Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Tempo, and I'm not talking about the Ford

Yesterday's tempo run was a hoot. It was totally last minute, and nearly didn't get done as I'm rather overwhelmed by all the shizah I need to get organized by tomorrow's flight time. But I've got super duper mummy friends, and Manatee Momma said, hey, come on over and I'll take Chou for a walk while you run. Nice.

Turns out that Ms. Manatee lives a half block from a city-funded daycare that has free (my favorite kind) drop in times where you get the run of a giant, sun-filled, safe-toy, bilingual space for two hours and at the end there's a sing a long. There's even free (good) coffee and tea. It's like if Mary Poppins decided to put down roots and open up a coffee shop. I kid you not. All that is to say that brilliant Ms. Manatee took Chou and her big baby over to play and sing while I went out for a quick 3 mile tempo run.

I had a watch, but no route and no iPod. The no iPod thing is actually good once in a while I find, in that it means I have to listen to my foot fall and think about form and pace and organize my thoughts. It was lovely. And then I got home and mapped my route and managed 3.33 miles at a 9:20 min/mi pace. What? Um, yeah, I thought breaking into the 10s was good, but 9:20 makes me do a little happy dance. It helps that 99% of my route was pavement, but there were a few good hills. Yeah slush and snow are amazing trainers, I've found.

And now it's time for a day and a half of running around like a madwoman trying desperately to get all our stuff packed, the last of any errands or paperwork I need to have done and try and plan our visits. Because I totally haven't. Whoops.