Running Report

I haven't posted one of these for a while, but today I feel like some self-congratulations are in order. I have been running, kinda sorta following Hal Higdon's novice 10k training plan. And today, my running partner and I ran 5 miles!! I ran 5 miles!! That's over an hour of running!!!

Quite honestly, it feels weird to refer to myself and running 5 miles in the same sentence. Who, me? That can't be me. I can't run that far.

But apparently, I can! :+)

Which is a good thing, because I've signed up to run in a 10k race (6.2 miles) in Glasgow in two weeks. It's the Freshnlow Great Scotish Run on September 7th. And knowing that I can run 5 miles makes me feel pretty good about being about to finishing the race.

Where did all this motivation come from? I blame Xenia, fellow Team CB member. We started running at about the same time, and she's running in a 1/2 marathon in a week. Go Xenia!!! Maybe someday that's something I'll consider. For now, though, I just want to give Xenia a big thank you! Because she pushed herself, it motivated me to push myself just a bit farther too.

Exercising with buddies, even if that buddy is in another city. Definitely the way to go.

[BTW, Xenia has posted some awesome pictures of her vacation in Greece. Check them out!]

New Word Wednesday

I'm going to give this a try, at least a couple times a month posting on a regular topic -- new words or new word uses that I've learned since I've been in Scotland. We'll see how it goes.

pear shaped - An adjective describing a situation that went awry, perhaps horribly wrong. As in, It all went pear shaped.

It's funny how I can hear a word for what seems like the first time, and after that I start hearing it all over the place. Pear shaped is one of these. A friend used it in conversation a couple months ago, prompting a big "What?" from me. Since then, I bet I've heard someone use it at least once a week. Which means that I must have heard it without it registering for a good year and a half.

This also happened with Hiya. Hiya is probably the most common casual greating used here, but it took a good two months after I moving here before it registered that was what people were saying. Weird.

But back to pear shaped. It's definitely one of the more fun words I've learned, and I'm hoping it will make its way into my regularly used vocabulary.

Note to self, seriously screw up something at least once a week so that I have a reason to work pear shaped into my conversations.

Photo courtesy of Opus104 on flickr.