I want a new car

It's been relatively warm recently and yesterday it spent the day raining. Then it turned to snow, and that froze over-night. Well, my 17-yr-old car doors have a lovely habit of freezing during the winter, particularly under circumstances like these. This morning I went out to my car when I was on my way to the gym and work, and of course the doors were frozen shut. Because I have become accustomed to this lovely habit, it only took me a couple minutes to pry the door open, even with my arms full of gyms bags, work clothes and briefcase. I was on my way. I stopped at Walgreens when it opened at 7am on my way to pick up a new knee brace for running (more on that in a minute). Then I was really on my way, but I arrived at the gym a little later than normal - only to be harassed for being late by Dave the bike guy and Bruce the beefy lifter.

I jump on the treadmill with my awesome new knee brace and felt great, until I remembered that I hate running on a treadmill. It always stinks. Oh, and that awesome new knee brace, well I'm not so sure. I am trying the knee brace because after a long (well long for me) bike ride last spring my knee started hurting. I think I probably slightly tore something, and it took forever to feel better. In October when I started working out again, I went slowly to rebuild strength and it has felt pretty good, but it still gets sore and arthritic feeling while/after I run. I thought the knee brace would give stability to my knee and protect it while I run, thereby, preventing pain. Well, that's sort of what happened. I felt better and more confident while I was running, though there was definitely some soreness. But all day long my lower quad muscle, near my knee (or whatever muscle that is) has been super sore - not limping sore - but sore. Luckily though, the joint itself feels ok - I think that's luckily!

So I managed to squeeze in 2 miles in a little over 20 minutes before I had to go get ready so that I wouldn't be late for work. The run itself felt really good, surprisingly. I did the first 15 minutes at a 5.0 on the treadmill, which is a little under a 12 minute mile. Then I decided to take it up one beat per minute (except I forgot a couple times because I was watching the Today Show). I finished my two miles at a 5.7. All in all, except for the fact that it was a short workout and my knee is sore, I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10 rating.

Now here is where my day got fun, and why I want a new car. I get ready, out to my car and I have just enough time to get to work and be on time. Except that my lovely 17 yr-old-car driver's side door decided that it didn't feel like closing. After trying to be McGyver with a screwdriver, I called AAA because Hubs was working and phone-less (its broken) and Hubs' Dad (our go-to guy for mechanical issues) was probably at work and not answering his phone, and my Dad (also a go-to guy for mechanical issues) was probably asleep because he works night-shift. So AAA it was. Then I waited over 2 hours (instead of the 1 hour that I was quoted) for the tow truck. Only to have the tow truck guy tease me, and then fix the door with a screwdriver in 30 seconds. At least he taught me how to do it, so that next time I should be able to do it myself.

Off to work (three hours late) I went. Only to get an email from Hubs saying that his car needs to be jumped b/c the lights on our 13 yr-old car didn't turn off like they are supposed to when you turn off the car.

So need lots of new tires - some on a new car and some on a new bike!

The good news is that I talked to a girl at the gym today that said the pool is visually deceptive and actually a lot closer to Olympic-standard than it looks. I think I'll try to get in a swim tomorrow.