Wednesday, January 9

Ta-da!

Well, I finally did it. A back handspring. By myself!

I did it on a mat that is built into the floor at my gymnastics class; it's basically like a mattress.

I can do it on the spring floor, but since I still fear the whole breaking my neck thing, I still have a spotter until I feel there is no way I will fall on my head. That could take a while.

Tuesday, January 8

Spring in January

65 degrees.

Six o'clock in the evening.

January 7.


These were the ingredients for an exceptional 3 mile run. Okay, it got pretty dark midway through, but tonight's run was enjoyable from the moment I opened the front door. Each inhale was the smell of wet earth, melting snow and dinner on the grill. I thought I even smelled a campfire. It is a beautiful spring evening in the middle of winter.

As I finished the last half mile I swore I heard the chirping of birds, but it was just the whistling of my jacket as my arms brushed back and forth.

Saturday, January 5

Shine

Never underestimate the power of taking the time to clean something and making it shine. This is the old hardware on my parents' kitchen cabinets, and with a toothbrush and some cleaner, my mom has given it new life. The drawer pull on the right is what they all looked like when she started.

156 and a quarter?!

Wow, have I been a slacker this year. At the end of each calendar year I add up all my running mileage and this year was 156.25 miles. This may seem not bad, but I have a record of usually averaging 400 miles per year which to "serious" runners isn't a ton, but it's enough for me. You know what that means? No new shoes for me! Running shoes last for 300-400 miles; guess I better hit the road.

On a positive note, I've made it to the gym every day since we got back home from the holidays except yesterday. I took the day off 'cause I had my weekly gymnastics class in there so figured I got an extra workout, hehe. B and plan to get there today. He hasn't missed a day!

We are downloading Podcasts to make our workouts more fun. What are your favorite audio Podcasts? I like Escape Pod (free Sci-Fi short stories) and Grammer Girl, but am looking for some new ones.