More birthdays in our lives yesterday

This gets away from the training blog a bit but hey,It's a birthday.
Oldest stepsons girlfriend. Very sweet, and keeps his rowdy butt in check. I like her to say the least.
My wife is the hostest of the mostest, and loves to be the one making cakes, setting plans and hosting this that and the other thing.
So here we were again for a birthday, with an awesome homemade strawberry cake topped with cream cheese and cool whip frosting.

I'm not a huge cake fan, but this was the bomb !! And after having a small piece, post SUSHI dinner (yeah!), we sent the rest home with them. BUH BY ! (BLURRY PICTURE ,SORRY)

 So, I kindly offered them to come back @ 6:00 A.M. for a run and they all declined. Some not so nicely. WTH, I just care about there well being :-).

And so up it was at 5:40 to check the outside temp.
I'm getting smarter by laying out the run gear in the A.M., I know most of you do this already, but hey I'm slow, what can I say. Be thankful I caught on as quick as I did. 
I brisk 38 degree, but I have to consider that not bad relative to what you others go thru. And hey I'm running outdoors, so " SHUT UP AND RUN".
Seemed perfect for tights,arm warmers, long sleeve over the top, light gloves and a tech jacket.
Did some light stretch and threw down a Vanilla bean GU and headed out to Billy Idol for a tempo 4.6 mile run.
I had thoughts of the 3.4 mile recovery run on Monday night and hoped there was no hang over in my legs from Sundays bike session.
Nope, all was good and turning over fine. I even think the Sushi and rice was a good pre run meal. I kept the spicy tuna to a minimum and I believed that helped.
First mile out I checked my split @ 8:23. That's great for me at this point in my renewed run passion.
I fumbled @ 2 and 3 mile marks, having changed this route a bit in my last couple times using it. So I didn't know exactly where I was at, and I am not a Garmin wearer yet. So I rely on spots I have marked over the past few months.
I know exactly where the home stretch mile is on this route because this is the same marker coming in that I use for a couple other runs 5k,10k out and backs.
Final mile was exactly 8:23.
Total run distance 4.6 miles @ 44:23 - average 9.61 mpm.
Obviously my fumbling caused some focus issues. I know for sure I kept having to reset a 1-2 step pace in my head to get the tempo that I thought was right.
It's all still a learning process and I vow to get faster and smarter.
For now I'm doing what I can to not just get out there and put down miles for the sake of putting down miles. So I'll take what I can.
I can tell you this for sure, that on 8-13-2010 I laced up a pair of running shoes and headed out for my first run in many years, and it came out to 46 minutes for 3.4 mile battle. I show that @ 13.52 mpm.

This alone makes me smile and gives me hope that there is an uphill battle and giving it hell in trying to kick it's butt.

So, yeah for birthdays.
yeah for family time.
yeah for sushi.
yeah for running.

And yeah for getting my body out the door and smiling at the road ahead.

Have a great day. BLOG ON PEOPLE!