It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…

Fall is such a beautiful time of year. Yes, the colors of the leaves have changed in Northern Virginia, and the weather has been close to perfect (minus a Nor’easter we had two weekends ago but hey – at least we didn’t get any snow!) Since I’m running the Rockville 10K next week with Cat (yay!!) I have to find other ways to enjoy this gorgeous weather.

I’ll start with Sunday.

I lounged around the house Sunday morning eating my breakfast, drinking my coffee, reading the news/blogs/ESPN.com, and decided to make my way out for a short run at around 11:45. My plan is to run twice this week and spend one day spinning, one day walking, and one day yoga-ing…which would make my week look something like this:
Sunday: Run/Strength
Monday: Walk
Tuesday: Spin/Strength
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Run/Strength (very easy 3 miler)
Friday: Yoga (easy, stretchy yoga)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rockville 10K!!

I want to give my body a rest from constant pounding, and considering I have a race coming up, I’d like to keep it stress free and ready to kick ASS.

Sunday’s run was meant to be a very easy and slow run. Unfortunately we have hills here so I had to push myself a little more than I wanted to, but for the most part, I ran a nice easy 4 miles. Somehow, even keeping in mind that my goal was to run slow and easy, I managed to keep a 9:15 pace. I didn’t struggle, I enjoyed myself, and ran without barely breaking a sweat (OK let’s face it, I sweat a little,  but not like a normal sweat)
Total miles: 4.0
Total time: Exactly 37:00 (not on purpose I swear)

I think because there are so many hills in my neighborhood that my times are deceiving. When I run up the hills, I’m slowing down to a 10:15ish pace, but when I’m going down them, I’m flying at 8:05ish. I don’t know if that makes a difference or not…maybe all this hard work is finally starting to pay off?

In any event, my run was quick, easy, and over in no time. I ended with an ab workout (I have 3 pound leg weights that were a major contributor to this) and 20 push-ups. The ab workout kicked my ass, so I slacked in the arm department but it was better than nothing.

Monday: Gorgeous walk. It was such a nice day today, so I decided to make this my walk day. According to the weatherpeeps, we’re getting rain later in the week so I’ll use those as my work out inside days.
I found a nice trail right by my house, so I was able to get some lovely views of turning leaves. But what made my day was getting a package from Jess in the mail.  She had a contest a few weeks back where she gave away Endangered Species organic chocolates.

I happened to just make a random comment on the post and I won! Yay for me! Who doesn’t love to win free samples of chocolate? Thanks Jess!! I love how on each piece of chocolate the company states:
“We buy our cacao from small family properties, helping sustain the habitats and communities in which they existed.”
Right on!

Flu Shot: Is it necessary?
I’ve always been a skeptic of the flu shot, but with this H1N1 thing going around, it’s no wonder why so many people are standing in line for hours to get the vaccine. Do you think it’s worth getting?