Good character

I forgot to mention the most important news of yesterday.  In addition to the A honor roll, Val got one of 5 awards for Character in her class.  She was more proud of that award than her straight A's and I was also impressed to learn that 3 of her good friends were also recipients of this award. It's good that she's keeping good company.

Today I ran outside, but it was tough. Didn't do that great. It was challenging to keep moving and I wanted to stop several times, but didn't. It was tough to get out there too. Cold (low 20's), but sunny. The wind was a factor I didn't count on and I felt like I'd fly away a couple of times when the hood of my wind jacket filled up with air. My miles were pretty slow at 12:22, 11:59, and 11:38. The 5K was 36:58. Then I walked a half a mile. I'm a little peeved that I'm not speeding up at all. Actually I'm slowing down. I was doing 10:40 and 10:50 miles on the track just a few weeks ago. Of course, I couldn't run 3 miles without stopping then. I guess it's a tradeoff.

I'm back to listening to steverunner while running since the music was getting old again and I was getting behind on my episodes.  I run a little slower when I listen to podcasts instead of music, but that is the point when trying to run further, isn't it? To build endurance, run slower and longer?  I think so. It's depressing at first - and I've read that leaving the watch at home is a good strategy when running slow for distance. Of course, most published advice is aimed at people who are running 20 miles, not 3, but hey, it's just as hard for me to run 3 right now. I was really pushing to hang on. It's good that my miles sped up as I went along, though. I've been doing the opposite on the track lately.

Tonight is Harry Potter night.  Jason is at a sleepover so Val had the great idea to do a Harry Potter marathon. Jason can't watch those movies yet because he doesn't like scary scenes. We tried to watch the first one and he really freaked out about the troll. So we decided to wait on those movies for awhile. However, Val has read the book series and really wants to see the movies, so tonight's the night. 

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."
 ~Steven Kloves (screenplay), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, spoken by Albus Dumbledore