End of the Year Thoughts

Looking back over the past year 2010 brought so many changes in my life. The first half of the year was spent preparing both at work and at home for the transfer to Cleveland: Looking for a place to live, figuring out how to transfer to a new school, packing up at work, packing up at home, trying to figure out how two people could survive on a student stipend while Dan looked for a job. There have definitely been a lot of ups and downs and a lot of change for us over the past year. The move eventually came and went and overall I think we have finally settled into life in a new city. It's amazing how long it can take for a new place and actually feel at home, but I think we're getting there. With all of the move preparations, and then the move itself I raced MUCH less than I have in years past, BUT I also had some big accomplishments in the races I did run. At the Colfax 1/2 Marathon in May I finally got back under 2 hours (something I have not been able to do since my very first 1/2 Marathon). Perhaps the most important accomplishment: Running my first Full Marathon. It's a goal that's been on my bucket list for a while and i'm extremely happy to have done it. I don't know that there will be any more Full marathons in my near future. I find the 1/2 Marathon to be much more enjoyable to fit into my life, but someday.... maybe another Full.

This is the first year i've blogged about my running and kept track of my milage, so I don't know how it compares to years past, but running over 1000 miles this year sounds good to me :-).

2010 Yearly Milage Total: 1073.41 Miles

See you next Year!

Is Winter cold better than the Heat and Humidity of Summer?

Grudgingly, I think yes. Although, Cleveland cold is much more bitter than Colorado cold and I have learned that I need to modify a few things:

1. I need a second layer over my tights.

2. I need some sort of face protection.

3. Why don't people shovel here??? Seriously??

4. I need some new snow routes where I can run in the street because of #3.

Looks like a shopping trip to stock up on more cold weather running clothes is in order, as well as some map questing for some new routes. My weekly milage for the last couple of weeks has been kind of low. Last week we were in Colorado visiting family, so I got to do some beautiful mountain running. The altitude got me a little and my pace was slow, but the scenery was so worth it! The reason I complain about Cleveland winters:

This is what I got to look at on my runs last week in Colorado. This is the kind of winter i've had the luxury of experiencing. Beautiful weather and BLUE skies. It was 30 degrees, but so much less depressing than the gray skies here in Cleveland. Yes, I have been spoiled.

Weekly Update 12/20-12/26:

Sunday - off

Saturday - 3.23 miles

Friday - 4.14 miles

Thursday - off

Wednesday - 4.09 miles

Tuesday - off

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 11.46 Miles

Weekly Update 12/13-12/19:

Sunday - off

Saturday - off

Friday - 5.00

Thursday - 6x 800 with 400 rests. With warmup and cooldown 5.5 miles total.

Wednesday - upper body weights and core

Tuesday - 5 mile tempo run.

Monday - total body Weights/cardio circuit workout.

Weekly Milage Total: 15.5 Miles

Winter has arrived in Cleveland

Well I think I may have spoken a little too soon... I was starting to feel better, but I seem to have this horrendous sore throat that will not go away. I'm not congested anymore, so getting back to exercise this week felt good after being pretty much in bed for 2 weeks, but my energy levels are still pretty low. I made my third trip to the doctor, where they confirmed that my lymph nodes are very swollen and my tonsils are inflamed. Duh.... I already knew that. I was really pissed off that they didn't seem to think it was worth doing any type of throat culture or test for mono considering i've been sick for 3 weeks, but I guess i'm just going to have to wait this one out.

Winter has officially arrived in Cleveland. As far as I can tell this means its going to snow pretty much every day... which i'm sure will get tedious and depressing after a few months, but so far it hasn't prevented me from running outside on the weekends. I do like to keep those dreadmill miles to a minimum in the winter.

Sunday - 5.38 miles

Saturday - 6.11 miles

Friday- 6X800 w/ 400 jogs. With warmup and cooldown 5 miles total

Thursday - off

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 4 miles easy

Monday - Spinning Class

Weekly Milage Total: 20.49 Miles

Finally! I'm Well!

Alleluia! After literally spending a week and a half in bed sleeping I seem to finally be recovering from the God awful bug I had. Unfortunately my sickness caused me to miss out on the last of the beautiful fall running weather. It seems to be winter now. 30 degrees and snow flurries for the foreseeable future. 30 degrees is still far better than 90 (or even 80) degrees in my mind though! This is our first Ohio winter.... so I'm still not sure exactly what to expect, but I have a feeling the sunny winter days we saw in Colorado wont be happening here. Saturday morning I ventured out for my first post sickness run. I kept it short and I think the cold air actually made me cough up some of the lingering flem.... hmm gross. I can't believe it's only a few weeks until Christmas. If my calculations are correct i've already hit 1,000 miles for this year. It wasn't exactly a goal.... but it still seems impressive to me!

Weekly Recap 11/29 - 12/5

Sunday - 6.01 Miles

Saturday - 3.10 Miles

Friday - sick

Thursday - sick

Wednesday - sick

Tuesday - sick

Monday - sick

Weekly Total: 9.11 Miles