LaTortuga, the Saint, Lucy and I all bundled up this morning and went to Andy Brown park for two quick laps. It's cold here, (31 is very cold for us) and still windy. One thing I find interesting about TX weather is how fast you get shifts in temperature. Yesterday in the 70's, today in the 20's, and it happens just like that. So 2.2 miles for me and the group. Louise will take LaT. to DFW for her noon flight. Unlike the jokes often made about company, we will be sad to see her go. The Saint continues to rave about how supportive she was in the race and told me again today she would never have run so well without LaT.'s coaching her through it. Here is a short Christmas story to cheer you up. There is a lady in our town who is a fine runner and gorgeous too. I know her and her husband quite well and they are a wonderful couple. Last week I was in a running store and bumped into her. She called me over to the rack where she was looking at clothing. "Ribs, come over here and feel this." Thinking she was referring to some part of her body I scurried right over. Turns out she just wanted me to feel the fabric of a cool tech shirt she admired. She said, "I sure wish Tom would get me something like this." Yesterday I saw her husband at the race and told him the story and asked him to email me if he wanted me to go back and identify the shirt and get the store to hold it for him. He remembered my email address and wrote me first thing this morning. I will take care of it today so he can get her the shirt for Christmas. It's so hard for men to know what to buy for their wives so if I can help one guy out I am thrilled to do it. Spareribs

I was not able to get on and post this weekend but it appears that Tim had some good news! Glad to hear it. I will go back and read the posts but it sounds like 6 weeks out instead of 6 months, which is fantastic! I don't know what to say about the chlorine allergy. I spent the better part of my adolescence in a pool - thank goodness I wasn't allergic! Are there any other x-training possibilities or is the pool the only option? Mary, best of luck to your daughter with her surgery. That sort of thing is always so much harder on adults than children. Ribs, I will have to check out the pics of the weekend's festivities. Sorry to hear about the high winds. Wind is very difficult to deal with in a race. It can be just plain demoralizing struggling into a high wind for a lot of miles. The weather here has been odd too. It was about usual for this time of year yesterday - low 50s - but today has shot up to 70. I ran 13 yesterday, with the last 7 faster than the first 6. Today, I ran a sluggish recovery 5 miles. Unlike Lou, I know what I'm recovering from. Everything hurts! The high temps did not assist in making this a fun run. I am hoping that Ribs is right and running today will actually make tomorrow's run better. We shall see. Meg

Yes, getting up early to scape off the car, drive to the race, stand around freezing your a$$ off then find out it is cancelled, kind of takes the wind out of your sails. My run later in the afternoon just wasn't highly motivated after that. -7C this morning (19F), chilly walk to the bus stop. I am still debating a run outside under the beautiful blue skies or the dreadmill. I need to find warmer gloves then I think I'll run outside. Curiously, and I don't beleive the long-term forcast for a second...it always predicts much colder, wetter, dire conditions in the long term, but it is "predicted" to go as low as -18C (0F) in ten days, here, in the PNW. I find that hard to believe. Thankfully I won't be here to find out. I saw that clip of Pres. Bush and the shoe. Maybe I shouldn't find that funny, but I nearly fell off the TM laughing out loud...the guy had pretty good aim...

Spareribs, great story! You should rent yourself out, getting ideas from wives and passing them on to their husbands! Tim, glad to hear you won't be out TOO long. Because of the ice storm, I didn't run for four days (the first day was a planned rest day, and then the long weekend was a mess). It amazes me now how bummed out I get when I don't run for that long! I was dreading this morning's run, but it was fantastic. 44 degrees, light wind, and very springlike! I intended to go 5 miles, but got a little lost in my friend's neighborhood and ended up with 5.7 miles in 1:05:17. Slow and easy! My breathing felt VERY easy today, so maybe I will try this slower pace more often. I'm hoping for 6 days of running this week, even if it means hitting the TM.

The roads are nothing but a long sheet of ice around here today. Strong wind and cold temps are making it worse, but such clear blue sky. Like Enkie, I am tempted to go out for a run, but common sense tells me not to. In days like today is when my admiration for Erika goes up 10 notches. Aamos, where are you???????? Ribs, can I send you my wish list also???. Nice guy you are. Mary, good luck to your DD. I will be praying for you and her. Gordon, sorry about your weather this weekend. Not a good day to race.

Tim, I have problems with the chlorine, too. Gives me an excema-like rash on my legs and inner elbows so need to be very careful with post-pool shower and lotion. At least I don't get the congestion problems, sorry about that. But I'll still say (broken-record time) that it's the best thing for you now. Mary, good luck to your daughter on her surgery... and you for the recovery detail. I had mine out when I was 5 which was common 40+ years ago. Nowadays it seems most kids reach adulthood with theirs intact. Holly, nice leg work videos. I've been thinking of ways to mix up my leg work, but don't really want to get into that so close to a marathon. In fact, I don't usually do a whole lot of leg weights the last 6 weeks before a marathon. But I'll keep those as things to try (do you have a bench like that?). And I meant to mention earlier... I think your stability ball is too big. Sounds like it might be a 75 cm ball? For someone your height, you should be looking at no more than 55 cm (mine is 65). Lots of folks have it a lot worse off weather-wise than I do. I was thinking about that yesterday as I was wrapping up my 13th mile outside. No slush, no wind, bone-dry cold but not as bad as it could be. As I told JLynne once, I swore I'd never suffer through another midwestern winter when I left college and so far I've meant it! It does wear on you to be outside in the constant cold, and it gets dark around 3 pm so that gets old, but really. It's not so bad. I'll reserve the right to complain when I'm doing the long runs in the minus-teens and twenties though. Feeling pretty good after my long run yesterday. My legs were so tired I was concerned I'd done something to them (besides running a lot), but this morning they feel pretty good... just the leftover long run feeling that makes climbing stairs tiring. All in all, very encouraging. Next week is a planned 30-mile weekend (10/20)... we'll see how that works out.

dickyg - that link didn't work for me, but on that site, I just did a search for cinnamon apple cake to see if it's the one I usually make and it is - out of the cooking light magazine a few yrs back. That's a great recipe and is always a huge hit no matter what occassion I make it for! we got some more snow over night - about 4 inches in total and schools were delayed for a couple hrs, so now I'm finally at work after dropping my son off at school. I was able to get in two short runs over the weekend and I'll be taking a rest day today, like I usually do on Mondays, but should be able to get to the gym during my lunch hour tomorrow.