A Beautiful Snowy morning

I have been sick all week, I am about at 90% now and feeling so much more like normal! I was the first one up this morning and decided to start the day with a run, I invited Ladd who is just starting to get sick and I invited Kyle who didn't want to get out of bed. So off I went, only 4 miles, but it felt good! Some of the run was so beautiful that I had a great big smile on my face, big fluffy flakes softly falling. It was tough to run into the wind for the last mile home. But what a great way to start the day!

thurs. and fri. Nov. 13 , 14

Thursday morning Chuck and I met at 6:00 and did our normal 4 miles, still in shorts , then friday morning Marsha, Abra and I did both Chippewa trails along with a few miles thru buckeye woods, Marsha wasn't feeling her best when we got to Chippewa Rd. so she headed home but Abra needed to do 20 miles today in preparation for the Vegas marathon in 3 weeks so we headed off for a route down by the lake and thru the deveopment near the trail end. When we arrived in our driveway we were at 15 miles, it was a beutiful day hitting mid 60's and possibly the last day of shorts for me in Ohio. Now a day later sat. nov. 15 it has rained most of the day and started snowing with the weeks forecast looking pretty cold which is ok since we'll be headed somewhere warmer very soon. 33 miles for the week , I'll be lucky to get 1/2 that in next week.

Speed Work at Claggett

Marsha , Kyle and I went to do speedwork tonight , it was pretty chilly with all of us dressed in running pants and 2 shirts or so , when we get there Dan H. is in shorts. Dan and another fella , Pete J. were already there warming up when we arrived , so we warmed up a bit and started the hard stuff. Lisa G. showed up so her MC and KC ran together and Dan and I ran together. Dan said here's what I have planned, We did a mile in 6:38 - my quick drink of water , then a slow lap then 3 laps ( 1200 ) in 4:50 . slow again then 2 laps (800) in 3:06. I had to work pretty darn hard to keep up with Dan but it was a really good work out. I need to try and do this a few more times before dec. 6 and hope for some good weather for the Ashland half. I ran down to the bowling alley for a quick visit to see how they were doing with out me and to catch some grief for running instead of bowling. They didn't need me, they shot 1190 the 1st game.

Nov. 9 and 10th

Marsha and I went for a short run sunday but she wasn't feeling good and stopped at 2.7 miles , I got to 3 and stopped. Sunday evening Chuck calls and wants to run mon. morning. We always meet at root at 6:00 a.m. because it's exactly 1.3 miles from each of our houses but I got a head start and was almost to stop n go when we met and decided to alter our normal route of 4.0 miles and go the other way to west park to oak and back to root. 5.5 miles when I got home just in time to see Kyle off to school. It was the coldest day I've been out to run this season , 32 degrees with light snow on the ground. Tomorrow night I'm taking the night off bowling and going to do speed work. Hopefully we'll have a track and a few people show up.

The 1st week of nov.

Marsha and I ran the Inland Trail 1/2 Marathon last sun. She did great (pr of 1:47) and I tried going out at her pace for the 1st 3-4 miles then trying to pick up the pace but never did make up the lost time. Next up is a 1/2 marathon dec. 6 in ashland , depending on the weather I'm just going to run a even steady pace to try and break my pr of 1:36. But being early dec. I may not get a good try at a pr til next year. Wed. morning I decided to run 4 miles after taking a couple days off and the weather was still great for early nov. , still out in shorts and a t-shirt.
Took a couple more days off and then Chuck and I decided to go for a run this morning (sat.). We met near Root and did a loop around town ( Marsha and Kyle saw us while heading to the bowling alley) we did 7 miles bye the time we got back to his house ,then I hit 10 before I got home with a little speed play on the way home. 29 miles for the week , not bad for only running 3 days. Wore my new arm warmers today, was in the mid 40's and they made it possible to wear just a t-shirt. Marsha and I are planning on running a few miles tomorrow to start off the new week.

Speed Work

For the past 2-4 weeks I have been making a conscious effort to improve my training. Make it more rounded... I have been doing strength training once a week for the past 4 weeks (I know I should try for 2 x a week, but haven't gotten there yet), I can tell it is working as I am not as sore this week as I was the first week! I have also gone to speed work each of the past 2 weeks. But, there hasn't been speed work as both tracks have been occupied by soccer and football. So last week is was Dan H, Brittany and I and we did a 5 mile loop including some nice hills, running through Reagan Park, this week is was Dan D and I and we did the same run, but it felt totally different than last week as the time changed. It was dark, very very dark! I did bring my headlamp, which did help, but it was a bit spooky! Dan seems like a very nice guy, but it was different running in a park with a man I barely know, then we are running up this hill in the darkest part of the park and Dan says "this is like a scene straight out of a horror flick...." wow that put it into perspective!
Great to get to know you Dan!
Next week I will drive by the Root Middle school track before coming maybe we can do speed work there for a couple weeks or until the track at Claggett and the High School aren't occupied.

I Did it . . .

Inland Trail Goal of breaking 1:50.....
It was a very boring run!! Ladd ran with me for the first three miles. I asked him repeatedly to please leave me, but he didn't until mile 3, (he broke 1:40) I was all alone for the rest of the race, the next person in front of me was over 100 yards ahead of me. In the middle of the race I felt like I was running very slowly miles, with noone in front of me to push me. Apparently I wasn't, I finished in 1:47:34, first in my age group and 53rd person across the finish line.
It was a beautiful race! The scenery was very pleasant! But there is noone out on the course to cheer anyone on! I don't believe I would ever run the full marathon here, I think I would be so very bored by the end! But it was nice and flat! Running the half we had the wind in our face the whole way, so the full marathon had the benefit of wind at their back for the first 1/2 (the 1/2 marathon runners were bussed out to the 1/2 way point). I will do the 1/2 here again, it was a very well run race! Thank you Ladd for running the first 3 miles with me!
Congrats to my friends Phil, Jean, and Dan who ran the 1/2 and Dan and Rebecca who ran the full!