Congrats Helen on your 1000 miles. What's next year's challenge? I wonder if you and 2Frustrated are going to be in the same half marathon. She's also got one coming up this weekend, I believe.

Well, I really did not feel like running last night. BUT, I forced myself out the door and was so glad that I did it anyway. Got 4miles in on the road, plus it seems my time is getting better.

Ran yesterday, 5k, with the gals... today did some HIIT for 30 mins on the dreadmill...

Helen 1000 miles, that IS something to celebrate!!

Two miles and change this morning. Low 50s again--helps so much to have a decent temperature. Finished in 26 minutes, including my walking warm up and cool down. Running pace was 11:04/mile for the first half and 10:40/mile for the second! No walk breaks. I pushed the speed a bit, and it was a hard, but not crazy effort. This is my last run before the sprint tri this weekend, which has a 3 mile run. After this race, I start picking up my mileage, and my long run next weekend is 6 miles. I'll then build to between 10 and 12 in prep for the half.

Anne

I ran 3.5 miles on the TM over lunch yesterday. I am considering a marathon in April here in St. Louis. The reason I say "considering" is that I HATE the cold weather and don't know if I will be able to handle running outside during the winter.

RockerGirl, signing up for a race might keep you motivated to run, even if it is not so nice. OTOH, you could sign up for a half (assuming you have that option) and give yourself a little leeway.

Anne

Softballmom - yes it's the same half marathon, we're meeting up tomorrow and staying on a houseboat in Amsterdam for the weekend. Kykaree's also coming, but not running.

Helen: Too cool... Give yourself and 2Frus my regards and best of luck.

I think I need to rest up the next two days before my 5k Saturday. I have never had more than a day rest in between my runs since the beginning of June, and lately (since adding mileage) I've noticed my achilles on one of my ankles is sore - not unbearably. In fact, it doesn't bother me when I'm running or walking around, but when I wear heels or try to place my foot into a boot where I'm over extending it, it does give a small pain. Or when I'm sitting at my desk and point my toes downward it just feels tight and achey. I seem to be more aware of it this week, so I guess it's time.

Speedwork is totally kicking my a**. I can see that it is going to be fun someday, but I really am starting to miss my dum-de-dum pace long runs.

How cold to you ladies consider "too cold" to run? One of my co-workers and I were discussing this today. We both took today and yesterday off, because it was just too suddenly cold here...the weather just suddenly dropped 30-40 degrees! But, it's still about 35 degrees here, so it's still certainly warm enough to be outside. (35 would be absolutely balmly in January!) We were thinking that less than 15 is pretty much unbearable for us. Do you have a cut-off? To me, wind plans a huge factor too. Wind chills are horrible!!

No running for me today except the sprinting I'm doing around the house to try to get this dang place clean!

Have a good night!

I run all through the winter, but it has never gotten colder than 28F for me. I think the key is dressing for it. Ilene, isn't it cold up there?

Anne

We'll let you know after tomorrow. My 5k is in the No GA mountains and the temps at 7a tomorrow morning is fcstd at lo-mid 30s. I haven't ran in anything below 60 yet, but look forward to it in comparison to the 90-100 degree heat just about two months ago! I agree with Anne, just dress for it. I'm wearing long pants with a long tee then by the 1mile mark I should be toasty

Today I did my tri, and I had a GREAT race. After a season of horrible races, I really needed this one. It was fun to do well, my 2nd best time on this course ever, and by far the best since before the baby. I had a personal best swim, taking more than a minute off my previous time, my bike was very strong, and the run (my weakest leg right now) was even pretty good, 3 miles/35 minutes, 11:40/mile. Some walking, but it was by far my fastest 3mi/5K run in a couple years, and only 3+ minutes off my triathlon best run. Even my transistions were fast. In the grand scheme of things, I'm still in no danger of winning my age group or anything, but it was good to have a race that wasn't a suffer-fest, and feel like maybe some of the training actually did some good.

I'm sure I'll be a little sore tomorrow since I raced HARD, but I'm feeling pretty good physically.

Are you all out running? Nobody's around!

Anne

Well done Anne, I bet it feels good to do a good race.

My weekend was great, but the race itself wasn't fantastic. I knew before I started that I probably wouldn't manage a PB so soon after Berlin and having lost a bit of speed training for that, but I got to about 15k and I was doing pretty well. Then going off faster than I'd planned started to catch up with me and my hip started to hurt a bit so I slowed down a fair bit, the 1:55 pacers went past me (my PB is 1:53) and I ended up getting home in almost dot on 2 hours. I thought it would be about 2 hours before I started, but I was still disappointed having run a decent first 15k to fade so much at the end. Still it's not a bad time, and I have more halves planned for when I've done a bit more training to get some speed back in my legs.

Helen, I bet you are still recovering from Berlin, at least at a cellular level. Some of the running books say you should take 1 day of recovery for every mile you race, and you're only 3 weeks out, right? I bet after a month or so you'll be setting a new PB.

I'm a little sore today, looking forward to my rest day and my massage on Friday. I was supposed to have 2 rest days, but DH's schedule won't allow it if I want to get my running in this week (I do have a half on the calendar now so I can't slack off too much). Our deal was my training had priority through my big tri a couple weeks ago, and then his quest for the sub-3 hr marathon would take over. I guess I do get my two rest days, just not all in a row!

Anne

I know it's a bit soon after Berlin, which is why I didn't expect to break any records, I just wish I'd paced it a bit better on the day, but I let myself get a bit carried away.

The main sign I hadn't quite recovered is the state of my legs today, they feel sorer than they did after doing the marathon itself! Fingers crossed they'll have recovered enough for me to go to a running club I'm seriously considering joining on Wednesday.