Mother Nature sucks

Lolo makes the US Bobsled team, awesome interview with Meb, Meb and Serena win the U.S. Half Marathon championships, and a quick Boston field.

Meb never fails to impress me.  1:01:23 from a 38 year old?!?!  One of the more disappointing moments for me last year was Meb getting hurt right before Boston, and we was pretty fit for that race.  Now, it appears he is rounding into form, and we should see quite the battle from him down the storied streets of Beantown.

Friday, January 17th - 6 miles.  Village Circle and 270 loop, before doing my hill work.  Cold night and took all my motivation to get outside and nail this workout.  My knee was bothering me, and almost quit but ran it out and felt better once I got a mile into it.  Found a smaller but steep hill right off 159 on Edwards drive, and measured out about 30 seconds with a good effort (between mile and 5K effort).  The hill had an immediate steep grade, but leveled off towards the top and perfect for an intro hill workout.  Did 10 reps with 2 annoying dogs barking at me (or cheering me on) through a window, and cooled down to finish the workout.

Saturday, January 18th - 5 miles.  Early morning run before heading to Champaign for the Illini/MSU game for the day.  Very windy and cold, and ran towards Troy and back on the trail.  Caught Yoch, Colby, and Crystal finishing up their long run, and was happy to see others suffering along with me on a crappy weather day.  Legs felt like poop, but got it done.  ~45 minutes total - nice and slow.

Sunday, January 19th - 0!  Headed back, and ended up sleeping most of the day to recover.  While I am not happy to miss a run, I did need a recovery day as I'm not sure I should be running every day quite yet.  But all in all, a solid week.  37 miles this week, 91 miles in January, 91 miles in 2014.

Monday, January 20th - 8 miles + strides.  Ran group run with Crystal, Hilary, Brian, and Heidi.  We did the 6 mile loop I did last week, then headed to DuBourgh track for strides.  Legs were a little tired and could feel my calves tightening, which means I may need to start a new pair of shoes soon.  The strides were almost comical, watching how fast Hilary and Crystal are.  Their turnover is quite amazing to watch in person, and even with an all out effort I don't think I could get within 20 feet of them on a 100 meter stride.  Looped around the store on Macklind to finish out our run, and happy to survive with the fast people since I was severely sleep deprived and exhausted from the weekend.  ~7:30 pace overall, 58:51 on my watch...

The snow has returned, and tonight's run will be quite chilly.  Track work on Wed, Forest Park loop on Thursday, and hills on Friday - great to be in a routine again!