Wow, when was the last time I posted a non-World Cup blog?

I decided to take my massive stockpile of pennies up to the Coinstar machine at QFC today. You see, I save my nickels, dimes, and quarters into my "change bin," mainly saving them for cheapskate poker I play with friends. I separate out the pennies into a separate container, since they have no use in poker.

I had no less than 763 pennies, which, after Coinstars 8.9 cent/$ deduction, gave me enough to buy some groceries.

It's amazing how they build up, but I guess it helps I can't remember the last time I turned in pennies. It must have been years ago... I think I remember doing something like that in college, but maybe I'm making that up.

So, I gave myself an off day today after 6-mile runs both Sundy and Monday. My aerobic fitness is near or at an all-time low, and I don't think I've done more than maybe 5 runs of over 3-3.5 miles in the last year. As a result, my pace is aomewhat pathetic, by my standards, but I'm trying to not let it bother me.

Sunday, I did an "out and back" where I run out for a certain period of time at an "easy" (relative to length of run and how I feel) pace, then turn around after a certain period of time and beat that time back. I headed down to the Interurban Trail and went "out" for 30 minutes, then came back in 27. I'm not sure on mileage, because I didn't start or end at a specific mile marker, or turn around at one, I'm don't know the exact mileage, but using mile markers on the trail, and timing intervals between them, I figure I went about 6, or slightly more, miles. Taht was somewhat depressing to realize, as a 9+ minute pace is SLOW!

Yesterday I decided to take two laps around Green Lake, and to cut the monotony I did the outer path, then the inner path. The inner path is posted as being 2.8 miles long, and I figure the outer path is at least 3, and probably more like 3.2, miles, so I figure the total length was about 6 miles. Even though I felt like crap most of the first loop, I managed to find a somewhat decent pace on the second lap, and did it in about 53 minutes. Not fast, but at least I was at, or slightly under, 9 minute pace!

So I decided not to run today so I would have fresh legs for my indoor soccer game tomorrow. Last week I did a couple of runs at Discovery Park, that were probably 4-4.5 miles each, but had some good hill work. Hopefully, I'll stick to this latest regimen and get myself back to the point where I could do a 5 mile run like it was nothing.