Saturday, December 17, 2005

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Searching for the perfect Christmas tree takes time and talent (not)!
A little beauty doesn't hurt either... ;-)Final selection captured by our local gnome photographer.
Posing with the fallen prey.
Enough with the silly pictures! It was a lovely day here after the ice and sleet storm we had Friday night. Temps were near the melting point all day and so our little tree finding excursion was that much more pleasant. The tree is now awaiting the final preparations before being brought indoors for the decorating. We're only planning to put the basic lights on it as we must await the arrival of our first born on Christmas Eve for the final decorating (are you reading this C?)

And I got my scheduled run in this morning as well. Managed to get away at a reasonable hour for me (mid-morning) and had a fairly nice 17+ mile long run for the week. I'm not sure on the actual distance but my watch said 2:35:30 with about 85% of the run in the target heart rate range of 70-80% max. Besides dodging holiday traffic this was the main game I played today, run at a pace where the HR alarm would not 'go off'. This is easy on the flats but can be tricky on on the hills (up and down) on my route and so helped me from getting bored. Am I cheating at this game if I walk on the steepest part of the hill till it stops beeping or do the 'rules' say I have to keep jogging?

I do plenty of thinking on my runs when done alone and today my thoughts were mainly with Marc and the Running Chick with the Orange Hat who's posts from the past week were thought provoking and somewhat disturbing in various ways. Running is a great thing you can do for yourself but we all realize there is alot more to life. Be well and stay safe out there!

ps. bonus shot of our new resident attack cat (Cody). Doesn't he look worried? He's ready to 'get' his stuffed mouse!

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