Return to Oz

AM: 4 miles
~20 mins. core
PM: 59 mins.+ strides (2x150, 4x30, 2x100)
8+ miles

There's no better way to start the day than to drag your butt out of bed for morning practice, only to discover about 20 minutes too late that it's been canceled. Turns out that because "Jeff from cross country is our biggest problem" or some similar reason, Scott wasn't allowed to get the keys to the room where we do our morning core routine. Awesome. Since Tanya and I were already at school before sunrise we decided to go ahead and bang out our morning run. I was a good girl upon arriving home and did my own core routine while watching the news on CNN this morning. Thousands more jobs cut today...it looks like I definitely made the right decision by stepping out of the job market for the next year or two.

In the afternoon I took a much needed nap before heading out for my double. I missed the opportunity to run with Tanya at McAlpine because I slept through it, so rather than drive out there with the team I opted to run on my own on the greenway and in Freedom Park. Normally I prefer running with people, but today I wanted to focus on keeping the pace very relaxed so I was content to stay lost in my own thoughts instead. A few weeks ago Jordan titled one of his posts "Running With a Purpose," and that's certainly what I'm trying to do every day at this point. Today's purpose was obviously recovery, so I kept things slow and even for most of the run. About 40 minutes in, I stopped on one of the soccer fields in the park to do some strides and stretching. The legs didn't feel super bouncy, but the two-mile run back home actually felt pretty good.

In the evening Jeff and I headed out to meet Ozzie, who chose to forego a visit to Jordan in Oklahoma and grace us with his presence instead. We all know what debauchery ensued last time he visited me, but fortunately this time we kept things relatively tame and under control. He/Nike did treat us to an outstanding meal at Blue Restaurant downtown, which was simply amazing. It was great to hang out and also to hear some "boring stories of glory days," most of which cannot be repeated in this forum. Good times were had by all.