And the Nominees are...

Wooohooo, today is Oscar Nomination day! I love movies and trying to predict who will win the Oscars. I used to be a movie nut that would see all the nominees every year...even before they were actually nominated. I love comedy, drama, artsy, horror, foreign - you name it. I've even had an Oscar party for the past 10 years with all my movie-nerd friends - complete with ballots, food and sangria. Of course, being in school, with a hubby that works weird hours and a 2 year old, means there is little time for movies anymore. But, I do try my best to sneak out every so often to see one or two. This year Dreamgirls has the most nominations (8), followed by Babel (6) and The Queen (6). Suprisingly though, Dreamgirls was NOT nominated for Best Picture...WTH??? Best Picture nominees are Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen. I know what you're thinking - "Girl, get a life!!!"

In other news, there are talks of the NHL coming to Houston. Apparently Mario Lemieux, hockey great and current owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, is coming to Houston to discuss bringing the Penguins here. I love hockey, but I don't know if Houston can really support and NHL team. Let's face it, we're not a hockey town. Going to the Aeros games is one of my favorite past times (basketball is my favorite, but I can't afford to go to Rocket's games!), but the only time I've seen a sell-out crowd was at the final playoff game back in 1999 when we won the Turner Cup! Talk about a great game!!!

Yeah, I know this is a running blog...so on to the running. First, I just have to say WOW - 2 weekday morning workouts in a row! Monday, I woke up early and managed to get in a 20-minute core workout. I ended up cutting it a bit short, just so I could get some reading for school done.

This morning, I set my alarm clock extra early for a 3-miler on the treadmill. And I only pushed the snooze button once...hooray for me! I don't know what it is about the treadmill, but I find it much harder to make myself run the same type of pace I ran with Kay on Sunday. Maybe it's the treadmill, but I tend to think it has more to do with me being a slacker since I am not running with anyone to hold me accountable.

I set out to do a tempo run, but it didn't quite end up that way. I started out at an easy 12-minute pace for the 1st quarter mile. Then, I sped up to about an 11:15 pace for the next 7 or 8 minutes. Then, I tried to maintain between a 10:00 and 10:15 pace for the next 15 minutes. Then, I was going to slow it back down to an 11:30 pace until I reached the 3 mile mark, but pretty much kept my pace around 10:30 for a remainder of the run. I also did 5/1s, so obviously, I slowed down during the walk breaks. My goal between now and the Lucky Trails 1/2 marathon is to gradually wean myself from the 5/1s and only take short walk breaks at either each mile marker, or at each water station. Oh, and Vic convinced me to run the Buffalo Wallow 6K...I'm looking forward to meeting more of my fellow Striders there!

Workout Stats

Monday
20-minute core workout

Tuesday
Conditions - Treadmill (tempo?)
Total run time - 33:50
Distance - 3 miles
Pace - 11:16

WW Stats
Monday - 24 points consumed, 2 activity pts earned, 2 flex points used (18 for week)