‎"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." ~Albert Einstein

Spartan Shape-Up, Day 220:

It's a snow/wind-tastic day, here in VT, BlogLand. The sidewalks seemed to be clear, so in keeping with NO EXCUSES, I gave myself a deadline, when I got up this morning; I had some stuff that needed to get done, but one way or the other, I was running at some point, today.

I had some mundane errands to run first, but then I skipped over to the mall (this is related to training, I swear!). I desperately needed like one more pair of jeans. I'm traveling in less than a week, and the way my body has changed has really wrecked havoc on my wardrobe.

There I was... in the fitting room of Maurices, when an amazing thing happened:

THAT, my friends, is me zipped into (comfortably) a SIZE 14 jean, from a non-plus-size store. SERIOUSLY. To put this in perspective, a year ago I was hitting the top end of a size 24 in pants.
To further the awesomeness, I am not sure I ever even wore this size in high school (Fat Chick Syndrome didn't just develop out of thin air, people!). I didn't even know what to do. I took the pants off, checked the tag on the inside (as there clearly had to be some mistake), then put them back on. Yep. 14. Still Fit. Wow. You better believe I bought those jeans. It's moments like that, that you need to store away for when times get challenging...

I was still moving forward pretty well on my "tiny" jeans-high, and I got my housework, etc. done in record time. Time for a run. Yes, it was snowing, but it wasn't soooo cold, and (still) the sidewalks/roads seemed okay. And it was light out. That was a pleasant change.

Out I went, without a particular plan, other than to mix up the route today. I ran the big long hill of death pretty competently today and circled around some new neighborhoods I'd never considered running. And THEN... when faced with a T in the road, I was proud of my Spartan-worthy decision.... either run up the Big Long Hill of death again, or have to cut the run short(er) and go straight home.... I ran the Big Long Hill AGAIN.
It's still a pretty ugly hill to run, but I did it, ran back down the other side, and ran home. The run had to be shorter today (somewhere to be!), but I feel like two runs at the big hill made up for it. Waha. I even kept up a pretty damn good pace, doing it.
Today's stats:
Time: 30:21 min
Distance: 2.82 mi
Ave Pace: 10:71 min/mi (even WITH 2 runs at the Big Long Hill!)

I feel pretty good about that. Short, but something different for the legs to do.

Although, I did notice on the way home, I was feeling some tightness/tension behind my knee. The GT says I need to stretch and foam roll more... that this is a by product of tight calves (behind knee is the insertion point for the calves) and/ or hamstrings.

He even said the dreaded word...... YOGA. .... ew. But hey, maybe I will grow to love it. It seems to be becoming more and more of a recommended, necessary evil. Argh. I will see what I can figure out... I don't wanna.... but, hey, if it prevents me from having that hamstring seize up again, I will do it!!

On which note, I'm off to foam roll and stretch... and bed. Tomorrow is supposed to be a Long Run day (8 miles, at least), and there's a bunch of snow... soo.. who knows what will happen, but I'll give it a go... oo.. maybe I can get some running snow shoes......