Hello. I'm taking the week off to try and get my cough to go away. I finally got some sleep last night but not enough to get caught back up. Which brings me to a question. For the bunch of you who seem to be running at 4, 5 or 6 in the morning, do you go to bed at 8 at night or do you exist on just a few hours sleep? If I don't regularly get 7-8 hours sleep a night I am a basket case.

Hello. I'm taking the week off to try and get my cough to go away. I finally got some sleep last night but not enough to get caught back up. Which brings me to a question. For the bunch of you who seem to be running at 4, 5 or 6 in the morning, do you go to bed at 8 at night or do you exist on just a few hours sleep? If I don't regularly get 7-8 hours sleep a night I am a basket case.

Hope you feel better soon Dave! As for me, I need to be asleep by 10 p.m. - preferrably 9:30 and my alarm goes off at 4:55 a.m. Out the door by 5:15. Funny thing is that more often than not, I am awake before the alarm and quietly turn it off and tip toe out of the bedroom. Now, if I could just teach the dogs to be so quiet! ~Mary

Good Morning All, Easy run of 5 miles this morning after a hard day yesterday. Time was 52:04 (10:24/mile) about 1.5 min slower than MP. I am at the beginning of a new 16 week cycle, so most of my runs over the next four weeks will be endurance runs with some strides thrown in once a week to keep up my speed. VISTA:Your are right about the college game being more fun to watch. My Final Four picks are North Carolina, Kanas, Texas and UCLA. I have UNC beating UCLA in the final. Being a USC fan I can never pick UCLA! Have a great day everyone Bruce

Happy Wednesday, Masters! ...from yesterday TomS- I hope you and your family are all doing better today. CNY- that is one amazing workout you did. 16 miles alone is a formidable run, but you ran 1:40 of that at a hard pace. By yourself. In the cold. You are entitled to be a Miss Cranky Pants. Are we going to get an answer to your library question? SueT- sounds like you are quite familiar with that ice cream barn place... SteveP- how big is that dog of yours? Mariposai- sorry you are dealing with asthma junk. I'm glad you were able to get your run in. PDR- I'm glad you were able to come up for air. THanks for checking in. Do you have a calandar where you X off the days till Boston? dromedary- excellent news with your lung test and the reduced meds! Wow, you must've been a wheezer to not be able to hear Guns N Roses playing! That was some story about China, I'm afraid to find out how they got rid of all those birds. Craneium- I'm glad your incentive worked to get some of those people out running. That's awesome. I hope the calf was just a one time glitch. fbgrrl- sounds like you need a good massage! Thanks for checking in with your busy schedule, and keep getting those runs in. wildchild- safe travels to you stumpy- happy "runnerversary" to you! Maybe your running isn't where you want it to be right now, but you're in the game, and that's what counts. Jeanne- you able to dig yourself out yet? enke- healing vibes to your daughter. Aamos- I see you're getting your runs in. Yay! Hows the foot doing? vista- nice story about the Yankees. Thanks for sharing that with us. charleygross- thanks for checking in, you haven't been posting your runs much lately. BCMorant- welcome! Looking forward to reading about your runs, and yes even the nice conditions that you run in. PJH- that was mean what you did to your son! I like it! It couldn't have worked out any better! I like your tradition of going for donuts after church. Nice run you got in! evanflein- I can't believe your husband is hanging cabinets already! Sheesh! I hope you get some running in on your trip, it sounds like you'll need it. from today... WRFB- thanks for the humpday thread kickoff. There is always something special to report. You are 7 miles closer to the finish line at Boyleston! perchcreek- I'll say those splits were consistent! Nice! CNY- sounds like just the run that Miss Cranky Pants needed. Enjoy your run with Holly tomorrow. breger- Tempo runs are hard enough without the wind. Great workout. Just think how much faster you'll be in good conditions. hopeful4ever- too funny about the headlamp! Try it! Very impressive first interval workout! Holly- Yay on the house offer. Boo on the rain. Yay on getting to run with CNY. Boo on the son not feeling well. I was wondering how those inspections went. Here's a tip, but it may be too late. Bribery does work, not that you'll need it I'm sure. PeterNC- are you sure you just ran a marathon? Skip- Hi! I'd say you were both lucky. biketm- do you own a foam roller? They are great for digging into that ITB. I agree with the shorter stride suggestion, many people overstride and don't realize it. But like you alluded to, it takes practice and concentration to do that. Good luck. Jeanne- I'm the same way with the football pool that goes around the office here. Good luck. SueT- I predict a lot of money will be spent this weekend. Get some gear so you can run in those awful conditions you had this morning! vista- sounds like the tv stations are running the show, not the colleges. rochrunner- get the new stuff, then use it as incentive to get better so you can use it. Plus, free refreshments! Go! lyndenrunner- yoga BCMorant- sounds like a good plan you have. Good luck with it. - Holly, SteveP, Wildchild- thanks for the encouraging words. I was never so glad to see the porch lights on my house as I was this morning, signalling that I was finally near the end of my run. Reading about all the icky weather that many of you from this forum run in is what got me out the door this morning, and I thank you all for that. 14 not so speedy miles in 36* temps with a horizontal, cold, stinging rain. By mile 7, I could no longer grasp my water bottle, my fingers stopped working. By mile 8, I was chattering, no longer able to generate enough body heat. It was so dark out, at one point I didn't even know where I was. Just keep going. Silly stuff, isn't it? I weighed myself when I got back, first fully clothed and soaked, and then after undressing. 8 lbs difference. Too funny. The highlight of the run was when a herd of deer bounded across the road in front of me and almost bowled me over. Even on the pavement, they were almost silent. Very cool. I'm very very thankful to have gotten this run in. Lately, I've been spending almost 2 hours each night with glue, scissors, scotch tape and string, trying to keep this body together. It's letting me get by. My visit to the podiatrist yesterday was very eye opening. First of all, from a geek point of view, the technology my podiatrist uses is pretty cool. Last time I got orthotics from her, it was through a visual inspection, and plaster casting of my feet. This time, I was wired up and analyzed on a computer, showing the forces on my feet through the entire phase of my stride, detailed down to how many kilograms per square millimeter of force are exerted. My stride was also digitally recorded from 3 different angles. Finally when it came time to do the casting, my foot was placed inside of a sensor box, and a 3-D digital image was made of it instead. Everything is them emailed to the orthotic maker. My podiatrist said that my stride is radically different than what it was last time I had my orthotics made. Knee surgery last year really changed the way I run now. Heading to the airport soon to take a trip to Atlanta. The weather here is horrible, and I see I'll be flying into even horribibler weather down there. The barf bag is packed and ready for action. Finally, the guy I'm running Boston with is an investment consultant. Yesterday he emailed me a stock tip to buy, saying it would make a good long term investment. I emailed him back saying that if it is a long term investment, then it wouldn't do me any good since this training for Boston is probably gonna kill me soon. I hope everyone has an enjoyable day today!

BTB - I keep thinking about trying to wear my headlamp around my waist but am afraid to try it. What if it is too small??? Oy! ~Mary

Mary if your waist is too small you could always double the band up like you do with a rubber band, or start eating an extra sandwich at lunch.

Mary, Teresa and Vista - thanks for the advice! I was looking at a list of local restaurants and saw Buck's Naked BarBQue - I love bar-b-que, so I think we are going to have to check it out. DH and I were wondering if we'd be able to really appreciate the area if we stuck to the interstate, so the advice to get off of I-95 is excellent. Thanks!! Doug - go ahead and splurge at the Hanson's - you will be running again before you know it. Besides, buying something will make you feel better - trust me! Dave - I also need 7 to 8 hours of sleep in order to function (9 to 10 is even better). DH and I start winding things down around 9:00 and are usually pretty close to being asleep by 9:30. The alarm goes off at 4:50, but it takes a good 5 minutes before I am able to open my eyes and get out of bed. btb - yes, I'm very familiar with the ice cream barn. It closes for the season at the end of October and doesn't open until April. I'll be hanging on the fence drooling in the next week or so. You are absolutely right about money being spent this weekend - DH has a gift certificate that I gave him for Christmas, so he is loaded and ready for bear. I hope your flight to Atlanta wasn't canceled - it was looking mighty iffy this morning for air travel on this side of the country. You might consider using a stapler if the string, glue and tape aren't doing the job ;-).

Happy mid-week runs and whatever everyone! (missed ya yesterday--{{{Vista}}}) Btb, interesting experience at the podiatry office. That makes sense about your stride changing after your knee operation. I hope you can get new orthotics soon (before Boston) so you can train in them. Rochrunner, go shopping anyway, just think of how the wimmens here will fuss over you in your new running clothing. You can't let JJJ get all the attention with a utilkilt ! Speaking of running clothes, I found out in an embarrasing way that I need new Nike track shorts. I haven't worn them for months...anyway, I ran in them earlier this week and felt a peculiar cold breeze on my lower back but I ran the whole 4 miles with this cold feeling but I'm always cold these days....turns out even though I tied the string at the waist, the shorts are still too big for me and crept down . Lucky for me there was no one else around on that dirt path to holla "hey, that grandma's SAGGING!" I'll be running later today with a friend I haven't seen since the Turkey Trot we did together. It'll be fun to catch up with her.

Mary if your waist is too small you could always double the band up like you do with a rubber band, or start eating an extra sandwich at lunch.

Yeah, yeah . . . that is what I was worried about!! SNORK!