Dreary day

Today was the dreariest day ever. It rained all day long, melting the snow so that the snow got all gray and slushy, and it was really foggy outside. Naturally, it would happen to be my long run day, giving me the torturous decision of whether to run outside or on the treadmill.

After I got the boys off to school, I procrastinated for a bit, and then finally decided I needed to get it done. I went outside just long enough to throw the cat litter in the trash, and decided that it was definitely a treadmill day. Running through slush is more difficult than running on ice or snow! So I picked a new show on Hulu to watch for the next hour and forty minutes or so. It was a show called Twisted, a teen murder-mystery that I hoped would keep me interested through 11 miles.

I used my foot pod, since the Garmin was so inaccurate when I used it on the treadmill. My sister sent me a link to an article that explains about the issue--the Garmin 620 and 220 are NOT meant to be used indoor without a foot pod after all. Garmin didn't make that very clear in their description of the watch, and a lot of people (including me) have been disappointed/confused by it. The purpose of the accelerometer inside of the chest strap is just to measure cadence (steps per minute), oscillation (bounce), and ground contact time. It does NOT give you pace or distance, which is why the foot pod is required. Here is a link to the article.

I set the treadmill at 6.4 mph and tried to forget I was running (haha). At first, the time was just crawling by, especially because I wasn't that interested in the show I was watching. I felt just fine physically, though, so I knew I'd be mad at myself if I quit just because I couldn't handle the mental part of treadmill running.

I ran at 6.4 until the last mile, when I bumped up the speed by 0.1 mph every minute until I was done. The second episode of Twisted finished right as I was finishing my run, so it was perfect timing.

After my run, I had to go get a couple of groceries, and while I was at the store, I picked out a long run treat: ice cream! I got a tiny container of Haagen Dazs dulce de leche. I used to love this ice cream; I forgot just how good it is! The container is pathetically small, though--3.6 fluid ounces--for 240 calories.

Today was the boys' last day of school before Christmas break. They're off school now for two weeks! For the past couple of years, I took them to a day camp at an ice arena during their break, but they aren't doing the camp this year. The kids are so disappointed. We'll have to come up with some creative things to do for the next couple of weeks.

My mom went to visit Mark today, and she sent me this picture of him:

She said that he was having a blast while handing out candy to all the nurses :)  I'm hoping that Jerry and I will be able to go visit him tomorrow. As long as Mark doesn't have any testing or anything going on, we'll go see him in the afternoon, and I'll bring him some more cards.

It REALLY does not feel like a Friday night... maybe because I don't have my pajamas on before 6 pm? Hahaha, I think Jerry and I are going to have a date night tonight, because the boys are at my parents' house!