Group Effort

With a crazy week behind me of tough work hours (again) and our sick 1 year old (she threw up 5 times in three days), it goes without saying that I was looking forward to the weekend and really beginning to think about Christmas. As I write this, John is watching "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (again) and Audrey is feeling much, much better. Shopping is almost done (courtesy of Katie....thank you, dear) and ginger bread cookies are in the process of being made. Tonight will bring around a foot of snow, and we'll spend some time tomorrow sledding in the yard. This really is the funnest time of year.

I was able to make the first group run of the year this morning. I missed the chance to be at the last team meeting, so it was nice to be able to make it today. As I left the house this morning, it was still pretty cold (high teens), but a little warmer than yesterday morning went I went for a run (5). I picked up the remnance of "Frosty" in the yard before tonight's snow, and I drove up to today's location in Lexington at The Greater Boston Running Company. We all worked out way inside for a quick update on DFMC members, team news related to fundraising efforts and instruction on the route we'd be running from Jack. Not being able to make to Crossroads on Thursday nights, I found myself looking around and trying to match faces with the various blogs we're all linked to, and I was able to pick out at least a few familiar faces.

We crossed the street as a group and started out along the Minuteman Bikeway for our out and back run. I paired up with the other Mike M. on the team and we started out down the bike path. Having not run as much as I would have liked recently, I had planned to go 7-8 miles today. We started off with a relatively slow pace for me, and a really slow pace for Mike. After about 2 miles, we picked it up a little bit to around 8:30 a mile, which is my usual pace but still slow for Mike. The first half of the run proved to be slightly down hill and the wind was at our backs, so it didn't feel terribly cold. We were able to keep up this pace and have a good conversation pretty much the whole time.

As we hit the 4 mile mark, my plan was to turn around and head back and let Mike keep going. But after about 10 seconds of convincing by Mike, I decided to keep going with him to the end of the trail about a 1/2 mile away. As we turned around to come back, the little bit of wind that was there hit us in the face and it quickly got a lot colder. Even with the slight but steady uphill climb, I felt decent until we hit the 7 mile mark. At that point, I started to get a little tired. It hit me that I hadn't run this far since the half marathon in October and that I needed to be careful not to push too much. There was no need to get hurt on the first long run of the season. I ended up walking for a stretch while Mike stopped for water and then caught up to me. I had one more short walking stint toward the end and completed the run in roughly 1:20. I say roughly because it was so cold, my IPhone froze up and, in the process, my GPS tracker went haywire around mile 7.6 (my IPod froze around that time as well).

http://bit.ly/79WewI

All in all, it was a great 9 mile run. Thanks to Mike for hanging back with me (I promise I won't make you do that all year once I get back in shape), and I felt better than I expected during, and after the run. I'll plan on taking tomorrow off and get back into a better routine over the next two weeks. I still need to get that treadmill.....

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!!

That's Brisk, Baby

After having a very tough week at work with little sleep and maximum stress, I was finally able to get out for run for the first time since Monday morning. Stepping out of the house before 7:00 AM and right as the sun was rising, I realized that the 24 degree temp on my thermometer was not even close to what it really felt like out there with the 10 mph wind (weather.com had the temp at 8 degrees with the windchill). Fortunately, I was dressed warm enough to beat the cold. The only part exposed was my face, which made me realize that I need a winter mask going forward (my jaw was numb by the end of the run). I ended up going 7+ miles, but it was really slow. I had to stop a few times and felt just dog tired about 3/4 of the way through. Also, my GPS conked out on my about 2/3 of the way through the run, so I had to record the run in two parts. I like Runkeeper on my IPhone, but sometimes it drives me crazy.

http://bit.ly/4Yf3o5
http://bit.ly/4DCaRD

With the official training program starting Monday, I'm going to ramp up my rest and mileage in comparison what I've been able to do the last 3-4 weeks. Work should be slowing down starting this week, so that will help tremendously. I'm going to hopefully be at the first group run next Saturday.

This has been an incredible week related to donations. So many people have been incredibly generous so far and I can't thank them enough for helping me reach my personal goal and helping Dana-Farber with their ongoing research. THANK YOU to all of you that have helped up to this point. Your thoughtfulness and generosity means a lot to me.

The Christmas season has been fun so far. The kids are incredibly excited and all decorations have been hung, installed, displayed, etc. A dinner with friends is on the docket for Saturday night and a visit to Santa is scheduled for tomorrow. Less than 2 weeks to go and counting!!

And, We're Off....

I sent out my first round of donation emails on Thursday night, and donations are already coming in. Given that we're in the middle of the holiday season and things still aren't terrific with the economy, it's truly amazing how generous people have been. THANK YOU to those of you that have helped me try to reach my goal.

Note to Self....

.....don't swear at the police in Portsmouth when running.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2009/12/02/for_jogger_no_more_crossing_the_line/

Thanksgiving, Anticipation and Bug Bites

Can it possibly be that Thanksgiving has already come and gone? Wow, that went by quickly. The holiday was fantastic, and Katie did her usual unbelievable job hosting at our house. We had a total of 13 people, down from an expected number of 21. With 13, we were able to avoid spreading tables in an L shape into different rooms and/or using a kiddie table, which would have consisted of everyone under the age of 40. John and Audrey had a great time playing with everyone and the food was outstanding (as usual).


Once my food coma subsided, I made it out for a relatively short run on Saturday, but it seemed longer due to the ridiculous winds that we had that day. I was literally dodging trash cans as they blew across the street.

I woke up on time on Monday (for once) and decided to go a little longer than I planned (5+). I went slower than usual, but felt pretty good. I'm getting used to running in the dark again. It's kind of cool to finish up the run just when the day is breaking.

I'm glad the official training schedule has been posted to the team web site. It's exciting to see what we're in store for related to weekly running and our commitment over the months to come. It will be nice to get out of "maintain" mode and into "training" mode again and I'm looking forward to "officially" beginning the week of the 14th. I just hope I can stick with the others when I'm able to get to a Saturday group run.

I'm hoping to get to the Wednesday night meeting this week, work and sicknesses permitting. I had to pick up Audrey today due to the 101 degree fever she had. I hope this virus passes soon. I thought we were done with sicknesses for a while....guess not. Such is life with a 1 year and 5 year old.