Today's Random Ramblings

Today I did a 6 mi loop of Golden Gate Park.  I'm not sure why, but 6 miles is a very round-number type of run for me.  I'm not sure if it is because Central Park was 6 miles around or if because given my pace it takes about 1 hr to complete a run of that length.  But I feel like I've accomplished something that I don't get if I do a 5 mile or 7 mile run.  This was also the first 6 miler I haven't had to take a walk break during since I've started rebuilding my base mileage.  Slowly but steady getting it back.

I recently discovered Threadless.com.  Well, I had heard of them before but only recently really looked at their shirts.  I fell in love with this one:

Sadly it's not available in the size I want.  Endless Sniffles.

I also recently heard about the Brooks promotion, "Dream."  Click on the link and play the video.  For every view it gets by December 21 Brooks is donating 5 cents to cancer research. It's got some cute snippets that runners will appreciate.

In addition to my regular job, I've recently designated myself Chief Temperature Engineer of our apartment.  During the winter, the back of our apartment (aka The Master Bedroom) gets hit with full sunshine the whole day.  This is wonderful because it becomes the warmest room in the apartment.  Conversely in the summer months the living room gets more light keeping the sleeping area a nice cooler temperature.  Anyhow, every morning I open up the shades in the bedroom, close the closet and bathroom door to minimize the amount of air that needs to be warmed up, and close the bedroom door to prevent the warm air from futilely migrating down the hallway towards the frigid living room.  We try to minimize using our heaters because they're electric and suck up money.  Just so you know, the temperature in the bedroom is currently over 70 degrees and the temperature in the living room is less than 60 degrees!  This Chief Temperature Engineer deserves a pay raise today!

The first book I borrowed from the library is "Bee Season."  It's not one I've been wanting to read in particular but it caught my eye.  When I was in NYC I went through a mad non-fiction reading frenzy.  So I decided to grab a fictional piece this time.

Since someone had difficulty with my link, the top I talked about in my last post that Boyfriend got me for Christmas last year is this one:

It's got hidden mittens, a hood with a pony tale port (it looks really stupid but if you've got long hair quite necessary).  I didn't use the hood during our run the other day though I did start off with the mittens on.  It's totally warm and snuggly!

I spent an academic year in Edinburgh, Scotland studying at the University of Edinburgh.  It was an awesome, wonderful year and I miss it so much.  I don't think I really appreciated it for everything it was while I was there.  The Edinburgh Marathon as well as the Loch Ness Marathon are on my lists of ones I want to do in my lifetime.

Edinburgh Castle

I actually started my journey to becoming a runner in Edinburgh.  I joined a gym close to my flat that year.  The gym had treadmills.  I used to go to the gym with friends during the summer during college (more to sit around in the jacuzzi and play in the pool) and one of my goals had been to run 10 consecutive minutes on the treadmill (mainly because I couldn't run a minute straight to save my life).  One summer it took me almost three months but I ended up doing a 10 minute run.  I was so proud and figured I could stop running forever.

Well, I had all sorts of time on my hands in Scotland so I decided to train to run 20 consecutive minutes!  Not because I enjoyed running, but because it seemed like something seemingly impossible.  I found a plan and stuck to it.  Then something funny happened.  One day I ran 20 minutes on the treadmill and I decided to keep going.  I kept adding on more time and more time.  Off the top of my head I don't remember what I was up to when I left Scotland but I think it was somewhere in the 40 minute range.  I realized I could do a 5K.  Then later I wanted to do a 10K.  Then a half marathon.  And as they say, the rest is history.

A sad fact:  I started off life as a treadmill runner.  I barely ran outside at all until I started training for my first half marathon (2.5 years after I started running).  So as it is, I never ran outdoors at all in Scotland!  Looking back (and now that I've been solidly converted to calling the hamster wheel a "dreadmill") I cannot believe I didn't run all over that beautiful city!  I have to go back one day and rectify that.

An interesting fact:  When I returned home from Scotland I watched "Braveheart."  I was horrified at how terrible the Scottish accents were.  I could totally tell who was genuine and who was faking it.  I've since lost that ability.  They all sound like awesome Scottish accents to me now!