Day 39 - Cookies and Speedwork

Today's scheduled run: 3 miles

Today's completed run: 5.06 miles
Pace: 8:23 (avg.)

Today felt like a very adult day. There's something about being in your 20's and single and the master of your own schedule that makes things like dropping off boxes at the UPS store a sign of adulthood. I cannot explain this, but I know other 20-somethings experience it, too. Productivity!

S'mores cookies. Divine!

Anyway, post-UPS store, I headed to the grocery store for the fourth time this week. Clearly I need to start planning ahead and going with a list. I'm so bad about that. I picked up the last few baking items that I'd need for today's cookie baking extravaganza. You'll remember yesterday's raving about the new mixer. It's beautiful, and I love it. I'm considering keeping it in my bedroom. Okay... probably not. But really, it made baking 11-dozen cookies a cinch. I can't wait to make more things with it. An especially fun part of the day was baking with a friend of mine.

Post cookie-making, I headed over to McHenry Row for the weekly run with Charm City Run. I ran the five-mile route again, and it was crazy. We started off in a group of four at an ~8:45 pace. We dropped two and I continued on with a guy from the group at an ~8:30 pace. We picked up a [very fast] friend of his around mile 3 and finished our last two miles somewhere between 8:02 and 8:10. I was definitely maxing out at the 8:02-8:10 window, which coincided with the last mile. But I did it, and that's what counts. Also, it's really awesome to be able to keep up with men. Go team Leslie.

Recipes from today:
Basic, no-fail sugar cookies
Snickerdoodles
S'more Cookies

Music from today:
Page CXVI

Day 32 - Charm City Runs

Today's scheduled run: 3 miles

Today's completed run: ~4.9 miles
Pace: ~8:38 (avg.)

Tonight I had the opportunity to run with a group from Charm City Run, a local running store. It has four outlets in two of the surrounding counties, and they are opening a store in the City (Federal Hill area) in April. I'm so excited, because I've been waiting for a quality running store to open downtown. My wish is their command.

I learned about their Wednesday night group runs via Twitter and knew I had to check it out. Plus, it was a warm night, downright balmy, if I do say so myself. It was 58 degrees when we left, with 70 percent humidity.

Charm City provides 3 mile, 4 mile, and 5 mile routes, but it's pretty informal -- a show up and run kind of deal. It was so much fun to run with other people! There was that awkward initial phase of figuring out who would run with who based on distance and speed, but it worked itself out. I hung out with the front of the pack for a good two miles before three of the six took off at a sub-8:00 pace. I'm not ready for that, so I settled in around 8:40 for the remainder, running with two others.

It's good to meet other runners and talk about running and life in general. I really enjoyed it, and it made the run go so much faster. Good, good times.

For tomorrow, a rest day, I'll finally get to talking about that whole bald thing. :-)

Until then...