Somehow its hard to think that tomorrow is the first day of winter after suffering through a major snowstorm yesterday. It didn't affect my running too bad except that it forced me to go out early yesterday morning (which wasn't necessary) and then slowed me down today as I trecked through the slushy streets to get an 8 miler in. The weather people (you know my feelings on them) predicted 6-12 inches of snow on Saturday, starting around 6am .. I got up at 5am (yep, on a Saturday) and was on the road to get in 14 miles at 5:30am and got back just as the flurries started.

Outside of the forecast for snow, it was cold, brutally cold and I didn't dress appropriately for the run unfortunately. I thought I could get by without my running jacket and instead layer up a different way, but I didn't realize how strong the wind was. It actually got worse as the run went on, because despite the cold, I was still sweating underneath and then when I turned east into the strong wind at around mile 7, parts of me started to literally get so cold they went numb .. areas around my chest, my stomach, my face, basically anywhere I had sweated up .. thankfully the route I was running allowed me to cut down a side road to avoid the wind and warm up (which worked), but also didn't cause me to lose any miles. The thing that bugged me though was that the real snow didn't actually start until around mid-afternoon, so I really didn't even need to get up so early to run, but I did, oh well.

So today was no exception from the cold December weather, except now add some snow to it which made it much more difficult because although the roads were plowed, there were areas that were slushy, so it cut my pace from where it should have been, but at least I got the run in.

I picked up new running shoes the other day when I was off from work and out shopping for Christmas, but somehow when I got home, my daughter put the shoe box (with the shoes still in it) in the pile with the Christmas gifts, and it got wrapped. Now she won't let me unwrap them until Christmas, great... I guess I can make it a few more days without them.

Remember, winter officially starts tomorrow at 12:47pm EST .. its ironic that its my first day of the next training cycle. So to look at the bright side, the days start to get longer after tomorrow, which is the first sign that we're getting closer to spring (ok, I can be hopeful, right?)

So as I prepare to start up a 14-week training cycle for the Ocean Drive marathon and then the Flying Pig, I decided to look back at the things I wanted to accomplish during my 4 week recovery period... my back and hips are feeling much better now. They still ache once in awhile, but i'm not in pain like I was prior to the Philly Marathon... I also needed to catch up on my sleep, which I think i've done a pretty good job at. Another accomplishment was to start to acclimate myself to the cold weather, which I haven't had a choice but to accomplish. I don't expect to hit as high a mileage as during the summer, but i'll still hit 60-65 miles by the end of February (if possible).

Well, off we go, 14 weeks until the first spring marathon ....