Brrrr...

It's cold.

OK, I have no right to complain. Especially when I look at the Midwest, and all the snowstorms the Northwest has gotten. We've had it pretty easy here in Boston. But Winter has finally arrived. Virtually no snow yet, but it was really cold this weekend.

Saturday was in the low 20's (I think) and very breezy, so that sent the wind chill down. I did my easy 5 miler around Fresh Pond, but I just felt chilled to the bones for the rest of the day.

Then Sunday morning arrived. I got up for my long run. I had 17 planned. I was getting dressed and had already had my normal pre-long run toast with almond butter, when I checked the weather. It was 12 with wind gusts to 23 mph. That sent the wind chill down to about -2 or -4. That was it. I drew the line. I really didn't want to spend 2 1/2 hours out in that weather. Went back to bed. It was supposed to warm up a bit later in the day so I decided to wait.

Around 3:00 I finally headed out, dressed in full regalia. Running pants over shorts, jacket over heavy shirt, full face wool hood and fleece cap on top, gels in my pockets, and carrying an insulated water bottle. It was still pretty cold, but it worked out well. I was overdressed for the first 6 miles (and took off the wool hood), but after that, it was about right (and I put the hood back on around mile 7). I put in 15 miles -- felt like 16 or more with all that running gear.

51 miles for the week.

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The Daily Challenge (300 ab reps/day for 100 days):

20500 down, 9500 to go.
I have passed the 2/3rds mark.

Rock hard abs? You know the guy on the cover of Runner's World? Well, my abs don't look like his. But they are feeling pretty solid (under those last few pounds I need to lose).

C-Ya

Big Miles (for me anyway)

After missing a key workout in each of the two previous weeks, this last week I nailed everything for the most miles I've ever run in a week.

This morning's long run, just shy of 21 miles, capped off a 60 mile week! And it was not a crappy run (like my last 20 miler a few weeks back). For the record, Monday through Sunday went as follows:

Mon: day off
Tue: 15 miles close to goal marathon pace (it was quite windy, so a little slower)
Wed: 4 easy
Thu: 6 medium
Fri: 7 medium (with hills)
Sat: 3 easy
Sun: 20+ (long)

And given the extreme weather we've had here, I was actually worried that this morning (January 7th in Boston) would be TOO WARM! It was 72 degrees yesterday (freaky). I ran in shorts and t-shirt and was SWEATING. But it did cool off and I had near perfect running weather -- mid 40's pushing into the low 50's by the time I finished.

C-Ya

Coming Up for Air

Just a brief post to let everyone know I am still among the living.

With a huge push to finish up some big tasks at work, the holidays, the marathon training, and problems with my PC, etc., I just really haven't had time to post anything. Hopefully that will be changing in the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, my system RAM went bad on my PC. The new RAM arrives tomorrow (along with an upgrade to my video card). I'll be installing that and then re-installing Linux. (The RAM failure took out my linux file system -- the windows files are OK as far as I know. I really didn't lose that much personal data, it's just a hassle re-installing stuff.)

So the training is going pretty well. I did miss two key workouts over the last several weeks (it just got to be too much with a big push at work and the holidays). I missed one long run and one tempo run. I'm back in the swing of things this week and will probably hit my highest mileage ever for a single week.

The daily challenge has continued. I don't have my log book handy, but it's been 300 ab reps per day.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season and is enjoying a happy new year. More to come this weekend (after my computer is upgraded).

C-Ya