Ready for Spring

So I'm going to pass on the recap of the kick off because it was just okay and I have other things I want to write about today! Here's the one picture that I took at the kick off though (so much for needing to charge my battery!):

 

the sign out front...very exciting I know...

Anyway, as I'm sure you all know it SNOWED this weekend! Danielle (my roommate) and I went on a little snow adventure on Saturday. It was nice to walk around campus and have a sort of "active" rest day. We took lots of pictures! Here are a few highlights:

 

the church

 

red!

 

Alumni Memorial Building

 

we built a snowman!

 

Snow buddies!

 

Now that our snow adventure is out of my system I am SO ready for spring! Last night I was debating about whether or not to do my run outside. I finally decided that it was better to put safety first and avoid the icy roads/paths and I did today's run on the treadmill. The plan that Vic and I designed for ourselves called for 4 miles today. The Team in Training plan that we got at the kick off called for 3-5. Since I was doing my run on the treadmill I felt like I was cheating just a bit and since technically the TNT plan said it was okay, I decided to run 5 miles today. I walked to the gym which is probably a little more than half a mile and I called that my warm up. Then I hopped on the treadmill, I put it at a 1.0 incline to simulate running on a road a bit more than running without an incline--the splits:

Mile 1: 10:00

Mile 2: 9:49

Mile 3: 9:40

Mile 4: 9:31

Mile 4-4.5: 9:22
Mile 4.5-5: 9:13

Those 5 miles took a little more than 48 minutes, and then I walked to finish off the hour for a grand total of 5.78 miles for the day.

It's definitely easier to get negative splits when you don't have to pace yourself! As I mentioned in my first post, I used to love, love, love running on the treadmill. I kind of see everyone's point now about how much better running is outside. At about mile 1.25 I was bored already and I wished I could have been outside. However, by the end I was in a groove and didn't mind it so much. Running on the treadmill is physically easier (in my opinion) than running outside. I hope that all this snow melts quickly so I can be back to running outside later this week! 

--Melissa