Good morning, everyone. Time to get up! Warmer but moister - 44°F and a bit of drizzle - this morning in Maryland for my short recovery run. Not sure what I'm recovering from, but that's the pace I ran. I haven't commented yet, but I have been following, Tim - 6 weeks sounds a whole lot better than the 6 month prognosis. 3.1 miles, 29:24, 9:22/mi, AHR 132 Good runs, all.

Good Morning Lou and Mary...and everyone else Lou, I know I said 6 months off before, but that was more out of frustration than reality. But the first doc did say it would be months if I had a torn or ruptured AT. 6 more weeks still seems like a long time, but hopefully time will go by quickly...I really hope. I can't even begin to imagine how exciting that first run will be, and probably a little scary too hoping the injury doesn't return. Nice recovery run...funny you said recovery from what Wow Mary - tough Girl, glad you survived your run in those condition. Good luck to your DD and her procedure. Don't really hear of people having their tonsils removed at that age...is that unusual? Sounded kinda bad when you said "She has requested a steak dinner for her last meal" but know what you meant With my keyboard on the funk at home, I didn't post my workout yesterday....45 minutes lap swimming, 45 minutes pool running. I really don't know how long I can keep this up with my reaction to the chlorine in the water. I always have real bad cold like symptoms after every pool workout, and feel sick and nauseous for days... and it's really getting to me. That's why when I lap swam getting really for Triathlons, I would only go once a week because of this issue. My doctor said that there was nothing much he could do for me except maybe taking benedrel (sp). Also, last Friday during my visit with my new doctor and getting my MRI. He said he could have gave me an injection in my Achilles to help the pain and help it heal quicker, but said he didn't trust me to NOT run because of how good my foot would feel almost immeadiatley...he remembered back in high school when we played football together, and I would lie to the coach about my broken bones and injuries so I could still play on Friday nights Peter, as usual, another great run for you Holly, I understood your apprehension about me swimming and pool running after my surgery, but my Doc friend said I could do it as long as I kept my wound clean....maybe 3.5 hours was over doing it a little though , but the incision is looking really good and the huge vein is gone. Actually the Doctor said this could have turned into a serious situation if left untreated. Hope everyone has a great Monday. And heeling vibes to those who are sick and injured.....and you lucky Dawgs who can run TimBo

Good morning everyone. Today was cross training day. 5 miles on the eliptical with weights and ab work. I was glad to be indoors this morning. The temp was 5F with 25mph winds. More snow on the way for tomorrow... I wonder what winter will be like when it officially starts? Some good runs in not-so-good conditions this morning. Mary, it sounds like you're having what we had yesterday. Lou and Peter, you guys just continue to roll. Hey Tim - good news on the AT?? With a 6 week prognosis, at least you can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, yes? You'll have the holidays for a distraction, so that should make a couple of the weeks pass more quickly. Did everyone see the news clip of the reporter throwing his shoe at GW? What do you think would have happened if the news conference had been in the US?! Stay warm everyone, and have a great Monday.

Good Morning! Enke – thanks for the translation, for me and all the other conversion-challenged folks. Sorry about your race, but I think I would have secretly been relieved, given the conditions. I’m really a cold-weather wuss. Mary – good luck to your DD and quick healing. Tim – I’m surprised the first doctor let you get by with that vein problem. That’s one of the reasons I believe in second opinions on anything serious. Erika – I know what you mean about breaking up the LR like that, but I figure at least I’m getting the miles in, even if it’s not ideal. Today is x-training day, doing this lower-body workout: 1. Alternating side lunges (20L, 20R), bench step-ups (20L, 20R). 2. Weighted squats (30), weighted ballet squats (30), split squats (20L, 20R). 3. Single leg bridges (30L, 30R), forward lunges (20L, 20R) Plus shoulder presses, reverse flies, butterflies, superman lifts, and stability ball crunches. As my new shake-it-up item, I ran ½-mile on the TM before and after and between the 3 sets, for a total of 2 miles. I have to say, the split squats are a tough balancing act, and I don't even use the weights (yet): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Q8FKO7Ueg but the single leg bridges really kick my butt. Literally. http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/exercises.asp?exercise=154 Good day to all!

It could have been the world's first prescription pistol. The Palm Pistol, described on the Webv site palmpistol.com, set the Internet abuzz with speculation that Medicare might even pay for the elderly and disableed to pack heat. But this week the FDA said the Palm Pistol doesn't qualify as a medical device, and revoked the registration issued to its inventor last week. Medicare would have never covered guns for the seniors anyway. "Medicare will not cover it because there is no approved catagory for weapons," said spokesman Peter Ashkenaz. "So it would not be viewed as reasonable and necessary." "Well...damn," said the company's owner, identified only as "Sarge". "I had a name picked out for our group and everything..how does 'Guns For Geezers' sound to you?" Some shout-outs to yesterday's great efforts, many under cold and/or icy conditions: Perch (17 Lager-fueled miles), Holly (16 in the wind), Larry (7+ while practicing for the ice capades), evryday (12 miles in cold & wind), r2farm (0 degrees), Erika (-7...I wouldn't dream of running in those temps), Mary (4.75 in what sounds like a winter swamp)..you all rock! Enke: Geez....28 with high winds...not sure I could have run in that...I do think, however, this might be the first time I've ever heard of a complete cancellation...wait a minute..I remember they called off the Chicago marathon in mid-race couple years ago because of the heat. Leslie: The bat-in-the-bra story...hmmm...those bats are a lot smarter than we give them credit for! Ribs: Aside from overcooking the chicken, everything else was terrific, topped off by a PR from The Saint....and great pics to boot. But unfortunately I don't recognize any of the other names...at least they don't post on the daily. Are these former CR posters? Tammy: Hannukah desserts? Absolutely! There are lots of traditional ones..what makes a Hannukah dessert?...I have no idea. But here's one that Pam makes just about every year...and it's less than 10g of fat...cinnamon apple-cake. Check out: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=222502 Gordon: I certainly wouldn't call your gutsy effort a PW...maybe timewise, but even competing under those bone-chilling conditions gets a big thumbs-up from me. Feeling much better and am at work for a change...supposed to warm up close to 60 this afternoon so I'll go out later and run a few easy miles...still a little too congested to push it..and besides that, I'm not training for anything...probably won't race until Peachtree in July. DickyG

17 degrees with 30 mph winds this morning...nope I'm not Erika...I stayed inside...

ok, evryday, that beats my sucky weather. I am a wuss, and I do not pretend otherwise.

I know some wusses. I've got several friends that are wusses. You, enke, are no wuss. And about the geese flying in a V formation. If you'll notice, one side of the V is usually longer than the other. Do you know why that is? There are more geese on that side.

Happy Monday all. Not much chance to read or post yesterday. Christmas tree lighting and trimming occupied most of the day. Oh, and I ran a jingle bell run, too. Just checked in to get the results. The race was the Jingle Bell run in Somerville, MA. Last year I ran this (well, warmed up) with The Pro from Dover (Craig) and met at La T’s house. This year she decided it was more important to go run some race in Texas. With Spare Ribs, no less. He may complain about Tet, but he does alright in meeting the Boomer Goddesses. I had some panic getting there to pick up my packet that morning, as MapQuest’s directions took me straight through the starting line, where the police were detouring cars already. But I made it with about 15 minutes to spare. I took about a mile of VERY slow warm-up and got in the starting crowd, too far back as usual, and waited about 10 minutes to get going. Again VERY slowly. My gun time was 1:45 above chip time. Never saw the first mile marker and at the two mile I was just under 18:00. I expected (and didn’t mind) the bobbing and weaving for the first mile, but I was still doing it during the 2nd mile. Finally got a tiny little speed boost and ended up at 27:10. A little worse than last year, but not too bad considering the congestion. Ended up 1218 out of 3181 OA and 20 out of 52 AG. Apparently a very young race. Pretty much my usual location. When I got home I did another 2.4 miles as long as I was already dressed for it, for just under 7 miles for the day, with w/u and c/d. I was hoping to be able to run in shorts, but since it was only 28 when I left the house, I went with lightweight tights and tech shirt with last year’s race shirt on top. The Santa hat got hot very quickly and got tucked in the waist band after about 15 minutes. Tim--relatively good news on your injury. hope you'll survive the pool. I just found out that my trip into work on Friday has been rewarded--everyone that made it in and got sent home, gets the day for free. everyone else had to pony up vacation time. They are talking about some people being without power for another week. Kevin