Halfway to 26.2

Tomorrow marks the end of week 8 of my 16-week marathon training period. After taking most of the week off, I ran on my ankle, and it felt..... fine! It is not 100%, but pretty close.... I'd say 90%. Thank goodness. This was the 2nd blip in my marathon training period--the first was the knee cap issue from week one. I'm hoping the next 8 weeks go smoothly. (But I won't hold my breath!)

As far as runs go, today's was ok. We ran the first 4 miles at a conversational, easy pace, then upped the speed for the last 3. Those last miles were between 5K and 10K pace. Looking over my NEGATIVE SPLITS later, I was very happy. Negative splits are so rare in my running. Speeding up and finishing strong in the last few miles was recommended in one of my training books and I hope to continue to work on that.

My recovery week will finish with a six-miler tomorrow. Snow is in the forecast, so it might be a good opportunity to try out this:

My Sole F80 treadmill came in last week and now occupies approximately 1/2 of my bedroom. My husband is in the process of finishing out our basement (and a workout room for me!), so it's only temporary. I have run exactly 1.5 miles on it this week. I'm looking forward to listing to the Sirius XM radio stations on my tv and watching shows while running in shorts and a jog bra in the privacy of my own bedroom. Yay!

I'll also be giving these a try---Shoe #4 on the Ultimate Shoe Quest:

I got these Asics Gel Kayano 15's after the Mizuno Nirvana's didn't work out. I think they were the cause of the extra-colorful (soon-to-be-missing) toenail that I am sporting. I hope these work out because I am tired of shoe shopping (never thought I'd utter those words).

On the home front, as of today, I'm the proud owner of a three-month-old kitten from the animal shelter. My eight-year-old wore me down over the last six months begging for a pet. She's tiny, gray and white, and so gentle. She allows herself to be carried around by a two-year-old without hissing, scratching, or biting said two-year-old. That's pretty rare in kitties. I need at least one easygoing member of this household!

My son is her official owner, and he said he wanted to name her either "Buttocks" or "H.R. Puffinstuff." Gotta love that eight-year-old humor. We settled on Magnolia, Maggie for short. My two-year-old is giving her no peace, however. "Maggi-nola! Where are ju?" If she's smart, she's having some quality time under the bed.....