Snow!

We had quite the storm this past weekend. This was the view from my window Saturday morning.

I spent a few hours Saturday afternoon shoveling. Sunday was sunny and the boys had fun outside.

Good thing we had the big trucks to clear the snow.


I didn't get any running in over the weekend. Between the snow shoveling and a sick wife, there wasn't time. Monday morning I ran, and then I got sick Monday night. I'm feeling better now but completely over it. Good thing work has been cancelled the past two days. And we're supposed to get more snow tonight! I may get the whole week off the way things are going.

Sick

I've had a little cold for a few weeks now. First it was a cough, and then that got better and I thought I was over it. Now it's become a stuffy nose. It's not severe at all, it's just dragged on for quite a while. I hasn't hurt my running and in fact the last few days I've run a little longer. My wife has questioned on a couple occasions why I don't just take a few days off and sleep in and see if that helps. I'm hesitant to do that because first, it's not that bad, and second, because I've got myself into a nice routine and I don't want to take time off for fear that I'll mess it up. So unless it gets worse, I don't want to stop the good thing I've finally got going.

We got a few more inches of snow last night. With the snow in the trees this morning's run was beautiful. There's a chance of another big storm this weekend. Partially I look forward to it and partially I know it will be so disruptive I hope we don't get too much. All I can do is wait and see.

A Little Workout

I've been a little antsy to run fast lately, so this morning I ran a "workout." I ran over to the middle school and ran a brief fartlek workout on the soccer field. I alternated a lap hard with a lap easy for eight laps. It was not hard at all, but it felt good to get the legs moving a little.

Why did I run the workout on the soccer field? I watched a video last week on Flotrack that featured some athletes in the Nike Oregon program doing a workout on grass. It seemed like a good idea, so I tried it. You get the benefits of running fast without the pounding you'd take on the road.

Update

This weekend has gone by way too fast. Is it too much to ask for another Saturday and Sunday? I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow--I know this week is going to be hectic.

Training went well this week. Having a tired wife who wanted to go to bed early helped. I'm running about 45 minutes a day now, and I want to add in an extra 15 minutes per day over the next week or two.

I still don't have any definite racing plans. I'm thinking about the Army 10 Miler as a goal race, though.

Three-Day Weekend

I finally took my first day off in 2010 this weekend. I was out late Friday with friends, and slept in Saturday morning. I was just unable to get myself out of bed before my wife left, and then with the kids and a house there's just too much else to do on a Saturday to run any other time than the first thing in the morning.

Sunday and Monday's runs were good. I want to get up to running an hour a day and then begin some tempo and fartlek work. After running Monday morning, the kids and wife and I went to IHOP for breakfast. It's become something of a tradition to go out for breakfast on federal holidays. Plus, we had some gift cards from Christmas we hadn't used yet.

Update

There's not too much going on with my running at the moment. I'm getting out the door each morning, getting consistent as I think about building up the daily mileage. I'm working on putting together a plan for the year. I don't think I want to run a marathon, so I'm going to try and find some shorter distance races and maybe a half-marathon this fall.

I'm sure everyone's seen the destruction in Haiti by now. I have a friend who has some family there. They're ok, but can't get out of the country. I was also glad to hear that the kids at an orphanage run by two women from Pittsburgh will be able to come to the US.

Hunger

One way that I know I've been running is my appetite. I certainly feel more hungry and am eating more than I was a month ago when I wasn't running much.

The weekend was pretty good. I had a good run Saturday morning, and just a short run Sunday morning. I was up late Sunday night, so I just ran for half an hour this morning. It's amazing how much different it feels without the wind. This morning was probably the coldest temperature-wise, but without the wind it was much more bearable.

We took the Christmas tree and decorations down this weekend too. Our living room and front yard are so empty.