The Run Within

Macy and I arrived back in Fort Myers this afternoon from a wonderful time in Jackson, MS. But as nice as our time was away, it sure is good to be back home. And while we got rain in Jackson this morning from TS Fay, we had no weather related problems on either flight. We had the proverbial "smooth sailing" all the way home.

I've been off my normal running schedule this week. So, I did something a little while ago I've never done before, I ran on a Sunday. I'm not sure what came over me. I was compelled to run. I needed to run. There was a run within me that just had to get out. So, I waited til the sun went down, got dressed, and headed out. It felt great!

Tomorrow we head out as a staff for a few days of intense planning and preparation. I'm going to do my best to get at least one run in while away.

Gotta go now and watch the closing ceremony of the Olympics. I sure am going to miss the nightly ritual of Olympic watching.

A Couple of First

As most of you know, I've been on the 6 week hundred push ups plan. Well, I finished week 6, and it was time to see if I could do 100. I had predicted that I would not be able to do 100 push ups at the end of the 6 weeks. I was right. Sunday evening I did 70 push ups in a row. I was pretty pleased (that's a whole bunch more than I could do 6 weeks ago!). I'll just keep repeating week 6 until I'm able to do 100.

Monday mornings are my "long run" day. Lately I've been doing a 4 mile run on Monday's, but today I decided to bump it up a little and ran 4.5 miles. It felt good. I've never run that far before. I think I'll go for 5 miles next week on Monday.

BTW - I hope you're watching the Olympics - good stuff. The highlight so far came last night with the men's 4x100 free relay. Unbelievable finish!

Olympic Motivation

I got rained out this morning for my run (actually it was the lightning that kept me in). So I decided to run later in the day (meaning it would most likely be very hot). When I finally got around to running, about 5pm, it wasn't too hot, but incredibly humid. But here's the good part...I ran my fastest two mile time today, post foot injury. Normally I run 3 or 4 miles, but used today's run as a chance to work on speed. I think my motivation for the extra speed came from watching the Olympic men's 150 mile cycling road race. Very motivating.

And speaking of the Olympics, did you catch the opening ceremony last night?! Unbelievable! Typically, the opening ceremonies have either been very weird or just boring, in my opinion. Last night was different. Amazingly different. It's hard to describe if you did not see it, but I know I have never seen anything on that scale and magnitude integrated so beautifully. I could have done without all the Chinese propaganda that spilled out from Costa and Lauer throughout the night. but other than that, a truly spectacular event that won't soon be forgotten.