Good morning and happy Tuesday, everyone! I’m convinced that this is going to be a great day because I walked into QuickCheck for my weekly coffee treat and found 5 of my new friends staring back at me from the cover of a 3 month old magazine that fell to the back of the magazine rack! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy at 8AM in my life.

The past week has been positive, if uneventful, with three more solid training runs in the books and a few days of cross training and strength training to boot. Let’s rewind.

I kicked off NJ Half Marathon Training Week 4 with 4 early morning miles and reminded myself of why I don’t usually run before work: I’m so much slower than I’m used to!

Because I’m so reluctant to get out of bed any earlier than I have to, my pre-work runs suffer from a lack of prep time. Running in the morning on the weekends is usually my jam, but that’s only because I get a good hour or two to lazily wake up, enjoy my coffee and breakfast, digest, dress, warm up, and hit the pavement. When that alarm goes off at Zero Dark Thirty, it takes everything I’ve got not to drift back off into dreamland, so I’m out the door and on the treadmill roughly 25 minutes after my alarm goes off. Not the best way to get it done, but some Internet memes are based in truth:

Instead of letting my slower speed get me down, I used it to my advantage and aimed for negative splits, which I nailed! It was the confidence booster I needed to carry me through a cross & strength training day Wednesday, and into more cross training Thursday.

Finally, Friday morning rolled around and I hit the treadmill once more for a quick 3 miles to celebrate National Wear the Gibblers Day and the arrival of Fuller House on Netflix!

For those of you not hip to the jive (that’s a thing, right?), The Gibblers are the crazy fun multicolored stripey Pro Compression socks that you may have seen on social media before, either on me or any of the other wacky runners in your feeds. Andrea Barber, who plays Kimmy Gibbler, is also an avid runner and Pro Compression fan – and these are her favorite socks.

So as the crazy, supportive, whack-job group of runners we are, it was only natural to create a holiday around our friend’s return to her role in Fuller House; hence, “National Wear the Gibblers Day” was born! I celebrated by laughing (and yes, crying) through the first episode on the treadmill before work, and loved every minute.

Saturday I relaxed a bit before long run Sunday, where I joined my friend Jenny down the shore to run with her as she trains for her first half marathon! It was supposed to be so gorgeous out – the impending spring has given me a ridiculous case of spring fever and I’m convinced it should be 60 degrees every day, but it’s not QUITE the case just yet.

We took off bright and early (and COLD, that wind was no joke) at Jenny’s pace for the first 3.5 miles. It was so nice to chat and laugh while logging the miles – it really is easier when you share the road with a friend. And we ALSO ran into speedy sis-in-law Mere as she took on her 15 miler, too! We stopped for hugs and a quick hello at around mile 3 (her mile 5), feeling like rockstars for being in the cool kids running club that day!

Because my training plan called for 8 and Jenny’s called for 7, she turned at mile 3.5 and I kept going for a half a mile or so. Once I broke off on my own and cranked up my music it felt so great to charge down the boards and really breathe in that fresh air. At Mile 4, I spun back around and took off for another 2 miles, and passed Mere again, grabbing a high five and big cheers as she shot past at her Mile 10!

Finally I caught up with Jenny with one mile to go and we ran it in for a total of 8 and 7 miles at a solid effort. After some chatting and stretching on a boardwalk bench, we went our separate ways, effectively wrapping up Week 4 of training for me!

How about you: How’s your training going? Are you getting excited for the approaching spring? Did you watch Fuller House? Tell me everything!