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I'm not sure if this was a good week or not. Some parts were great, others so-so. There was nothing truly bad other than I was having a hard time getting back into the routine. The running week was shot if I'm going strictly by the schedule but I did have a couple of nice short runs. Have been having some tummy issues this week, not sure what's causing that but I'm ready for it to stop already. You don't realize how sitting for several hours at a time behind the wheel affects your body until there has been some time away from it. James & I were both hobbling around the first couple of days from stiffening up. We'd stop and I swear it would take 5 minutes of walking around before we could stand up straight.

Neat things I saw this week
1. Less traffic, woohoo the holiday traffic has eased
2. Snow in TN, it didn't stick thank goodness but it was coming down hard at one point
3. 2 deer while I was docked at Pulaski. The customer I pick up at is surrounded by wooded areas with a large cleared grass area behind the plant so you will frequently see deer coming through
4. A couple of horses that ran next to me on my Wed. run
5. A yard full of guinea fowl and chickens between Adamsville and Crump (15-20 of each)
6. Terry and Deanna at Pulaski

Wednesday's run was at Crump, TN this week. I was in the mood for a change of scenery and checked out a neighborhood behind the fuel stop that I park at sometimes. Had 6-8 mile pace run scheduled, did 2.47 miles of hills (will that equal out?!!!). Felt good, was wearing my new Nike thick tights, C9 Target jacket, nuwool injinji socks so was prepared for the 20* degree temp. This is where I had the horses running next to me--very cool. Also found some public bank access to the river that was within a 5 min. walk of the fuel stop. Everything's going great but then my body decided it was time for a bathroom break, no problem to run back to the store but then disaster strikes. They were remodeling the bathroom!!! There was a woman right on my heels that was in worse shape than I was--she was jumping from foot to foot and there isn't any other place for a couple of miles with a public restroom. So after using the porta-potty I didn't feel like getting back to running. Yes, I know that's way too much info but if you're reading this you're probably a runner (or truck driver) too and have been in exactly the same situation at least once.

Thursday's run was round and round the Cabela's and Wal-Mart in Buda, TX. James is on week 3 of the couch to 5k plan so I ran/walked with him as my warm-up. It was a tough place to run because it was on concrete sidewalks with some inclines and it was very windy. He is doing great though, I'm so proud of him. He was complaining that he was having a little trouble that day but that was when we were going uphill into a headwind (and did I mention the concrete sidewalks? those are killer). Most people would have stopped but he toughed it out and finished strong. Altogether, we did 1.9 miles. After that I ran 4.02 miles round and round. My knees were a little sore afterwards from the concrete--good run though. I have got to compliment the drivers around the shopping center there. Everybody was smiling and waving us on through the drives instead of trying to run us down. That's very unusual around a Wal-Mart, most people are in too big of a hurry to get that front door parking spot and don't you dare get in their way. I was hoping to go into the downtown area of Buda but the sidewalks ended and I didn't feel comfortable running in the road without knowing the area very well.

We delivered in Laredo Thursday night and would have made it back to Cotulla before our hours were up but the trailer I picked up at the yard had a nail in a tire and the shop was closed until 12:30 am so I just went to bed there and got the tire fixed the next morning. I really, really, really dislike the truck I'm assigned to now. It's equipped with optimized idle and the engine shuts down and restarts all through the night. You get these nice warning buzzers and the truck shaking when it stops and restarts so that means I don't get a good night's sleep when it's too cold or hot to sleep with the truck shut down. If James and I are together I can go and sleep in his truck but there are usually 2 nights that I can't do that. I wish the company I was with would go with the apu's on all their trucks. They're testing different units but it will be at least a couple of years before they start ordering all trucks equipped with them.

Today was supposed to be 3 miles on the treadmill but ended up being 1.8, it's just too hot in the health club and it was crowded today so you had all the additional body heat going on. Did an upper body and ab workout afterwards. It's working well having James be my trainer, he pushes me harder on the weights than what I would do by myself. I should be doing unassisted pullups by early spring at this rate.