hi all. I'm behind again. I hate that! Liz, yippee. Perch & Tramps, wow. Roy, Twocat, Meg... good luck with your owies!!! Teresa, how was the recital? Holly, funny. The trail run went ok. I described it a little at the end of Thursday's daily. you kind of need to double most of what I said. BTW. I need to thank you for your diet tip of keeping around those small cans of tomato juice for a snack. Dog owners in MI like climates... what is the One Good Thing about winter? esp. early Jan.? Nirvana no more. Yesterday I let Sadie out, let her in, & headed out to bring up the empty trash things. yikes. I thought... could that be Skunk?? Not only was it, but sadie got blasted. right in her face. The rest of the evening was fun. I had 1 can of tom. juice upstairs, once i'd gracefully gotten her into the bathtub that went on, grabbed the rest & used them all. tomato juice in the bathtub is very unnverving. it was very endearing when she leaped out of the tub & shook. ok, i'll stop now. poor thing, she really was pretty good. she was shivering. foaming at the mouth. I ran outside today, but waited till about noon because of TomS's ice forecast. We did get some. It was the best day for running we've had here in a while! I had piriformis pain to start & almost took the day off per SR's good example, but honestly I got so sidetracked by the freezing rain that I forgot about it.. I got there & the paths were clear so I started & then remembered that I hurt. But it was ok. 11.11 miles ( ), ave. pace 10:00, max 8:03. not zippy but probably was smart. HR was zero, (take that bill & maine) but that meant i didn't burn any calories. the miles were pretty even for the most part.. 11:04, 10:06, 9:58, 9:47, 9:56, 9:46, 9:37, 10:04 (oops) 9:53, 9:44, 9:25. sorry this is so long & rambling!

the forester and I went to the Highlands for Xcountry skiing this afternoon. Cloudy weather, but the snow was to die for. Can you all stand yet another series of snow pictures?... we took a more difficult trail and it was very challenging with its ups and downs. we like to pick huckleberries here in the summer my quads were screaming at me at this point.

Teresa, your DH is funny. he sounds a lot like my dad. you're right.. it is one of the joys of parenthood. Nancy, those are great. Hi Dale! so cool your DS1 ran his first 5K. was he excited? is he happy about it?

crawling onto the thread to say -- thank goodness the holiday get-togethers are finally over... I barely walked from my car to the house after driving home from our visit with my sister and her family. Spent. Fried. Gone. Had a blast over the last several weeks. Couldn't have taken 1 day more though. Now back to my regularly scheduled healthy lifestyle. hic

Great pics Mari!! I haven't cross country skiied in so long and those pics just make me miss it more! Went out for a short run this afternoon. Only 2.6 miles (ha! At first I forgot the decimal when I typed that and re-read it and it said 26 miles! Wouldn't that be something !LOL) . . . okay, 2.6 miles plus some hills, then did leg and core work when I got home. Watched the Vikings lose None of my runs this week were long, but at I'm glad that I got out there and ran 5 days. Total weekly mileage was only 16.1 though. After not running much in December and most weeks only running 2 days a week, I'm happy to have some more consistent running in. Back to the work and school routine tomorrow! yay!

Ribs, thanks for asking. I was in pain when I started. Not the worst I've ever had.. but would have to call it pain. It didn't go away. My plan for tomorrow was a 2.5 mile recovery run, then 30 min. on the elliptical. What do you think? mta, I just got done stretching & using a foam roller, & am about to ice.

thanks Erika. it's flaring up again a little. It was doing a lot better for a few weeks...then I increased the last couple of weeks & did that trail run which was new. who knows. . thanks for asking. When do you leave? How is your foot? did you ever taper? I'm so glad you get to go where it's warm. mta. -18???? have you ever seen those things that warm up the air for you? not a fashion statement, but who cares? DD just sent a text message with pictures of her newly cleaned & organized apartment. it said "look ma, no piles of paper". in the background played "Ode to Joy".

Mariposai, screaming quads? I assume you mean you had a great X-training workout. Spareribs

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!! Xcountry skiing is the greatest X-training a runner could ever dream off. Yes!!!!!!!! the quads were scfreaming as I came up that darn hill...have you ever tried to go up hill on a pair of skiis??? it is work man, HR was probably up over 170...but how much fun. As a long distance runner I am beginning to value the help I get from X country opposed to my fave of all...downhill and snowboarding... Here is to a safe new week it is snowing right now...and TRamp it is only 10pm here...so I will go to sleep and wake up early to go to play in the fresh fallen snow... now........if I had a runner near by... I would go right now......... but......... it is not safe for a young girl to be running out there this late at night...... right Tramps? Is tobias OK???????