It's a Wonderful Life 5k

It was the most picture perfect day for the It's a Wonderful Life 5k... large snow flakes and a snow covered slush/snow street (just like in the movie).  I started the day by getting out the Christmas decorations.  Cinder Ella helped by swatting at me as I pulled her "hiding place" from the basement.

 My mom picked me up with Pal Karen and we headed to Bedford falls for the day.  First stop was the post office to get her holiday cards stamped with the special postmark for this weekend only.

 Next we wandered around the little town ducking into just about every little shop there was to get out of the cold.  We are talking frigid, single digit temps and snow.

 Race time was at 4:40pm and we were told to wear our reflective gear to the start on the bridge that George Bailey jumped off to be saved by Clarence.  I followed the memo well about being "lit up" for cars to see you.

 I had on my head lamp, arm bands, a Christmas light necklace and Prep and Landing tree flashlights plus my homemade tree skirt (it was made of three real tree skirts stitched together and elasticized).

 Despite the extremely cold temps there were a lot of runners.  When I finished I had little icicles on my eyelashes and chunks of ice on my cheeks.  Mom forgot to take a picture of that since we went into the local gym to warm up.

They had hot chocolate, coffee and cookies for us after we finished plus the usual water and bagels.  The gym was cute too with the decorations for the swing dance that evening.  I highly recommend this race to anyone that happens to be close by or wants to make a special weekend trip for the event.  Throughout the weekend they have different happenings in the town.  

Oh, and despite the slick conditions and all that I still ran the race in under 25 minutes.  Not a PR but definitely awesome for what is my coldest race ever.  Can't believe only 3 weeks left until Dopey!

Weekly Training Roundup Week 13 & 14

Running on a cruise ship is hard.  Not only physically but mentally.  Despite the challenge or running small laps or dodging wind barriers and lounge chairs I survived the week long Caribbean cruise that Manfriend and I went on.  I did not get in any workouts and just focused on hitting the miles as best I could due to the circumstances.  I tried the treadmill one day and that was a huge failure.  I couldn't even walk on the stinkin' thing without people thinking I was drunk--the ship is rocking one way, you're looking out a window with the waves going every which way and I just couldn't visually handle it and look coordinated.

Our first full day on the ship was my "weekly long run" and to be honest it wasn't my favorite despite the giant grin on my face.  I made Manfriend sit on the deck with my water bottle and help me keep track of laps.  The wind decided to blow my hat off (although I did catch it) so I spent the rest of the run semi-squinting.  It was hot and humid every time I ran (and I did run at 10pm a few times).

 Yup, they closed the "larger lap" deck on me every single time for cleaning and such forcing me to go on the short, jogging track.  Large lap Lanai deck was 2.5 laps per mile and the jogging track was 7 laps to the mile.

 Week 13:
Sunday     10 long
Monday    7 easy
Tuesday    5 easy (I was also quite seasick for the first 3 days)
Wednesday  off
Thursday   7 in 65 min (I tried to go faster but that's a small twisty lap)
Friday        6 easy
Saturday    7 easy
Weekly Total (all ship miles too!):  42 miles

Week 14  we arrived at Disney late Saturday afternoon to check out the holiday decorations.  Although it wasn't on a cruise ship I had a 1.25 mile course mapped out at the hotel and used that.  Sunrises at Disney are Magical and I highly recommend them.  Then we came back to reality and winter decided to arrive with real feel temps in the single digits.

Sunday      16 long (around the Generation Gap pond) 2:01 (might be closer to 15 miles or 15.5)
Monday     5 easy
Tuesday    workout of 2x3 mile that I converted to 1x3 mile and 1x1.25mile with 1 mile between due to heat and humidity   total for the day 8.5
Wednesday  off
Thursday   9 elliptical (icy and snowy yuck out)
Friday        4 easy (busted out the extreme gear and yak traxs)
Saturday    3 medium (the wonderful life 5k snowy and very cold)
Weekly Total:  35.5 miles

Weekly Training Round up Week 12

What a crazy week in terms of weather.  It has been downright frigid most days and lots of snow/ice this week.  So my training was a little "off" the norm and scheduled but I am proud of myself for getting in the miles (although not in their intended form).

Here goes my crazy week:
Sunday was to be a long run but with single digit temps and the windchill I opted for the elliptical for 13 miles.  I did maintain a 7min mile pace on the thing though so that counts for something.  Plus I watched a cheesy chic flick so it wasn't that bad but it really made me appreciate my running that much more

Monday 10 miles broken up into what was my best estimate of the workout scheduled for Tuesday since the track was an icy mess.  I got in 4 hard miles, about 3 medium paced miles and the other 3 miles of the day were easy and avoiding slush.  I also was told by an old man outside scraping ice from his driveway that I was really lit up, where did I stash the batteries.  (A headlamp, blinking arm band and hand held light as well plus reflective jacket).

Tuesday I was supposed to work a half day but ended up subbing for the whole day.  By the time I exited school there was a mini-blizzard in the works and it was just not a safe to be running situation even though the temp was decent.  Big fat 0 for the day

Wednesday was an easy 8 spent slopping around slush and avoiding ice

Thursday  was 9 easy due to icy patches and lumpy sidewalks.  I ran on side streets as much as I could to get traction and avoid the sidewalks.

Friday  10 with my high school friend Kelly.  Decent pace and not that far off weekly miles at this point since I added a few miles here and there when I could.

Saturday  8 easy

Weekly Total:  45 out of what was scheduled to be 53