Training in the cold

Generally, I prefer cold weather running over hot, but the cold and dark of mostly night time training is killing my motivation. Having laid a decent mileage base, I am just starting the speedwork phase of my schedule which means back to the track on Tuesday nights. Maybe that will perk me up a bit. The track workouts mostly entail trying to avoid getting trampled by the much younger guys who show up to do the same thing, only faster. Much faster.

This month's Running Times has a page devoted to the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon which is what L and I are training for this summer. It is a HILLY course, worrisome when you hail from the Low Country. I sense some painful hill work in the future.

I have another 5K race coming up at the end of this month, so it will be good to see if I can trim a few seconds off my finish time. Keep plugging away on the treadmill, Laurel, stay warm and get fit!

Winners all!

Mom, Steph, and Me with our handmade plaques. While Steph and I were significantly slower than the Nance, we still posted a respectable time in the Resolution Run, especially for not having trained for a 5k, and, in my case, not having run much at all. (What was our time, Steph, just under 27:00?) Since other women our age are actually really fast and won the overall awards, Steph and I placed in our agegroup. The lesson here? Mediocrity pays off.

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On that note, I haven't done so well keeping up with my running since I've been back in DC. I blame the weather (11 degrees on my walk to work yesterday, and that's not counting windchill) and the excitement over the inauguration.

Mom got me a subscription to Runner's World AND Running Times for Christmas, so hopefully that will inspire me to get going in the new year. I saw some people running outside from my 7th story view while on the treadmill at the Y, and they looked very, very cold. Nonetheless, they made me feel very very wimpy.

One final note: I have got to get around to calibrating my nike+ iPod thingamajigger. While it's nice to think that I'm running 8:30 miles on my easy runs and covering twice as much ground as the treadmill tells me I am, I shouldn't live under that delusion for too long.

The New Year

Laurel and I and her friend Stephanie and Steph's Dad, Chris, all did the 5K run at Hampton Park on the Saturday following New Year's. Running conditions were perfect, and the venue of Hampton Park, Citadel grounds and Joe Riley Stadium was flat and scenic. I ran a 24:46 which, although not stellar, was a good effort for the first race of the year and good enough to win my age group. There were awards all around, actually, as L and Steph took 3rd and 2nd in their age group and Chris ran off with 2nd in his. We won discount coupons at a sporting goods store and I also won two passes to an upcoming antiques show. The latter will be given away to a friend who has an appreciation for that stuff. The wooden plaques we won were a bit makeshift--no, make that cheesy--I'm hoping Laurel can post the picture of the two of us displaying them. They fed us red rice, beans and collard greens, a traditional Southern meal. While a nice touch, its appeal still mystifies me after all these years of living here, however.