Well hello 2012

Being the total party-er I am... I was in bed by 9pm last night. I saw no point in staying up till midnight especially as I was committed to an 8 mile run the next day.

I never had the pizza as I over did it in spinach dip so I had my Dr. Oetker 5 calorie Strawberry Mousse, two glasses of Bellini in a bottle and I was done.

This morning I was up by 8am and planned to go for my run/walk at 11am in the hope it would warm up a bit before hand. We've had gorgeous weather and pretty warm for December, heck Monday is supposed to be +9c. Today not so much.

Before heading out I took down the Christmas decorations, did laundry and took my measurements. I also joined the Sisterhood of the Skinny Jeans as I liked the sound of their challenge "Shrink Yourself in 2012" as that goes very well with Operation Butterfly. Apparently there will be fitness challenges to be honest I'm not 100% sure I'll be talking part in those especially as my focus is half marathon training until the race on Jan 31. After that sure.

The run itself went o.k. After mile 6 I had pain in my left foot that I thought was a cramp but every time I started to run it didn't feel right so I walked the rest of the way but my energy seriously started to sag after mile 7. It probably doesn't help having a rather high point evening.

7.75 miles/ 1:47:13/ Pace Avg 13.50 mi/hr/ 645 calories burned/ Max HR 165. I'm still happy with my pace though mile 6 was 14:02 and mile 7 was 14:52. Still above the course minimum of 16min/mi, so I'm happy with that. The goal for this race is to finish and run 2:1 intervals. I did that today for the first 6 miles at least. I love the Gym Boss, that thing is awesome as I don't need to stare at my watch. It just beeps and vibrates. The best thing exercise wise that I've bought well that and the Garmin.

I really need to pay attention to the food on run days as that can certainly impact performance.

Yes I was .25 of a mile short but I was freezing and wet with sweat. It was still -11 with windchill today which I normally wouldn't call cold but after you've about there for almost 2hrs you feel it. I did earn 12 AP and am going to eat half of those today as that's a pretty high number for one day.

The next run is Wednesday and it's 5 miles and that will be on a treadmill at camp. I plan all other runs on Fridays and Sundays to be outside from now on.

I plan to do yoga tomorrow and Tuesday.

I'm trying to get my head around going back to work tomorrow and getting up at 3:45am to catch the plane. So I've collected all the things I need to take with me, haven't packed it yet but that will happen before I go to bed.

Right now the only I need to do is take out the garbage and that will happen shortly as I want to do that before it gets dark.

As I was going around the neighbourhood on my walk/run my mind did turn to goals for 2012. Goal weight is the number one goal for 2012 as I've said before but I'd also like to learn to run...properly. Not like recently where I sign up for half marathon and then plan to learn to run. This time after the half marathon I want to do it properly work on it and then when I'm ready run a 5K, then a 10k, then maybe run a half marathon and maybe just maybe I'll shoot for a marathon. Right now I'm eyeing a 5K on May 27, that coincides with the Calgary Marathon. It's 6 days before my birthday and just sort of spoke to me.

I want to learn to love running like so many people do, right now I don't enjoy it but I think that has a lot to do with carrying an extra 42lbs.

I did order compression pants that should be hear next week I'm wondering if that will make a difference. I've heard it does for many so I'll see.

Alright my friends that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed yourselves last night no matter what you did.

Hugs!!!