We are in New York visiting friends so my entries this week will probably be short and sweet.

Yesterday I managed to get in about 7 miles easy and ran for about an hour and 8 minutes.  There is a road that is about a mile and a half long going along the canal so I just ran up and down that to get in the miles.

Today I ran six miles fartlek again.  This time I did a 15 minute warmup and 5 sets of 4 minutes hard, 1 minute easy, then a 14 minute cool down.  My left hip is still out of whack which sucks but I don't think there is much I can do except stretch and hope it will loosen up and work itself back into place.

"Fartlek is similar to interval training in that short fast runs alternate with slow running or jogging recovery intervals. However, in Fartlek the running is done on the road or on parkland or bush tracks. There is no predetermined schedule to follow, but instead the athlete will set her/his own interval lengths and pace in response to their own feeling of the workload. An advantage of Fartlek is that the athlete can concentrate on feeling the pace and their physical response to it, thereby developing self awareness and pace judgement skills. Also the athlete is free to experiment with pace and endurance, and to experience changes of pace." http://www.coolrunning.com.au/expert/1997c002.shtml" title="http://www.coolrunning.com.au/expert/1997c002.shtml" target="_blank"http://www.coolrunning.com.au...

Went to NC Reservation this morning and ran 6 miles.  Total time was just over 55 minutes.  Not too bad considering the snow.  I warmed up for 11 minutes then did 7 repeats of 3 min hard 2 minutes easy then a 9 minute cool down.  I stretched for five minutes then headed out.

During one of my tempo repeats I heard this loud crack and looked to my right to see the nearest and largest tree cracking right down the middle, yikes!  Luckily it didn't fall while I was running by.  Still made me nervous though.

The past few runs my left hip has been acting up it feels like it is out of place or something, hopefully it will work its way out of its funk.

Went to EC Reservation this morning to kick off my official Boston training season.  I did about 5 miles.  The trail there is 2 and a 1/2 miles but the plow hadn't gone through yet so I just ran on the road.  I think the road is a little shorter than the path.  I felt good this morning and it wasn't too cold.  I was only out for 43 minutes of running and got in about 5 minutes of stretching before I had to head to work.

Christmas was lovely.  I didn't get any running paraphernalia, but I did get a Dick's sporting goods gift card.  I am debating between a headlamp, balaclava, or another technical shirt.  I may buy myself some running goodies while in New York this week.  I also got some yarn and am teaching myself how to crochet.  I am really really really slow, but it is fun and my scarf is coming along :)  We also got an awesome new digital camera so I will hopefully be posting wonderful pics soon.

Hope everyone is still enjoying the holiday season! 

Took a break from running today and headed to the pool with my baby sis.  We did a 20 minute warm up then 15 sets of 1 minutes and 15 seconds all out with 45 seconds rest.  Then a 10 minute cool down.  I was spent.  It has been a long time since I swam.

Anyways Merry Christmas.  Hope everyone's was as nice as mine.

Night.

Went out with SERC this morning.  We ran through Bedford Reservation.  Lots and lots of Hills!  I was only planning on running 8 but BW convinced me to do the whole loop which is somewhere between 12 and 13 miles.  The roads weren't too bad.  A little icy in places but it was light enough to see.  BW almost took a spill though.  There are two hills on this loop that I think should be called runners mountains.  The one is longer around 1 mile and relatively steep.  The other is only about 3/4 a mile but really steep.  Not my thing :)

But I survived and I am not too much worse for wear.  Took us 2 hours to finish the loop so I am guessing it is closer to 12 than 13 with all of those hills and snowy conditions.  My back is sore, maybe bruised probably from the fuel belt. 

Note to self, fuel belt is worthless in the winter.  By the time I needed fluids everything was frozen :) Nice.

Well I will probably start doing that route more often because the hills will help in Boston.  Maybe I can convince the club to do that route once a month on Sundays :)  Not likely but it's worth a shot.  I guess they do repeats on the steeper 3/4 mile hill Thursday nights starting in January so I will probably have to do that.

Well with todays run I have about 20 miles this week :)  Next week I am supposed to be running 40.  Yikes.  The next few weeks are going to be rough.

Got in some more junk mileage today.  Just trying to get used to more weekly miles.  Starting next week the least mileage per week I should be doing is 40 miles.  I have never been a high mileage freak so it should be interesting.  It will be rough because when I run I just like to go out and run my pace and have a good time.  In order to put in more miles I am going to have to take it easy more days and not push tempo which is hard because I am definately a stats freak.  I love comparing each run to my last etc.

Ran at lunch again today, went a little longer (38 minutes).  There are a few little hills dowtown so I went around Browns stadium to tackle those.  It was beautiful outside.  I wore way too much.  I could've gotten away with shorts today I think.  But I was in my tights and a technical shirt, oh well.  I will have to come prepared for all weather from now on.

Couldn't drag myself out of bed early this morning so I decided to run at lunch today.  That is the first time I have worked out during my lunch break.  It isn't the best thing because our office doesn't have showers or anything so I have to do the 5 minute bathroom clean up really quick.  But heck it is better than running in the dark.

I have heard that is is good to workout midday because it allows you to get more focused once back at work and you tend to be more efficient and creative after excercise.  Plus sometimes when running you can work out a problem you were having trouble with, kind of like solving problems in your sleep I guess.

I just ran for 34 minutes out and back.  I ran towards the lake and then followed the street by the museums and airport.  It was a bit chilly on the way back running into the wind but not too bad.  I may have to make a habit out of this because it is so dark in the morning and it gets dark again before I get out of work.  This means I will either be working earlier or later.  No big deal really though.  Gotta love a little flexibility in the work place.  Might be a pain when I am supposed to do 10 mile mid week runs though.

http://islandartist.tblog.com" title="http://islandartist.tblog.com" target="_blank"http://islandartist.tblog.com... Islandartist has been helping me renovate, what do you think?  She is so creative.  I am pretty impressed.  I could never make such a pretty template :)  Big thank you!!!  Stop by her blog and let her know how cool my new template is!

I spent most of last night trying to brush Milford because he gets matts in his fur.  He was not pleased to say the least.  I locked him in the bathroom with me because he can't hide in there.  Well he found a spot where he could resist the brushing pretty well...

His brother found all of this pretty amusing :)

What did I do to deserve such cute boys?  Anways I am lucky I came away with my life last night.  If I hadn't been wearing a jacket I think Milford would have bled me to death :)  He is usually very mild tempered but he actually hissed at me last night.  I think I am just going to shave him lol.

I need to get focused on running.  Didn't get out yesterday because of the severe weather and my calf.  I am going to try and focus on more stretching and drills so that hopefully I won't have any injuries this winter.

With the wind chill it is 12 Degrees F outside.  J and I went out and ran for 30 minutes this morning at North Chagrin.  It was tough getting started in the cold but after 5 minutes or so it wasn't so bad.  The trails were mostly salted and shoveled but we hit some patches of ice along the way.  The nice thing about the snow is it reflects what light is available so we can see a little better than we could last week.

Last night when I got back from my run I realized my belly and thighs were bright pink and starting to swell so I was careful today and wore two pairs of tights and two shirts plus a jacket to make sure I didn't get wind burn.  Plus two pairs of gloves because I am a wimp ;)  I need to get a warm hat because my headband isn't going to cut it.  Also would be nice to find something for my neck and face.

My calf is bothering me again, lovely.  So I am going to have to watch it the next few days and see if it requires time off.

Went to the fitness center with hubby tonight.  I did some situps and some leg presses while waiting for the treadmill.  I did 25 minutes and 3 miles on the treadmill.  3 minutes at 10:00 miles then 8 minutes at 8:00 miles then 1 minute at 6:30 miles and then 4 minutes at 8:00 another 1 at 6:30 then 6 at 8:00 and 3 at 10:00.  Even with all of that I was bored out of my mind.  I hate the treadmill because all there is to focus on is how much you have done or how much more you have to do.  When I am outside I don't have to worry about that.  I can run forever outside and not get bored.  I just kind of get in a zone.  On the treadmill I never even get close to the zone.  Even playing Beatles on my headphones didn't help.

So I am going to avoid the treadmill like the plague.  Which means I have to get my act together and start waking up earlier and getting out and running before work because it is too dark after work to run.  Official Boston training program starts in two weeks.  Boston is 17 weeks and 6 days from today.  I need to get in mileage pretty much 6 days a week the next few weeks to get to the level I need to start at in two weeks.  I am going to try and get in a lot more mileage this time around.  Goal is to run with B at Boston and she wants to run a 3:45.

Went out to Solon this morning and ran with SERC.  A and L were both there.  We did the 8 mile loop in about an hour and ten minutes.  I felt really good today and did the first 20 minutes tempo and another 5 minutes tempo just before the water stop.  There was a pretty big group out this morning.  Felt nice to get back into the groove of things. 

Tomorrow marks 18 weeks to Boston so I need to come up with a training plan.

After the run it started to snow pretty strongly.  The roads were horrible.  I guess it is about time :)  Pretty funny though since last week it got above 60 degrees.

I just woke up from the longest nap ever so I need to go get something productive done.

Gotta love Cleveland in December.  Weather was terrible for running this morning but we still got a small group of TNT triathletes out and running on the towpath.  We went 42 minutes and around 4 and a half miles in freezing rain/snow.  Not the nicest of conditions but much better than a treadmill :)

Spent the rest of the day making christmas candy, did something really strange to my heel around 10 pm while standing in the kitchen and now whenever I put pressure on my heel pain shoots up it.  nice.  Tomorrow's run should be a hoot.

Today I was listening to LaunchCast and decided to listen to the Grammy nominee channel.  I was taken a little aback when I heard Wonderwall...but not sung by Oasis, nope it was sung by Ryan Adams, who I like.  But I associate a lot of my happy high school memories with the Oasis version of Wonderwall, actually the whole album is great.  So I must say I do not like that it has been remade. (I know completely random, sorry)

I managed to get something done tonight, dishes and laundry!  Yay!  I still have to mop and pick up but I guess that will have to wait till Sunday.  Tomorrow is candy making day :) 

Planning on running tomorrow and Sunday.  I am trying to go sans orthodics and see if I don't need them anymore.  This would be a big plus because my orthodics are squeaky and really heavy.  Risk is I refracture my foot, but I am not so sure it was ever really fractured in the first place, I guess they can get false positives a lot of times with something like that.  Plus I ran on that for a year and a half before they decided it was fractured, I have a pretty high pain tolerance.  Anyways I must need sleep because I am totally rambling.

I am watching Actor's Studio on Bravo with Robin Williams, he is absolutely hilarious.  And on that note I am off to bed. 

Just got back from North Chagrin.  Ran with J for 30 minutes this morning.  It was pretty cold out but considering it is December it is still pretty warm I guess.  Can't wait for January when it won't be so dark out at 7am.  We were forced to run on the all purpose trail because we were afraid we would trip and fall in the dark on the bridle trails.

Surprisingly my arms aren't sore this morning....must not have done enough push ups :)

I love my apartment building because we have an indoor and outdoor pool, a small fitness center, and a restaurant/bar right in the complex.  All of these things are great.  What sucks is the hours of availability. Hubby and I went to go wokrout tonight at 9:45pm and the fitness center was locked up.  Apparently it is only open the same hours as the pool 6:30 am to 9pm.  I think these hours should be extended, and that normal adults probably can't always squeeze a workout into that time frame, but what do I know. 

Newho enough complaining.  I didn't want to do nothing tonight so we came back up to the apartment and did tae bo.  Not exactly the type of workout I wanted to do but much better than nothing.  My arms are probably going to be sore tomorrow because there were push ups involved, yikes!  I wanted to do pilates but I think my hubby thinks those are girly.  So we did the tae bo but tried to be careful not too jump around too much so we didn't bother those below us.

The workout dvd I have is kind of a mesh of a bunch of the other dvds so sometimes it is a bit jumpy and you miss out on one side of your body.  But I still think it is a pretty good workout.

We had our bike workshop last night.  About 8 people showed up so hopefully coach K feels it was worth it.  I think everyone got out of it what they needed.  One lady bought a bike and I checked out one of my other mentees bikes.  So now I am starting to think about my bike and what I want to accomplish next year during tri season.

I am on a limited income and man bikes are expensive!  (Not to mention all the crazy gizmos I can get to go along with one)

So I need to decide between three things:

An indoor trainer..these are around 200-300 bucks but will allow me to train inside on my bike during the winter

A road bike with aerobars...the road bike is more comfortable on hills which where I live that is an asset but riding on the aerobars is less comfortable on a road bike because you can't move as far forward as is comfortable

A tri specific bike...not comfortable on hills but much more aerodynamic and great for flat terrain which is what most triathlons consist of...

These are listed in order of price (going up)

What would you choose?

Spent most of today delineating a subbasins theme for the Milwaukee River.  Fun Times :)

I did manage to finally get ahold of Cuyahoga Board of elections and my provisional ballot was "counted" :)  Success!!!  Hopefully next time there won't be any problems.  But just in case I am calling two weeks ahead of all elections from now on.

Tonight is the first triathlon workshop for St. Anthony's.  Since I am not fundraising this time I registered the other day.  $124, Yikes!!!  This was even more than Boston.  Quite a lot of money for a race that may not be much fun...hopefully I will get my body really tough before that though and I will survive both events without too much damage.  I am looking forward to the ocean swim, but the bike and run may be tough just 6 days after Boston and Heartbreak hill :(

I am going to sit down sometime this week and formulate a plan for training and what not.  I have felt like a slug the past two weeks so hopefully writing out an agenda will help get me focused and out of this funk. (Before I gain a ton of weight and lose all of the athletic ability I gained since April)

Went out to North Chagrin with J today.  I haven't run in over a week so it was about time.

We just did an easy 30 minute run but it was nice to have done something athletic for the day.  It is getting cold out but the trails were in pretty good shape.  We will see how that goes once we start getting snow.

Now I need to go buy some candy for Christmas and get the apartment in order before attempting to put out all of the x-mas decorations.  Let's hope I can be productive.

I can officially say I ran a marathon now...last night two of my toenails fell out.  Luckily it didn't hurt or anything and I haven't really noticed today.

Oh and my entry to Boston is official.  I recieved my confirmation card in the mail!

I haven't done any form of excercise since the turkey trot.  I will probably go out tomorrow to see if my calf and hamstring have worked themselves out of their funk.