The pic is beautiful, Beth! Winter is beautiful as a whole. Too bad it has to be so darn cold as well.

Scotty, thank you so much for your description of San Antonio. The only good thing about Florida for us is that real estate is affordable at the moment. But it's not really the environment we're looking for. SO likes Arizona, but I would miss the sea. San Antonio has warmth, culture, proximity to the gulf, etc... And your RRs really showcase it nicely. We are selling our condo in Mexico and have started looking at properties in the US. Would it be ok if I PMed you some listings for your opinion on the neighbourhoods in San Antonio?

Jay, it does talk back to me. In fact, it sounds very much like Hal: "Good evening, Lily. What can I do for you?" Hey, did we ever get a report of that 5k sandwiched in between two runs from last Sunday? Did I miss it?

I did manage my 6x800m intervals, but they were pretty pathetic, as I feared. According to McMillan, I should run them at 6:40 mpm (in 3:20 for the purists), but I could only do 6:54. I think I could have squeezed a few seconds faster, because I was giggling after each intervals, which tells me I wasn't working hard enough. But by the 6th interval, I started remembering the pizza I had for lunch. So maybe it was best I played conservatively.  Anyway, 9 miles @ 8:03 pace overall, including my first intervals of the season. I'm hoping to improve them in the coming weeks.

You know Lily that was an oft discussed topic on the BF on whether to bag it when a quality workout is not going well or tough it out.  I was always of the mindset that you take what your body is giving you on a given day, even if it is less than target pace.

Yes, I totally agree with you now. I also think that it is proof for me that I have developed strong endurance over my many marathon cycles, but my speed for short distances has been grossly neglected and tonight's intervals are proof of that. So it's not really that it was a bad night, but rather a logical result of the type of training I insist on doing. Once I accept to leave my comfort zone and start dwelling into a different approach for training, I will have better results with my 5k pace. Until then, I can whine and whine, but it won't make me faster...

If you did nothing else but this same workout once every two weeks you would get faster as a result of stress and adaptation. In fact, the next time you run it your comfort level will probably drop below a 6:50 pace, and continue to drop each subsequent time you do it.

I hope so!  But honestly, I don't know how you do it... Intervals are really not pleasant. Not only are they hard, but they are an unnatural way of running. Crazy fast/crazy slow/crazy fast/crazy slow/crazy fast, etc,,, Grrrr!