Windy today

Day 421 - February 25, 2010

Thankful the snow that is pounding the Northeast bypassed Virginia this time, I won't complain about the winds today. I just bundled up, put my head down, and logged my 2.7 miles. It was a good day to rest the legs and get ready for Saturday's upcoming long run.

Run when you can - Run more later if you can

Day 406 - February 10, 2010

That was my mantra today. With the snow overnight, I got up early to shovel out and get ready for work. At 5:30 it was still snowing hard, but I shoveled the drive in about 40 minutes. That left me with a dilemma. There was just enough time to either crawl back into bed and catch a few Z's or change my clothes and head out for a 2 mile run.

Normally on Wednesdays we run as a group after work, but today's forecast was for some more snow followed by gusty winds of 30-50 MPH. My gut feeling was there was a good chance the running group would bail today and I didn't want to be running in the dark with those kinds of winds. So I changed my clothes and got my two miles in. I figured if the running group did go, I could run a short second run and bump my miles up where they should be for a Wednesday, and if they didn't, at least I had another day logged.

I arrived at work, grabbed a quick cup of coffee, turned on my computer and found out that while I was driving in, for the first time in at least five years, corporate decided to close the office. SCORE! I finished my coffee, chatted for a few minutes with the six other people who had managed to get into the office today, and then packed up and was home before lunch. That gave me plenty of time for a second run. It was great. Total mileage for the day was 6.2 - not bad for another snow day. Who says all this snow is bad.

As a bonus, today's mileage put me over 1600 miles for the running streak.

45 Degrees, pouring rain, and heavy wind

Day 315 - November 11, 2009

I was sitting down to right about how miserable it was to run in the cold wind and rain today and then I remembered the date. I guess suffering for 36 minutes out on a run is a pretty insignificant thing compared to the sacrifices our veterans. So, instead, I'm just going to say thanks to those who have served and fought for our freedoms. I know it isn't much, but know that I am truly grateful for all that you have given up so that I did not have to.

Day 99 - Hill run

The wind was still blowing today, but it was thankfully much warmer. The route I chose for today is a series of hills with almost no gentle or flat stretches. I consider it one of the harder runs that I regularly run. Today it seemed especially hard. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my legs were so dead. At first, I thought maybe it was because I sat at the computer almost all day and I just didn't move around enough. Then I thought maybe I wasn't recovering from my last race very well. Surely five days later I would have bounced back to normal.

Then it dawned on me. I had gone out so early that I forgot I had done it today - I push mowed my lawn this morning for an hour and a half. I forgot how much that tires out your legs, especially early in the spring when the grass grows so thick. I guess I should have chosen an easier run for today :)

Tomorrow's 100th straight day of running will feel all the sweeter after today's hard workout! I'm looking forward to it.

Day 70 - Windy 6 Miles

Fortunately the temperature today was back up in the 70's because if it had been in the 30's, the wind would have made it bitterly cold. It was very gusty tonight and the first three miles were straight into the teeth of it. I really struggled up the first few hills as the wind was constantly pushing me back. But as hard as it was, I was very thankful that I would have the tailwind on the way back. I wanted to break 44 minutes and despite an all out effort the last minute and a half, I still came up 5 seconds short. Oh well, something to work for next time.

I'm really pleased with my progress this year. My average run is approaching 4 miles (275 miles in 70 days) and I'm pretty easily hitting 30+ miles a week now. I've already run long runs of 8+ miles and even have completed a 10.5 mile run. I'm thinking I might actually run the Charlottesville 10 miler now. I still won't run as fast as I have in the past (64:09 in 2005), but it is a fun race and it is local. We'll see.

Today's run: 6 miles (YTD 275.8 miles)
Today's time: 0:44:05 (YTD 35:41:06)