Ho-hum.

I haven’t posted lately because was afraid of dominating the discussion with not-so-interesting posts. Also, I took a small leave of absence to lick my wounds over my failure to run the Fleet Week Half-Marathon. My training had been going so well! But I learned a valuable lesson or two about travel and budgeting my time before race day. My sleep schedule was so screwed up I felt like hell by race time. I think it was the best decision for my body not to run, but I still feel like a quitter.

Since then, my foot is better than ever, I’ve had great runs, and I have increased my mileage. I’m shooting for about thirty miles a week (up from the seventeen to twenty-four I was tending toward over the summer and early fall), and I am taking my shorter runs up to five to seven miles each (lately, I have been running five miles almost everyday, which is up from doing three to five earlier this year) and my long runs up to twelve miles on the tow path (was running eight miles of the path in the spring and ten there this fall). I am struggling with a little bit of weight gain (maybe it’s muscle, yeah, which is some 18% denser than fat, but I mostly blame the Costco sheet cakes my mother has been buying and sharing). I am also adapting to the colder weather (last year I ran wholly on the treadmill while it was cold).

Today was the coldest run I’ve had in years- about 35 degrees when I left- with the wind chill cutting it to about 26. But my newly cobbled together winter gear did the trick (the running jacket I picked up at Target was fantastic- light, yet still kept the wind out. Its hood will be perfect when I need it- it zips right up to my chin!). I definitely need to spend a little money on some gloves or mittens that resist getting soggy. I got fed up and took mine off with a mile left to go, but that may not fly when it gets colder.

Today, Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and then N.E.R.D.’s “She Wants to Move” (BPM 115) got me up the first hill. Not the most inspired choices, I admit, but they WORKED.

P.S. What do we think/do about honking? I used to get it only occasionally, but lately it has been at least twice every run. Maybe since there are fewer runners out there in the cold, I’m taking the honks that might have been distributed more evenly? I can’t tell if it’s menacing or supposed to be a compliment. Mostly it makes me worry my tights have split or that someone is about to run me over. For fun, honkers be damned, I am plotting to buy obnoxiously red track tights* (the shiny kind for under HS track uniforms) and wear those, if only because we don’t sell purple ones.

*image from insport.com