2 miles for me this morning and first run in nearly two weeks. We're done moving my MIL in and today have to move my BIL and his family to her house. I can't wait until this is done.

Good morning Anachotech & UMWB Where is everyone today? Good luck to Bill & the racers this weekend! ...Loved the photos yesterday! This is my first run since last Sunday. It feels SOOO good to be back Knee felt great. 8.03 mils of hills@ 9:08 pace...perfect 51F & cloudy running weather...daffodils starting to pop up...it won't be long until they bloom. Good runs to all today.

Hi anachrotech, umwb, Peter and hopeful4ever, Sounds like some good running, racing and general accomplishments (moving folks!) out there this morning. I ran 14 miles out today. No back. First time I've ever gone more than 13.1, and it was great fun! Renee ran with me for 12 mi, and then my ride drove by, so I flagged them down and threw the dog in the car. I feel good! My legs and joints were definitely starting to tighten, but my lungs felt great. This marks my longest run ever.

PDR wrote:

And he knows better than to get between me and that pot in the morning. I have no sense of humor about that.

My sentiments exactly. Some nice pics yesterday on the daily. Henry, you have such an infectious smile! And SR, you better hide that picture away, or you will ruin your curmudgeon reputation. Anachrotek - you have my sympathies... Peter - good news! And I'm jealous about the daffidils - we have a long way before we see those here. Mary - nice run! Nono - congratulations on your longest run ever! 20.05 miles for me today in 23 degrees. Not counting two potty stops, average pace was 10:08, even with that long slow last mile with the torturous hill to my house. This is actually a very fast ave pace for me for a run this long. Normally I would expect the ave pace to be 10:35-10:50 for a 20-mile run. Still a pretty hard slog in those last miles though. No getting around it, 20 miles is a LONG WAY. Four more of these and then a race. Now for birthday cake baking, house cleaning, DD's swim lessons, maybe a nap later, too....

Good Morning all. Hope everyone is having a great start to the tweekend. Good Luck umwb on the Soles 4 Souls ! I'm taking a rest day.......I had planned on going 30+ days before taking a day off but I'm thinking my training may have caught up to me......no pending injuries......just wiped out......struggling thru runs. I hoping for some feed back and/or positive reinforcement. This has been a tough week. My easy runs were a bit slower than usual. I missed my goal on Tuesdays Interval, I didn't have the gas to complete my cool down run, and last nights tempo I completely Blow'd up on. Last night called for a 2 mile easy, 4 miles at 1/2 mary, and 2 easy. I completed the 1st 2 miler at 8:34.....felt great. Sipped a little water and set my pace for 7:18. This pace is probably faster than my current 1/2 mary but I really should'nt have a problem completing 4 miles. Started of fine. Mile 2 was terrible. I could really feel the acid in my legs......the next half mile was a mental game. The mind won at 2.67 miles.......Walked 1/4 lap......determined to get something out of the work out I set the pace at 7:22.......1/2 mile was all I made. Took another water break.......about 3 mins. Tried again with a goal to do 2 miles at 7:20. Completed 10 mins....1.4 miles. This morning I slept in.......got a decent core and upper body workout in......nothing intensive. Plan is to lay off today....no running. Do a 6 - 7 miler tomorrow very very easy......like a 9:00 pace. Monday is a short run and Tues will be my next quality workout. A very key workout......2 weeks out from a goal race. 6 x 1k @ Race Pace w/400m jog recoveries. Basically I'll be covering the race distance at my goal pace........6:45. (Kinda scary right now considering I couldn't do it last night at a pace 30sec/mile slower ) I'm thinking I did just a little too much over the last two weeks and need to tone it down a bit. Nutrition has been spot on. Sleep has been average to good......7 hrs or better. Next weeks training is really a mental thing. There is no training I'm going to do two weeks out from a race that is going to have a significant impact. But nailing Tuesday workout will really give me the confidence on Feb 7th to back up my Smack Talk

enke, nice run after last week's scare. nono and enke, glad to hear your husbands survived the layoffs. Roy, that picture says it all about a nasty turned ankle. I hope it recovers quickly. Holly, happy birthday to your son and good luck to you surviving the party. dg, nice tempo run. Tramps sorry to hear about your messed up ankle/shin. I hope it's not serious. perch, sorry to hear about your layoff. My thoughts are with you. derrick, that's a tough deal with your furnace conking out. With the cold weather we've been having it could be serious. I hope you can get it fixed or replaced soon. PDR and WRFB, congrats on the news about you becoming grandparents soon. anachrotech, it's good you got in your first run in a couple weeks and that you got half of your moving chores done. Peter, good job on your first run in a week and with a knee that felt great. hopeful, good job on longest run in a couple of months. Sarge, nice run with your wife. Nice long runs for Diverdoc, perch, nono (longest ever), and Holly. This morning, the temp was about 8° when I went out and may have dropped a degree or two while I was out. For the first time in a couple of weeks I felt the roads were good enough to leave the Yaks at home (I did have to pick my route carefully). Even though I almost talked myself out of running today and thought of cutting the run short through the first 4 miles or so, it ended up the first run I've felt good about in quite awhile. The first time I checked my pace was at 3 miles when I made a bathroom stop and it was 9:48. Since I haven't done an 8 mile run in under a 10 min pace in about 3 weeks, I was encouraged. I didn't check my pace again until I was done and was pleased to find I'd done the 8 miles in enough under 1:17 for a 9:35 pace. The run was a little hard but not real bad. Checking my log, I had to go back a month to find an 8 miler at that pace. Also, every mile was under 10 minutes, the trend was to get faster as the run progressed, almost a progression run and I definitely had negative splits. I'm glad my obsession with sticking to a schedule overruled my desire not to run. A good day and good runs for all. TomS

6The only other people at the park besides runners were ice fishermen. As a group of runners walked past a group of ice fishers, we looked at each other and you could tell that each group was thinking "are those guys nuts??"

Funny - that is what my husband is doing right now. He just called and he's catching perch as quick as he can reel them in. (Sorry Steve) JLynne - I wore thermal pants with wind pants over them. An underarmor mock turtleneck with a tech shirt over that and a wind jacket. Headband, gloves and mittens over the gloves. It was just perfect.

Hey every one! Mary, Jeane, NoNo, Nice runs. Holly? 20.05? Why not just round that up to 21? Nice run though I'm jealous I wish my training base was up to 20! Slo and Jim enjoy your rest days they are part of training and should be enjoyed. My day began with a nice mile warm up followed by a 25k race....ran it in 2:06:16 (8:08) pace...I finished strong and felt very good. I even jogged a little cool down. no one passed me after mile five. Not because I ran fast but because I kept a good solid pace and my legs never got tired...well maybe a little on that last hill. (Yes they found the only #$*&^ ! hill in Virginia beach to run up...I was gobsmacked!!!) Things that went right....Hammer Gel Espresso love....Fuel belt filled with Gatorade...ran a faster second half than first. Training base seems pretty good legs are tired, but not sore, Weather!!!! woot! finished race at 2:06 ran began at 2:19 sweeeeet The only thing that had a potential of going wrong was the fact that I did something impulsive yesterday. My normal running shoes are NB 1062's which if you've ever run in are comfy (heavy) shoes...while I was in the store buying my gels I was eyeballing the NB shoes....I've always wanted to get back into a lighter faster shoe that I wore when I was young and more aerodynamic (cough cough). So I bought a pair of NB 826 and wore them the rest of the afternoon...that should be plenty of break in time!!! Right?.... Well long story short I wore them in the race and had no problems at all....hmmmmm.... Take care everyone Karl