Embracing Winter

I'm in the middle of week 7, and yikes this week is tough so far! For the past few weeks, weekday mileage has consisted of 2 3 milers and a 6 miler. This week was bumped up to 4,7,4. Only 3 extra miles? No problem...

Tuesday's run felt great. It was nice to have a different route, at least for part of the run. Wednesday's run downright sucked. I usually don't have terrible runs, but this one was pretty bad. The path I planned to run on wasn't plowed at all, so I had to resort to pseudo-plowed sidewalks along a busy street until I could get to a part of the path that was also pseudo-plowed. It was quite the workout running through fluffy, uneven, icy, chunky snow and hurdling over the piles at the end of driveways! Today's run was pretty good. I ran with a friend at the Shaker Lakes. It was bitter cold out, but we made it!

Eugenia and I post run!

Training in the winter is always challenging, but I still love it. Plus, I get to run with this crazy crew on long runs.

Say CHEEEESE!

And see pretty views like this.. 

ooooOOOOoooo

And most importantly, hang out by the space heater post run.. ahhh.. warmth!

Being a cat is tough

Hello Week 6!

I had every intention of starting up this blog again to coincide with my marathon training. Especially given the fact that was the original purpose of this blog (yes I know, 4 years ago..)

Well, sorry!

So here we are, at the beginning of week 6!!

Just to recap, at the end of December, a friend and I signed up for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon!!!! A FULL!!!! Marathon!!

Wow. I still can't really believe it.

I ran the Cleveland Half Marathon the previous 4 years. I love it. It's such an exciting race. I love running through downtown Cleveland, Ohio City, Lakewood, Tremont. I love the crowds, the bands, the support. It's great!

I sometimes love the weather.. 50s and drizzly?!? PERFECT!! 80s and sunny? Not so much! But in Cleveland, anything can happen!

Running a marathon was the first goal I had when I first started running. Seven years and 7 half marathons later, I'm glad I finally took the plunge and signed up!

Weeks 1 through 5 have been great so far. I'm following Hal Higdon's Novice 2 Training Plan. There are 4 days of running, 1 cross training day and 2 rest days. I've been enjoying the long runs on Saturdays, instead of the usual Sundays. It gives me more time to recover before the week starts again and I like having Sundays to chill out instead of worrying about getting a long run in.

Week day runs are on the shorter side (so far!). The longest one is on Wednesdays, and as of now it's 6 miles. Running 6 miles used to be a LONG RUN. Now I can just crank it out and get on with my day.

What's been a bit of a challenge so far is the weather. While I prefer running in cool weather rather than hot weather, it's been kind of extreme! The weather in Cleveland, and much of the midwest and northeast has been anything but mild. I'm about to head out on my 3 miler and it's a brisk 17 degrees. I miss the warm weather! I don't mind running in the cold, but it takes some convincing to get myself out the door. Once I'm out there, it's not that bad.

Time to lace up my kicks!