If I do say so myself. 

Julie-congrats on the distance PR!!!  Guess we forgot to tell you... the first 3-4 miles are always the hardest.  I often do tell low mileage people this. Seriously... I hate the first 3-4 miles. during this time my mind is telling me I'm nuts, I'm not a runner, I look stupid, asking me who do I think I am and why am I even wasting my time.  Things hurt and I just feel about as ungraceful and as winded as possible. Then you get past those first few miles and things settle in.  Ahhh.....

Another thing... don't try to work on speed AND adding distance at the same time. Unless of course you are 20 years old, naturally gifted, or Karen. <smile>  perfect set up for injury and burnout. Remember race pace on race day. You're not planning on stopping run next month, right? So you know you have time to slowly and smartly build mileage overall.  No more than increase of 10% per week and "long run" shouldn' be more than 50% of overall weekly mileage.

Marjorie-we have had check engine light on for about 100k in one car and 80k in the other before we traded it in. Catalytic converter which isn't needed in MI and would cost bunch of bucks to get fixed.

Ginny-enjoy your hustling of Santas!        That did not sound very good.

Mel-welcome.  many of us are chubby and run really slow.  no medical condition to blame. all very supportive though. Welcome!

Karen-in the end bad bosses usually weed themselves out.  sometimes (not always of course) crummy people get promoted because they were the only ones that asked to be.  did you ask?  I don't want to be a boss.  Sort of like politics. other than that... document, document, document.

 watch your email though as crummy bosses with access are usually really paranoid (rightfully so) and have trigger itchy pointy fingers.

Laura-I've had similar comments often said to me.  Maybe I just am actually crazy.

The tragedy in Conneticuit is just unbelievable....last thing I thought about last night and first thing this am....just hard to fathom what these families are going thru....

Ginny - Enjoy your Santa Hustle!  Wish I lived closer, I would have loved to do that race!

LisaMMR - Your are so right on the the advice of the "first 3-4 miles" are the hardest.  Did you decide on H&M - not sure if I missed it.  Haven't been able to be on the computer much - except for work     

Marjorie - Are you doing the Full at H&M  

Today going to PF for weights.....hmmm, am I turning into a "Gym Rat"  LOL.....NOT!   Then trying to work on Christmas things.  Running tomorrow.

Carol

Swimming would be so much easier if I could breathe underwater. I swear, I feel like I'm the most untrainable, unswimmable person in the world when I'm in the pool. The instructor said my issues are actually pretty common, and I think I got a little better by the end of the class.....but now we have the next two weekends with no class because of the holidays and then I will miss the next one because I'm doing a 50k that day. Hope I don't end up back where I started!

Julie, if I were you I wouldn't worry about speed at all. Lisa cracks me up, but honestly, I got faster this year by just increasing distance. I didn't do any speedwork at all, except for an occasional 5k or 10k. (Until the last month or so, when I was doing a 5k every weekend, sometimes two). Most of my speed gains came from more miles. And less weight to haul around. Just by running more, your body gets more efficient at it and you will naturally go faster. It happened to me pretty dramatically I think because a) I haven't been running that long so I had a lot of room for progress, and b) I lost 30 pounds while doing it. Being such a new runner, if you slowly increase your distance, the speed will just happen on its own.

Thanks everyone for the comments on the work situation. I'm actually pretty lucky, as my boss got to where he is by being a great salesman and a truly good and nice guy. He's just dumb as rocks, which is where my frustration comes from. And I love my old boss, she and I have become great friends. Unfortunately, it's through her that I see a lot of the crap that is going on and getting worse upstairs. I guess it's good that it doesn't affect me directly, but I hate to see others treated badly, and I think it offends my sense of right/wrong, good/bad, etc. to see the bad guys doing well and stepping on the good guys in the process.

Hello to all, I'll post more later. Need to finish up this coffee and then I'm going for a longish run - maybe 15 or so.

karen

I'm highly contemplating the full for H-M. I think it will go okay.

Marjorie, one reason they added the second half as an option at HM was so Half Fanatics could run the first half and get the state of KY, then run the second half and get WV. So you could tell your stomach you were just running a half......and then another half. We won't let on that you're doing the full.

Hi Ladies!

8 miles this morning, feeling kind of punky today, there has been so much crud going around at work and at home, so I guess my turn is here.  Mainly a sore throat and headache.  I felt sluggish out there but glad I got some fresh air.

Quiet day around here, probably making some Xmas cookies and then it's BF's holiday party tonight. 

So terribly sad about the CT school, I work with people who have mental health problems, but I will never understand why there are sickos out there that will destroy innocent people's lives, those poor families ugh.

Hi Lisa, Marjorie, Julie, Karen, Camille, Ginny....

14.25 this rmorning at the "Frozen Seahorse Fat Ass"... ran with run buddy Katie and local marathon/ultra veteran (I think he said something about stopping count after 500 marathons and getting pic as a "Legends" runner after JFK last year).  Great stories were told.  Opted to come home and get stuff done around the house vs more miles.  Felt great!