4:45am

It never feels good to hear the alarm on Monday's, more so now because it's a signal that track is next on the schedule. 4:45am has become more difficult with my new found coffee obsession combined with the fact that I continue to brew pots well into the late afternoon.  This morning with 4 hours of broken sleep the alarm signaled it was time to go.  The plan was a 3 mile run outdoors before track.  To be honest I don't remember the ride there other than thinking Joe got lost as he was so far behind me.  When we started out my arms were off, my feet were barely shuffling.  Thank God it was a balmy 26 degrees with no wind, we could be lazy today.  The route takes us down Lloyd, I come from the perspective that to start with a downhill is a nicer way to start any run.  There was some delirious laughter and the eyes weren't staying open as long as they should.  We seemed to be the only 2 out and about.  Turning onto Elmgove I kept my focus on the road ahead, straining to see the blinking light in the distance that signals the turn up Rochambeau.  There was a slight frost so the debris on the side of the road seemed to shimmer slightly.  I noticed that I felt more awake, not fully there but my arms were moving at the correct angles and my feet were lifting fully off the ground.  Rochambeau is a good and a bad sign.  Good in that it signals that we are heading back towards the track, bad in that it's the start of the only 2 hills.  As we were running up, we passed a walker who had every inch of skin covered with several layers.  I'm not sure there were even real eye slits, we giggled about it turning on to Hope St.  Nothing left but getting up and down the hill now.  We ran by the Y and I smiled at those on the treadmill, forgetting that last week I was one of them!  Just as I had settled into this run we were turning into the parking lot.  The real running had yet to start, but at least we had finally woken up.

Miles trained today: 5ish

Days till the Manhattan Half: 27