A couple good runs and great Christmas

Well, we had a great Christmas this year and everyone was happy with that they got.  I also had a couple of good runs.  My run on Christmas eve after work was really fast.  I managed to average a 7:48 pace for five miles.

5 miler!

My splits on this were:
7:34, 7:38, 7:49, 7:56, 8:00

That's the fastest I have run since snow/ice hit the roads.  There actually was not much snow and ice left on the road(although I almost lost it on the ice once) so I was significantly faster that I have been over the past few weeks.  We celebrated Christmas eve with my side of the family that evening.  When I finished the run, I thought, wow, that was a strong run.  Then....that evening when I was sleeping, my legs felt like bricks.  Obviously a sign that I had run way too fast especially since I have not been used to that speed.  Stupid, I know.  I had planned on running my long run on Christmas day since we are not celebrating Christmas with the wife's family until today.  I just could not get out there - I needed the rest.  My usual rest day is Friday but I decided to run so it was not a big deal to take Saturday for a rest day.  The plan was to run on Saturday and then run on Sunday but whatever.

This morning I did an eight mile long run and felt good but it was REALLY windy out.  I really hate running when it's like that.  The wind did seem to be going in one direction so at least only part of the run was really hard.  The roads also iced up since it was so windy out.  To sum up the run, it was Cold(10 degrees with wind chill), icy and windy.  I surprise myself sometimes that I get out there but again, my alternative is 8 miles on a treadmill and I just can't do it.  The best thing about today and Christmas eve was that I could run in daylight.  Fortunately, I'll be off from work for the next week so I don't have to run in the dark all week which is nice.  I was all over the place on this run:

8 mile long run(Did I mention the wind?)

Here's a picture from Christmas eve.  My Dad has this tradition of taking a photo with the family with Santa hats on:

Detroit Runner's Family!

Here's one of me happy with my Christmas gifts.  I got a new book, Unbroken(got it from a list from another blogger) that I wanted to read and I also got a new water bottle.  Its the Fuel Belt 10 oz bottle - great for some shorter runs without the bulk of a larger bottle.  I also got a picture notepad with "DAD" written on it from the son since his school helps kids with gifts for the family.

Gifts - Yahoo!

It was a nice lazy day(since I didn't run) and basically watched TV all day, read my book, watched Toy Story 3 and ate!  Usually I go to the in-laws but as I said we are doing that later today.  The kids were very happy - the son probably got a year's worth of books he wanted(yes he wanted books!) and the daughter got the makeup and money that your typical teen wants.

The son

The daughter

No pictures of the wife as I didn't think she would appreciate being shown on the internet when we had just woke up and went right to opening gifts with no prep to look decent.  You can see her in the Santa hat picture though!  The best thing about this year is that there was no need to return any gifts we got.  We will be going out in the shopping madness on Monday to try and see if we can find a new Christmas Tree although I'm not sure I really want one yet but we'll see.

Have a great day and.....Keep Running!