Shoulders down, stomach in

The weekend here was beautiful!  Western Washington is so rainy and dreary, it's depressing.  I've heard that the Seattle area is one of the highest in the nation for suicides.  Doesn't surprise me, there's no sun more than half the time.  One thing about western Washintonians, they know how to enjoy the sun.  I grew up in eastern WA, and over there summers are hot and dry and there's an overabundance of sun.  When it's sunny and hot outside, everyone stays in their houses with the air conditioner cranked.  In western WA, when it's sunny and hot warm (it never really gets hot here) everyone is outside enjoying it.  You can't walk down the street without seeing at least one family outside bbq-ing, usually every other house, at least. 

Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous.  I think we were the only area in the nation that didn't have record high temperatures a few weeks ago.  Actually, while everyone else in the nation was have 70 degree weather, we got snow (which is pretty unusual here too).  So having 2 days of sun was awesome!  Saturday I didn't go for a run, just didn't have the time with Damian's wrestling tournament and then we went to see the Wizard of Oz at the community college's theater (play, not movie).  So yesterday I got to enjoy the sun with a jog run.  (I've really got to get out of the habit of saying jog, I'm a runner, not a jogger.) :-)  

I did the same 4 miles yesterday as I did last Sunday and cut off 8 min of time.  I really think last week I was so slow because of my shoes.  I got a blister and shins splints early on and had a really hard time running.  I have been wearing my old shoes (I really need to find new shoes that are the same as my old ones) and my shins splints are going away and my blister is healing.  Anyone else feel like dying in the first 10 min or so?  I feel terrible in the first mile. Yesterday I felt my best in mile 2 and mile 4.  Mile 3 is straight up, seriously, a mile of straight up.  Although I did see deer crossing the street in front of me. 

There are 3 deer in there, I didn't get my camera out fast enough to get them actually crossing the road in front of me.

Don't let all the trees fool you, this is a very urban area.  There are houses all over, this just happens to be the backyard of someone's house. 

Today I upped my daily milage to 3 miles.  I did pretty good.  Average pace of 11 min/mile.  I really need to remember to keep my shoulders down and my stomach in when I run.  I kept repeating that to myself today.  I tend to run with my shoulders around my ears, and it's not good.  Shoulders down, stomach in, shoulders down, stomach in . . . it's hard to do when you are almost home and going uphill.