It has been a pretty not bad Christmas Eve. Often Christmas Eve gets lost in life, being at work etc, some years it feels like just another day. Remembering how big a deal Christmas Eve was as a kid, it always makes me sad when it gets lost. Today was a bit nicer. Very cruisy half day at work. At bit of a run this morning, bit of a swim at lunch, a bit of time with the family this afternoon. All up a good day.
The run this morning feels like it went well. Still a long way to go, but this morning's run felt like a proper run, rather than a 'just trying to get back to where I was' run. I still faded towards the end of the run, but I managed to hit my goal times, so was happy with the overall result. Absolutely blowing a gale though, which made for some lopsided pacing. Unfortunately the headwind was on the way home, which never makes for a fun return trip.
This afternoon it was time for a swim and my first attempt at seriously using the Swim Smooth app that I mentioned yesterday. Daryl knew I wouldn't have a squad to swim with today so he had given me a program to follow. But knowing that I had access to the app, I thought I would give it a go and try and do a similar session to what I would usually do on a Wednesday. Mentally I knew it was going to be a big effort, since Wednesday morning sessions are always tough, even when you have a squad to pull you along. However, using the session program that I got off the Swim Smooth app and the Tempo Timer that I picked up the other day, I managed to get through the full 5km set on the lonesome. Well, when I say the full program, I actually fell about 200m short, since I just plain ran out of go. But I got close enough to count it in my book. It was sort of a proof of concept for me. I am never going to give up squad swimming, but it shows that for the times when I don't have a choice, I have a viable alternative.
In other news, Santa came early to our house this year, with some shiny new gear to play with.
Not all of these are new, just the front two pairs, but all together they make a very pretty picture. From front to back they are Mizuno Hitogami, two different version of Wave Inspire 10s and then at the back a Mizuno Sayonara 2. Why so many shoes you may ask? Well the Inspire 10s are my regular training shoe and as such I go through them fairly quickly, so I tend to always have a couple of pairs kicking around. The Sayonara is my current race shoe/lightweight trainer. The Hitogami was a bit of an impulse acquisition though. I have raced in the predecessor to this shoe for a while, the Mizuno Musha. I really liked the Musha, but it always gave me nasty blisters. Based on that I wasn't going to go down the Hitogami route. However, everybody talks about how good a shoe they are and I thought it probably wasn't the best thing to judge the Hitogami on the Musha. They are different shoes after all. So I thought I would give them a go. If nothing else they look damn awesome. I want to run in them just so I get a chance to wear them. Certainly win the award of the brightest pair of shoes I have ever owned.
Whilst the shoes arrived yesterday, I am hoping that they aren't all that Santa has in stock, I have been very good after all. Well okay, pretty good...
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