Fartleks and pushing as far as I can go!

  So far today has been off to a great start!  I love days like this - esp. when I fell asleep almost straight away last night, got just under 8hrs of good sleep and even (oops...) hit snooze before finally getting up for class.
  I still got to class 5 min early and had time to check my email before I left.
  But anyway, it was once again just me.  Mary's morning shift were both sick so she was covering the desk and Jeff has been dealing with an injured child at home and a ton of work here so he hasn't been able to make it.
  It makes me sad when they can't make it to class, but at the same time, it's nice because working one-on-one has really helped me to push myself and improve my running.
  Today we ran around 3.1 miles.  I really need to buy my gps that I want so I know how far we run exactly but anyway...
  We started with our usual 2 laps (walking the ends, running the straight aways) and then went into stretching.  The actual running started around 6.45am and we ran pretty much non-stop until 7.17am.  Today was supposed to be a "medium" day but it was by far my hardest (but in a good way).
  We started with a 5-4-3-2-1 set.  That's in minutes but since I'm up to about a min a lap I actually did 5-4-3-2-1laps as well. :)  Yay for going from a 12min mile to right around a 10!!  Then came the hardest part of my life!
  Eddie decided to help me build my strength and endurance we are going to start Fartleks.  If you have no clue what that is, it is when you run a certain distance at your highest speed and then run slowly and then run the higher speed again.  For example, he had me run the straight aways as fast as possible and then slowly jog the corners.  I had to do it 3 times (I was shooting for 4 laps but I would have literally puked on the track had I done that).
  Then after I'm almost ready to die, we run another 3-2-1.  Sadly, I was exhausted by then so I managed to barely squeeze out 6 laps but I made it.
  And I surprised myself because after all that, we walked 2 laps and I felt refreshed and ready to run a few more laps (but I didn't).
  I can't say enough how much I love starting off my day with a good run in the morning.  I just wish I could drag my butt out of bed more often to do it!  But I was very happy to learn that Mary convinced Eddie to do 2 classes this summer!  He's going to do the class I'm taking now and then one for us that will focus on getting us to fully run a 5k and I think look towards higher goals.  I'm super excited to start that!!
  Further good news when I got home... I did my weigh-in on the wii and it said I've lost another lb since Sunday!!  That made me feel like all my hard work is paying off - esp. since I haven't run since Thurs (due to my knee) and I wasn't pushing too hard at Zumba on Sun (also bc of my knee).
  Yay for having a great start to the day!!