Tuesday's Taper Run & Three Facts...

I decided to do my mid-week running session today and will do my second one on Thursday so that I have 2 rest days prior to the Palm Beach half on Sunday. Yesterday I rested and iced my knee so this morning I felt pretty good. The weather was awesome...

And I was able to complete a 30 minute session...

My pace was not the best, but I was aiming for a slower run (which I clearly achieved). The pace per mile breakdown...

(is it "frowned upon" to get excited about negative splits when you only have 2.5 miles to compare?)

Post run selfie...

Even though the running session was just "ok" I was excited that I had a chance to use my new Metronome app to help me improve my cadence...

I'm at 175 right now...but only for short durations (2:1 intervals) so my future goal is to get to 180 and maintain that for longer and longer durations. 

It would be nice to get to 5:1 intervals by the end of the year (aka the next 4 weeks), and ultimately I'm shooting for 10:1 by the end of 2015...

Today ended up being a "I really need a hug" type of day...

It all started with the realization of these three facts...

Even my "Christmas" skittles didn't cheer me up...

Speaking of Christmas...I found the perfect website for Christmas shopping for all the runners in your life. I still have a lot of shopping to get done (and I hate shopping) so I'll be doing as much stuff online as I can. I have 3 LRs before I head home [so excited!] which means that I have 3 weeks to get all my shopping done....sigh....this year might be the "year of gift cards".

Also, don't forget that you still have a chance to enter the Holiday Giveaway! The deadline to enter is Dec 11th! The gift basket has a lot of cool stuff (shown in pic) and you can check out the link for more information on all the items...

Have you started/finished your Christmas/Holiday shopping (if you celebrate this time of year)?

What's at the top of your running "Christmas" list?