From "fat" to "fast"

This cold weather won't let up! Unfortunately, my electric blanket chose this week to stop working. It was hard to make myself get out of bed this morning.

I've been doing my long runs on Sundays for the past several months, because I was following the Hansons Marathon Method, so it felt weird to do a long run today. I've always preferred to do my long runs on Fridays or Mondays, when the kids are in school, because it's easier for me to get away. Today, I knew I was going to do 8-12 miles, but that was as specific as I got before heading out. I wore my Cold Gear tights, a Cold Gear shirt with a jacket over it, an ear warmer headband, and gloves.

When I walked the boys to the bus stop, I could tell Noah was proud that I was a runner, which I thought was cute. He told me that his friends on the bus saw me yesterday, and they were "really impressed"; they said, "Wow, your mom is a FAST runner!" ;)

That made me think of a time when Noah was in preschool, and he told me that he wished that I wasn't fat. Being a preschooler, he didn't know that was an insensitive thing to say; preschoolers just call it like they see it! I hadn't realized that even at that age, he knew it was undesirable to be fat. He was embarrassed of me. And today, he gave me a hug before getting on the bus. It made me feel good!

I was freezing at the bus stop, so as soon as the kids got on the bus, I started running. I couldn't get warm. Usually, by a mile or two in, I'm warmed up. But it was kind of windy today, and I wasn't getting any warmer. The first few miles were tough, and I decided I would turn around at mile four, and just do eight miles (my minimum for a long run). I wasn't paying any attention to my pace, because I held a good pace yesterday and didn't want to get discouraged if I was running much slower today.

Mile four sneaked up on me, because my Garmin beeped and I wasn't prepared to cross the street and turn around. In that moment, I was feeling good, and I thought, "Maybe I"ll just go another mile before turning, and run 10 today..." so I kept running. When I turned around at mile five, the run felt a little easier, because I had a tailwind.

I felt great until I reached mile seven. Then I really wished I'd turned around at mile four, so I could be done after eight. My legs felt tired, but then once I only had a mile left, I picked up the pace quite a bit so that I could just get it done. I managed a sub-9:00 mile for the last mile.

I was dying to get warm. I took a hot shower, and then decided to spend my Activity PointsPlus on a bagel from Tim Hortons for breakfast. I got a cinnamon raisin bagel and a decaf coffee. When I got home, I put PB & Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter on the bagel. It was a great way to spend 11 PP!

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My cats have been cracking me up lately. Ever since I let Paolo drink water from the faucet in the bathtub, he's gotten spoiled. Whenever he hears me go into the bathroom, he runs in there, jumps in the tub, and starts meowing until I turn on the faucet. When I come in from a run, he knows I'm going to shower, so he runs in there to wait.

The other cats were curious about what the heck was going on in there, and they've been sitting on the side of the tub, watching Paolo like he has two heads or something. For a while, it was just Paolo drinking the water, and the other cats sitting on the edge of the tub watching. Then when Paolo would jump out, the other cats would eventually work up the courage to venture into the tub to see what the big deal was.

Phoebe and Estelle just sat there, completely fascinated, watching the water. Eventually, Chandler wanted to see what all the fuss was about, too. Estelle is always too scared to actually touch the water, but yesterday, Phoebe finally did. She started batting at it, like she would with a string. Her face was priceless! I wish I'd gotten a picture. She was so surprised that it was water, and not something that she could bat around. I wish I could hear the cats' thoughts.

When I was at the Purina ONE headquarters in St. Louis, we were told that cats love to drink from running water because it's more natural that way than sitting stagnant in a bowl. There are water fountains you can buy for pets, so that they have running water available without having to leave a faucet on, but I think they're pretty expensive. However, I've kind of spoiled Paolo by turning on the faucet whenever he wants water, so I may end up getting suckered into buying one!