Ok, so not a fail, but I certainly feel like I did because I didn't run this morning.
I don't have a good excuse, I guess. I did get woken up pretty early this morning, and it was easy to use that as an excuse to not run, but to try to get more sleep instead.
Well, tomorrow is another day. I did do a lot of running around today, so my steps were pretty average. But I'd rather have my steps at a higher level. I like beginning my day with almost 5,000 steps.
When my alarm went off this morning I woke up to the realization that I just had the best night's sleep in a long time. I can't remember the last time I slept through the night without waking up at least once!
So, without hesitation, I got up and did my usual morning, pre-run routine. I put on my contacts, got dressed in my workout clothes, and fed Charlie, trying to hydrate as I go, and gathered my gear (Kindle Fire, Bluetooth speaker, and phone) and headed down to the dreadmill. It wasn't so bad this morning. I could have gone outside, but -2° with a real feel temperature of -24° is a bit too much. Fortunately, it's supposed to warm up tomorrow, but later on during the day, so it looks like Thursday will be my day to head outdoors in the balmy 20ºF.
I suspected for a while that something wasn't quite right with my running data when I'm on the treadmill, and this morning confirmed it. When I run on the treadmill I don't use the Strava app because it won't track anything in the basement. So, I use my Jawbone UP tracker instead. This works great, but the problem is it doesn't measure my stride well.
For example, when running outside, I usually have an 11 min and some change/mile pace, but when I was running on the treadmill at a pace that was faster it measured my pace at 13.1/mile. I was doing some speed intervals. I would set my speed at 5 and raise it to 6 for a spell, then put it back to 5.
When I reflected on it later during the day, I remembered that when I was at 6 for my speed my legs weren't going faster, but my stride was longer. That meant that my tracker was measuring how many steps I took, not how long my stride was. So, next time I'll use the data from the treadmill instead. Lesson learned.
This morning I looked out the window at the gently falling snowflakes and wondered if I should run outside or on the treadmill. I chose the treadmill.
It was about 25ºF outside and beautiful. The snow was falling gently down and I thought how wonderful it would be to run out there. Then I looked at the snow-covered road and remembered my run on Friday and how I didn't like how my feet kept sliding backwards with every step I took.
I then considered the dreadmill downstairs, in the dungeon basement, and how dusty and hot it gets when I run down there. I've got a box fan that I always turn on high and it blows cool air on me, which makes my run more tolerable, and I usually bring down my Kindle Fire and a Bluetooth speaker and watch TV shows or movies on it which keep me distracted.
I enjoy running outside, especially without music. I prefer listening to the sounds around me instead, and at certain times, it has been important that I did. I love hearing the water trickling down the field during the spring melt, birds chirping, and especially the sound of some critter sneaking around in the brush at 5 A.M., in the dark, on the side of the road, which ended up being a skunk. Had I not seen Pepé Le Pew first, I would have had to have a sub that day. And every teacher knows that it's more work to prepare for a sub than to just go in.
So, why did I choose the dreadmill? I guess it's because I didn't want to struggle with my footing, especially when the snow on the side of the road camouflages the shoulder, seeing how there are no sidewalks on my road, and I'd hate to twist my ankle. That would not be good. So I hooked up my Kindle Fire and Bluetooth speaker, turned on the fan, set the timer on my iPhone to 30 minutes, and did my run while finishing CBS's Sunday Morning show.
Because I wasn't running outside, my Strava app would be useless. I have a Jawbone UP tracker that I wear all the time, even when I sleep, so I set it to track my activity and let it track my run.
I then plug in my time and pace manually on the Strava app just to keep track.
Now when you look at my pace (shown by the bars) you can see that I slowed down at one point in the middle. That's called walking while I blow my nose, otherwise, I kept my treadmill pace between 4.5 and 5.
So, it was a good run, and I'm glad I did it. I'm always happy that I did my run or any workout, it's getting into it that's the challenge.
Ok, so not a fail, but I certainly feel like I did because I didn't run this morning. 
Well, tomorrow is another day. I did do a lot of running around today, so my steps were pretty average. But I'd rather have my steps at a higher level. I like beginning my day with almost 5,000 steps.
