It would be kewl if Mr Hopeful got bit by the exercise bug. Thanks for the coffee. This AM, I made DW and DS "Toad in the Hole". I used a cookie cutter to cut a heart shped hole in the bread. I was gonna dye the dog red. I may do that later. The dog and I ran to where DD#3 works and dropped off a goody bag. As the bag had soda, we didn't time the 3 miles. It's getting pretty snowy out there. We're watching our GS tonight so DD#1 and SIL#only can have a few quite hours together. The people of this forum rock.

DD went off happy as can be this a.m. with her valentines, wearing her new heart choker and ring her dad and I gave her, looking forward to the day. DS, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with this day. I give him another few years... I did get a great card with a picture of a baby wearing a tattoo that said "Mom" and the message, "You always remember your first love" though. Must...motivate... myself to get out the door for a quick run. I'm still in my pjs. Working, of course. Gorgeous day here. Have a legal seminar in the late late afternoon, then an early dinner with a friend. Kids are off to Maine on winter break with their dad on a red-eye flight (sniff). I'm half looking forward to the time alone, half dreading it. Enjoy the day, folks.

Shoes... hmmm... I've been a slave to the Asics Nimbus series for years. I still say the 6 was my favorite. Seems like every "improvement" to generate a new version number leaves me a little unimpressed. But I've got my third pair of "9's" now, just came in the mail a couple days ago. I seem to easily get 500+ miles on a pair, but if I do a lot of trail runs they wear out sooner. The shoes I trained for and ran the Equinox this year have holes all over them (in the mesh on the sides,not soles) and they look pretty beat up. I still wear them for snow running though, with the Spikey's. I also liked the Cumulus 6, and have a pair with thousands (well, not really) of miles on them. They still look nice and I wear them around as runnabouts. I haven't liked any of the successor versions of that shoe, though. Trying the Asics Speedstar too. It's a little lighter than the Nimbus, not as cushioned, but for racing and speed work only. Anyone else try these? First try in the bedroom walking around on the carpet makes me think they're a little short. Teresa, nice job! Always amazing how when you feel like bagging a run, it turns out to be so rewarding when you really get out there. We have a track like that at our gym, makes me dizzy. I might switch out tomorrow's rest day for today's 5 miler, seeing as how DH and DS2 will be going to Anchorage for the weekend for soccer. Just me and the 15yo so plenty of time to run then. Hey, we must have a pretty good inversion going... I can see Denali from my office window! The Alaska Range is beautiful today!!

I have to retire shoes at around 300 miles, mostly I also have a pair of Trance 7s that are virtually new, but which never worked for me the way the old Trance 6 did. They cost a lot, and it kills me that they don't feel good. From time to time, I try a different insole and tell myself that this will be the solution. And it isn't. I hate that.

I too mourned the change over of the Trance....BUT!!!!...I got lucky and bought three pair on Amazon (through one of their retailers) for only $70 a pair!! I am so happy!! I know how they fit, I know how they wear - so it was a no brainer! By the way..a 4 mile run + 4 mile walk through the snowy fields this morning. It was just to beatiful to go inside today!

I keep the most recently retired shoes for my "knock around" use. All older shoes than that get donated to the local food bank in town. They absolutely go crazy when they see new shoes coming in. Many people can get many more miles out of them once we think they're done for. Donate 'em people! Bill

Since Evan's sickly Saab ain't coming home anytime soon, she can see her present here:

Thanks Holly........obviously getting up at 2:30 in the morning doesn't help me to understand what day it is. Sheesh..... In the running log Is there a way to get a summary of mileage for previous years without going to your calendar and adding up the totals? I want to do some totals for previous years and want to be lazy about it.

You can go to your training log and use the Search option along the left side. Just plug in the date range, and it will list all your workouts for that range. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and a summary of your miles is displayed. Does that give you what you need? Thanks for the post you wrote about Valentine's Day. And thank you Holly for moving it over here to our attention.