Winter Wonderland.

Now I love running. I love it so much that most of my friends and family think I'm crazy. But there is something about running in the months November through March that just send a chill up my spine. Perhaps it's the fact that the only daylight I come into contact with is through my office window. It could have a little bit to do with the snow, ice, and bitter cold wind. Sometimes I know it's because it means workouts on the treadmill. But whatever it may be, I know that more often than not I would rather be Christmas shopping, drinking hot chocolate, or engaging in my other favorite winter sports of ice skating and snowboarding.

Except for this year.

This year some crazy part of me decided to sign up for a spring half marathon. Really Sara, you want to do long runs in the freezing cold? You want to spend an hour on the treadmill two or three times a week?

Alright well lets review the logic behind this otherwise insane sounding plan.

Every year I do a fall race. I give up everything to train, get into the best shape of my life, inevitably get sick two weeks before the race, and when it comes to race day I am not feeling ready. When the race is over I dive right into the holidays and don't think about running again until Easter!

Well this year went even worse than all the years before. Work took over my life. I didn't make weekday workouts a priority. The Philadelphia Half Marathon was a big fail. FTL. And when you fail once race the only thing to do is to sign up for a new one. This year I made a promise to myself to get back into racing shape, to keep running through the winter, to not let myself get slow.

I moved all my running inspiration to the front wall of my cube so I could look at it every second of the day. I printed a fresh workout calendar and pinned it up as close to my face as I could get and I started planning out workouts for the month of December.

Week one of winter training : Ran 2.5 miles Tuesday night on the treadmill. Planned to run 3 on Thursday but got caught up with work. Planned to run 6 on Saturday but got de-railed by the first snow of the season. Happily enjoyed Christmas shopping, decorating, and singing. Moved 6 miler to Sunday, got up early and had toast and cream cheese for breakfast, got dressed and was looking for my sneakers when I realized, they were at work! foiled again. I cut my losses and just went food shopping instead. Mother nature and fate did not want me to run this weekend so fine. I would not run!

Week Two: Setting out to be WAY better than week one. Monday Ran Four miles - 4 x 1/2 mile repeats @ approx 10 mm. Wednesday Ran three miles 4 x 1/4 repeats at up to 7mm. Whoa! So now once again Saturday is going to be the best weather day for running outside. I MISS running outside. I miss looking at things other than myself in the mirror.

I packed up all my running gear b/c i'll be staying at the BF's house and running along Main Street to Kelly Drive in the AM. Long pants - check. Long sleeve Nike jacket with hood - check. Gloves, headband - check.

Motivation - well i'm working on that one....

xx Sara