December 23rd to the 29th

Being the holidays and all running usually suffers, due to time constraints, family obligations, ect, running just sits on the back burner...well not this year. Might sound sad, but we had a nice quiet Christmas. Lots of cooking, relaxing, and even plenty of time to run! We do miss our family and friends back east, but we can also be so thankful to have each-other.

Mon: 2.9 easy. Called into work sooner than I thought. Cold out.

Tue: 10.2 moderate - Christmas eve run. Temp went from 8 degrees to 2...brrr. Pup came back with beardsicle.

Wed: 4.2 easy snowshoe. Legs were surprisingly soar from yesterday. All that slip sliding around on snowy roads. Not easy at all. Snow coming down (on Christmas day!) and poorly packed ski trail made it quite the workout. Kept it short.

Thur: 9.5 mi total. Ditched the planned tempo and did a progressively faster mile repeats with .25 rest. (5:55, 5:46, 5:43, 5:39). Finished off with a half mile slow at 6% grade. Solid workout. Pleased to feel how easy it was even though it was on a treadmill. I hit my knee pretty bad at work on a piece of steel and it swelled right up. It was stiff starting out, but it was ok running the repeats.

Fri: 7.3 mi total. Got 7 miles done easy. snowy roads made it a nice recovery run. Finished off the run with 4, short fast hill repeats for strength.

Sat: 16 miles. Long run. Ran with the pup. Snow covered roads for much of it, but we were treated to temps just about at freezing for the first time in over a month. Even though the sun hadn't come out yet, the light breeze made it for one of the most enjoyable runs in the last couple of weeks. Miles 11,12,13,14,15 were all at a hard effort. (Below 6:40 pace).

Sun: 4 miles. snowshoe run on the snowmobile trails. Pretty soar. Right soleus, knee and hamstring all bothering me. Dam right leg...Got in a solid core session as well.

Total: 54 miles

Good week. Got a couple of races coming up soon and I'll try to get results and commentary posted as soon as I can.


It may be evident to anyone that pays attention to my running log that I've ignored weights and core for the last couple of weeks..Well I have a good reason. I got a temporary job with UPS as a pre-loader (or better stated, un-loader). I sit in the trailer and get the packages off the trailer onto the belt pretty much as fast a possible. Back to running, it's provided a nice strength routine the last couple of weeks. A whole body routine as some packages could weight in excess of 70 lbs. But it's time to come back to reality as the Holiday season wraps up. Time to refocus.

I'll leave you with this. The holiday season is great. Friends, family, make it what it should be, a joyus time, but there is one thing that continues to keep me ticking year after year. FOOD!

Christmas morning breakfast: Eggs Benedict. Minus the Canadian. 

Christmas dinner: Roasted Veggies, stuffing, sweet potatoes casserole, honey glazed ham. 

Our Christmas dessert was buttermilk pound cake, that didn't last long enough for the camera. Our post Christmas desert (Saturday evening) was oatmeal Chocolate Chip craisan cookies. 

Sturday dinner: Chicken enchiladas. 

I sit hear rolling around on the ground now in pain. January will be spent recovering i'm sure, but gotta enjoy it while it lasts right??

Onward.

Last week
44 running miles, 4.9 nordic classic, and 5ish biking

Fairly decent week. A solid tempo (4 miles at 6:00min/mile) and finally a double digit long run of 14 with 5 miles at gmp.

Today I could only get in a couple of easy miles (2.9) before I was called into work. Tomorrow, I can be excited about! I can either sleep in till 4!, or I can get up at 3 (like i have been for the last week, for work) and run a few easy miles before I bang out a workout sometime tomorrow. Oh, life's decisions.

We got another 6" of snow since yesterday. Now were at 2.5' of the fluffy white stuff. Perfect for snowshoe running. Gotta get on the snowmobile trails at some point here.  It's also been cooold...like bitter cold. This morning was 4 degrees, the run was 8, and it warmed up to 12!

Today:

2.9 miles in 20:49.

Last mile moderate effort in order to get back in time.

21st...what was I thinking?

Started my day off with a snowshoe run,  and a road run. There's about 18" of snow outside my door at this point and it's all fluff. The trail that I had packed about a week ago was buried, so off I went making three loops of the .4 trail just out my door. The first loop was tough, second better, third faster..still first mile in 9min+..HR avg 137!....did a little out and back on the trails next door to the house, than jumped on the road.

Roads were a mess, a couple of inches buried the thick layer of ice underneath..Made for a slippery time. Not a single car though! Love early morning like this. Even though it's been 24hrs plus, trees are still covered in snow.

AM
snowshoe - 2.3 miles in 21:47
easy run - 3.15 miles in 24:32

We than drove down midday about an hour south to Cross Country Ski Headquarters to get in some Nordic. After a quick lesson in falling down from the instructor we were off. Honestly, it's a great workout and I hope to take advantage of it more. It's too bad the equipment is so darn expensive. Got some great climbs in, and just kept things relaxed by flowing.

4.9 miles in 66 minutes

A short nap in the afternoon (I'm talking like 20 minutes, and 15 of those was playing with the pup and his squeaky ball) I was out the door again! Legs a bit stiff and surprised i was still going. A shakeout of sorts for the long run planned today (Sunday).

PM
2. 3 miles.

A good day in the books, sorta made up for the lack of running from Friday (1 mile running to and from the UPS truck in the afternoon.)

Decmber 9th through the 15th

As the cold weather continues, so does the lake effect snow, in fact i'm pretty sure it snowed every single day this past week. By Sunday night we had 20" of fresh powder. It be shoe'ing  time!

Mon: 4mi easy. A date with the treadmill.

Tues: 4mi total. 3x 400. (83, 79, 81). I was tired from being outside and cold all day, somethings better than nothing.

Wed: 3.2mi easy on snowshoes. Bitter cold. Heart rate up there.

Thurs: 6mi total. 1 easy, 5mi fartlek. On the treadmill 6:41 pace.

Fri: Early training meeting, bad roads equals no running. blah..

Sat: A bit of a workout. 7mi total. 3x1mi (6:06, 5:57, 5:47) plus 2x400 (80, 81) 3.5 miles in 20:31 (5:52 pace)

Sun: 13 miles total. Finally some solid miles and time...10 miles on the treadmill at a moderate pace, than took the dog out for 3 in our lake effect blizzard. ( We got dumped on, another 10+ inches).

So it continues to snow, making it nearly impossible for good workouts on the roads which has turned me to the treadmill for now. Good news it i can get plenty of snowshoe running in and not be worried about not getting in plenty of hard work.

D'OH!

D'OH

That pretty much sums up these last couple of weeks..Lack of quality, lack of quantity, lack of ambition..

I could come up will all kinds of excuses but it I have nothing.

Winter as arrived. Yesterdays short snowshoe run was bitterly cold with 9 degree temps and light wind (wind chill was below zero). Luckily I can just step out my door and be on trails which is awesome. 

With 6+ inches of snow on the ground, poor road conditions, it's nearly that time to start treadmill running again. Hopefully in the coming weeks i can just stay consistent (whatever that means) and bring in the new year with a bang.