One thing about walking Bennie at 6:30 AM most mornings is that I get to enjoy scenes such as this.

While the photo does not do the moment justice, these sights are a benefit of getting up and getting outside first thing.

Although the ice and frozen slush on the roads did make for some slip, sliding away on the ice of a new day, but I didn’t have to “Bungle in the Jungle”. Yeah, a little Jethro Tull throw-back added in as a sudden thought that came into my mind. One of those rabbit hole moments that came out of nowhere.

SD2’s dog Hunter is starting to struggle a bit on his walks the past few days and will be seeing the Vet on Saturday again. He is over 15 and the sands of time are beginning to pile up against him. Hopefully, his visit goes well and we can keep him going for a while longer. He is a good dog, we just wish that Bennie and he could get along – it would make our lives a lot easier.

After getting done with walking the dogs, I trundled off to the gym. I really didn’t want to play on the slippery roads out by the house. Slipping and then bouncing off the tar just ain’t great for an old body, that takes a lot longer to heal than it used to.

I was not sure of what kind of workout I was going to do, but I was fairly certain it was going to be a quality workout of some kind. I got on the treadmill and started my warm-up mile at 6.7 mph and then I increased it to 6.8 mph and felt pretty strong. I thought that I had decided to do an easy 5.0-mile run, but then I remembered that I do want to challenge myself this year and I haven’t done any harder workouts in a while. So at about a mile and a half, I decided to do a short tempo run, with strides to get me to 5.0 miles.

At 2.0 miles I increased the speed to 7.8 mph (about 7:40 pace). This is about the pace I would like to be my half marathon pace and I wanted to see how I felt to start the year. Not bad at all and when I got to 3.0 miles I increased it to 7.9 mph and then at 3.5 to 8.0. It still amazes me how different about a small ten-second pace increase feels over that last .40 of a mile.

When I got to 3.9 miles, I started my strides and ran the 6 x .10 fast portions at 9.1+ mph and .01 recoveries were at 6.7 mph. I felt better doing the shorter strides than I did the 2.0 miles of tempo work, but then shorter runs are one of my strengths or at least it used to be.

It was a tough workout, where I challenged myself. Tomorrow will be a recovery day, I can definitely feel the tiredness in my legs tonight.

No nap today. 😦

We had a bunch of errands to run over in Waterville and the final stop was Home Depot. We had to return excess flooring and stuff from all the home improvement projects last year (it seems so strange to say that). Then we had to get something to compliment the bathroom renovation since we lost the closet. Tomorrow I get to put it together. I gotta say that the quality of customer service at the Waterville Home Depot has improved significantly, the return was done quickly and efficiently, while the self-checkout the person there did the check-out for us (it wasn’t busy) and was fantastic about everything.

Just one of those busy days, where we got a lot done and sitting at the table tonight after supper, I freaking fell asleep, just sitting there, after we got done eating. Maybe I overdid things just a tad bit. However, that is just me being me. 😉

What did I read today?

January 2nd – The Daily Stoic

It’s 2020 and you’re in the future
Well, This Should Be Interesting
Onward, Christian Fascists
Rich Roll is the Guru of Reinvention
How Old Are You?
Moving Beyond the Basics
There is beauty and joy at the end of life, too
5 Reasons to Run Outside All Winter
New Year’s Questions for Your 2020 Goals
Tradeoffs: The Currency of Decision Making – Something we don’t really think about enough
Chrome OS has stalled out
Will 2020 Bring New Inspiration
Happy World Introvert Day
7 Stoic Practices to Help You Become Your Ideal Self in 2020

Originally posted on Aging & Retirement – My Thoughts, written by Harold L. Shaw, Jr.