoes had too many miles on them. I decided to do my usual 10K route and then added on a loop which turned out to be pretty much 15K. The things I like about my 10K route are that it is pretty flat, it doesn't take me too far away from the apartment, I can throw in Chapel Hill Drive if I want a small hill and also it has lots of loops for variation. So finding a loop that adds up to 15K was a definite win!

Anyway, I took it nice and easy: 7:57, 8:05, 8:01, 8:05, 7:48, 8:01, 7:56, 8:02, 8:09 and 7:53 over the last 0.3 miles. A run and two of my daughter's cookies afterward ... exactly what I needed!

Later, Christine and I went OnDemand and rented Red 2. Nice, shoot 'em up movie!

Wednesday, 12/4/2013: Rest day.

Christine and I watched a 30th Anniversary DVD version of "Animal House" that I bought from Groupon. She had never seen it before!

Thursday, 12/5/2013: 7 miles, 54:50, 7:50 pace, about 50F, dark, a bit windy.

I needed to run, dilly-dallied like usual but got out at 6:45 PM. I did my usual 10K route plus a bit more. I went a bit faster this time. I tried to upload my Garmin 301XT data but I accidentally turned off the Garmin just as it was starting to upload and really hosed everything up!

Friday, 12/6/2013: Rest day.

I made a spur of the moment decision and signed up for the Nittany Valley Half Marathon down in State College PA. My darling Christine's brother, Rich and his wife Jill live there and came up to our wedding last year. So ... once I heard about this race about a year or so ago I had thought of running it. So I have been thinking about it off and on. Well ... I will in a couple of days. I signed up with Active.com for $25 and then got a Quality Inn in State College for Saturday night. The Brooks Racing Team order is in so I plan on picking up my new Garmin Adrenaline GTS 14 shoes and christening them on Sunday. Well, maybe on Saturday afternoon just to shake the dust off of them.

I totally uninstalled all my Garmin software and reinstalled it. I deleted my run data from Thursday off of my Garmin 310XT and Garmin Connect still thought it was there. Then I unpaired and repaired the ANT chip and my Garmin 310XT. This forced it to totally upload all its activities. It uploaded a 20 second "test" run ... so I think it's all good.

Saturday, 12/7/2013: Travel day.

I got up early at 7 AM to get ready. My darling Christine had trouble sleeping the night before so she had trouble waking up. We finally got out the door around 10 AM. Our first stop was Fleet Feet Brighton where I picked up my Brooks Racing Team order. A bright, shiny new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14 shoes were inside. What better way to break them in but the Nittany Valley Half Marathon?

So ... onward we went. Christine's brother, John, and his wife, Jill, live in State College PA about 2 miles from Penn State. So that's where we went and arrived at 3:23 PM. I didn't know that we were going to stay there for the night. So I had to get online and then call hotels.com to cancel my backup plan at the Quality Inn. I called at 3:45PM and the website said that I could cancel until 4 PM. They tried to give me a song and dance about the cancel deadline was 3 PM. I did get our hotel cancelled ... I'll wait and see if I get my checking account credited. UPDATE: It was.

Bill and Jill made a nice dinner for us. Christine and I went to bed early in a spare upstairs bedroom with a very nice, warm and comfy double bed. I really needed to get some sleep before the race tomorrow morning.