The roads are mostly clear but my office will be closed tomorrow. If the kids' daycare is open I'll be working from home. I killed my lungs in the cold yesterday. My throat feels raw and I keep coughing. However, I think I'm good to run if I use my neck gaiter.

The roads are mostly clear but my office will be closed tomorrow. If the kids' daycare is open I'll be working from home. I killed my lungs in the cold yesterday. My throat feels raw and I keep coughing. However, I think I'm good to run if I use my neck gaiter.

Do you wear glasses (regular/sun/protective/any)? Bought a neck gaiter, happily pulled it over my mouth & nose, and immediately my glasses steamed up. Wondering if there's any way to get around that happening.

today I'm going to try again. First time since the 18th!!!!! I would have gone yesterday but too scared for a relapse... It is still very cold here also - 29 for this area is ridiculous, but Tim apparently got all the snow up north! Still going back and forth about having enough time to get back to fitness for the half mara on the 15th. I am a very sad camper right now

Totally sucky treadmill run tonight. It's just so much harder than running on the road or track. I think a huge part of it is how I hold myself. I think when I'm running on road or track I lean forward more and my body uses gravity to help propel me forward. It takes a lot less effort. On the treadmill the bar in front interferes with my arms' natural swing and causes me to lean back and run more upright hurting my forward motion. I don't think I stride in the same way either. I'm not sure how to fix this. I'm afraid if I back up away from the bar, I'll be in danger of slipping off the back.

Me too. I can't hold my arms at the right angle, I feel like I'm in a straight jacket, and I'm doing something that gives me shin splints. However, it's almost February and you all are helping me through this!!! We will overcome!

Thanks Beth!!!!

I did it! My running buddy took me to her gym, (bless her), I pouted until a treadmill became available (no really, I pouted!) then I ran for a glorious 37 minutes, or 3 miles, based on my lung capacity and the fact I've never run on a treadmill before! I decided it wasn't horrible, even though I didn't love it, I didn't hate it either. It it was nice that my lungs weren't burning in the cold outside, and, the most important thing. I ran!!!!!!

So I am a terrible terrible participant on here. Sorry. What I took from my catchup skim read was this though... Your weather beats my weather with lung searing cold though I did have a brutal long run in howling rain and ankle deep puddles this weekend. And MLP on MFP! I love that you are watching MLP Varda!



Me? Sore stiff legs and a niggling foot injury. I should lay off on the distance but I didn't because I saw a 100 mile month was in reach and I went for it. Made the mileage but, yeah, sore. No run today but Parkrun tomorrow and I WANT WANT WANT a new PR!

Volunteered at Parkrun last week, which was interesting because I saw that the front half of the pack who I always assumed were just breezing though in their superhuman way actually looked like they wanted to die each time they ran past my marshal position. Might have had something to do with being on top of a hill in proper wind with lashing rain but even so... Did a cheeky 5k on my own before volunteering though.

Sunday was 6 miles on my friends 1/2 training schedule which we did so slowly due to weather and flooded paths that I know I can actually walk faster... So so wet. Also my heart rate averaged 118, which must be the definition of an easy run.

Then some sort of madness gripped me on Monday and I went out and did 9 miles in just 5 minutes more than that slow 6 miler. That did feel like I was pushing myself though. I, for the first time, feel that yes, after a proper race you would need actual recovery time! My legs still hate me. (heart rate average on that was 145)

Legs probably hate me because Wednesday was 7 miles to put me in reach of the 100 mile January. Can't say I enjoyed that one.

Then yesterday 3 hard won miles to get me there and yes! 101 miles and thank goodness February is a shorter month and I can use that to trick my competitive wee brain into not needing to beat that mileage! The target for Feb will be 80 miles IF my legs and feet start to feel better.

Still not booked any races. Have a weird mental block going on that on any given day I won't be able to do more than 5K when I am expected to run more. Silly brain. Also everything local I am seeing falls into the categories of "Huge corporate sponsorship style, lots of walk/joggers but thousands of people. Boo!" or "Small and cheap but oops, I checked the previous results and I am coming LAST, maybe a bit elite"

February for me, I hope, is going to be Positive Mental Attitude month - and more importantly than new running targets - needs to be an eating reset. I have a trip to Toronto for a family wedding in April with lots of rarely seen relatives which should be the perfect goal. I want to go out there looking happy and healthy and able to go for a run with my one very competitive uncle who has always run marathons, and has always been very, um, disdainful, of my plumper branch of the family. I want to go out for a run with him and for it to feel and look (sorry) easy.