LadyB and I had a nice 8 mile run out at French Creek last night. Woohoo, the trails are "open" again and evening running is back. It seemed we had the whole park to ourselves. I saw no one on the trails or even near the lake. Conditions were good. Mud in a few of the normal places but pretty dry overall.

TT - Windy here too yesterday. It definitely helped clean things up.

Glorious weather here in central PA, and I'm about to head out for a run. Unfortunately, yesterday's wind did not dry up anything, there is still too much ice on the trails. If anything, the higher temperatures make the ice melt, which results in - you guessed it - mud! Conditions call for very careful running, the ice is treacherous.

TT: Sounds like a great morning adventure for both of you!

XT: Nice!

lace: Has someone gotten the hang of just hanging out? When I read your post, I was thinking you bailed out to be able to focus on beer.

But, the break seems to have done you good, congrats on the PR!

More anti-gravity treadmill  running.  Same level of resistance as the other day, so when they weren't looking, I upped the speed.  Not that it changed the effort significantly, unfortunately.  One more week of this and I should be cleared for outdoors.

no qotd, yet?  Not that I have one to submit.

Have a good weekend racers!  (or beer drinkers,  etc.)

I actually have a full day off work . I was going to drive to a trail for my first run of the year that would have been on 100% trail. Instead I'm too busy around the house so I'll run local on the dirt roads.

QOTD: Since no one has started it yet, I'll give it a go.  Have you ever prepared for something in your life only to bail out of doing it at the last moment?

I'm facing a decision on doing that right now. I was looking at switching from Paramedic to Respiratory Therapy. Unfortunately the updated program requires  many 5 day weeks. The cost of the course isn't too bad but with it now being 5 days a week I'll either have to work every week end or take a huge pay cut while in school. The bad thing is that I can't expect a large pay increase when I'm done and may even take an initial pay cut, so it will take me years to get caught back up. Really thinking about dropping the whole idea.

10 through muddy slush, some slop and some ice, it was fun in the sun.

I lucked out on my drive to the trailhead. There was road construction, and when I drove to the trails, the backlog was about a mile, maybe less, so I just waited patiently, and soon enough, I was at my turnoff. When I drove back, the backlog was several miles long - if I had encountered that on my way out, I probably would have turned around and skipped my run.

QOTD: Yes, on a few occasions. Sometimes I knew the chance of chickening out last minute would be high, sometimes it was a last-minute decision.

One more important occasion was when  my company was closed, I was faced with the decision whether to leave America again after having lived here for three years, returning to Austria (where I was offered a job, but I was reluctant to accept for several reasons), or to Germany (where I had been offered a job, and I had already accepted).

Eventually, I decided to stay in America, on a whim, last minute before I had to buy my airplane ticket to go to Germany to start the new job. With kiddo, two households in limbo (in America and Austria) and an apartment already rented in Germany, with a dog and two cats - the chaos was quite incredible for a while.

After the dust had settled, I started out new again, and found myself quite happy.

As stressful as last-minute decisions (especially for career, or life) are, the outcome is often good if you follow your intuition and your heart.

First run in March today! 5 very easy miles. The lungs seem to be clear, so I'll try again if I still feel good tomorrow.

QOTD: Once, in France, I had trained to climb a pretty hard rock face (5.10d) solo. I was going to use ropes, but I would use self-belaying techiques to stay attached. I prepared everything the night before - coiled ropes, carabiners, etc, etc. In the end I just stayed in bed. I had a really high stress level about the whole thing without realizing it.

evening folks!

Got in 6 miles after work.

QOTD: YES! I was on track to becoming a cop years and years ago. Made it through the interview process, background, polygraph, the whole thing, only to jump ship right before the academy. It was a good decision in the long run.

Work and career decisions are really hard. I made a personal choice long ago that I didn't need to "love" what I did, I just needed to be good at it, so I could support my lifestyle and family. I didn't want to my work/career to be the defining thing about me (even though it's a huge part of my life). Good luck with your choice, daydreamer! I don't envy you.