Tonight's 8 mile long run

   It definitely was not the greatest, I am not going to lie. Lately I've been thriving on 2-5 hours of sleep, while trying to keep up my runs and taking care of my little boy who is teething and dealing with separation anxiety. I almost didn't go for my run tonight, I was scared that I didn't have the energy to do 8 miles and that I would get stuck out there. Luckily I finished it in 1 hour and 25 minutes, 6 minutes faster than my last 8 mile run back on 09/3/12 which sucked due to the heat.
   Thirty degrees starting out and dropping the whole time, with an elevation gain of 284 ft my splits were:
   Mile 1 - 10:57
   Mile 2 - 11:10
   Mile 3 - 11:13
   Mile 4 - 10:57
   Mile 5 - 11:08
   Mile 6 - 10:47
   Mile 7 - 10:23
   Mile 8 - 9:02

  Not to mention that nearing the 6.6 turnaround to head home I almost got ran off the road by an jerk in a truck pulling a trailer, he didn't even move over slightly or slow down.. I had to jump off the road and into the snow. My average pace was 10:42, not bad for feeling like crap, I made it to 81 miles for December and hopefully I won't regret it.

A 2 in the Morning Run

   Due to some pretty hectic things going on today and this weekend, I decided this morning to sneak my Friday run in at 2:00 a.m as soon as Dorian fell to sleep. Of course he apparently woke up somewhere in the middle and Cameron had to bring him into the bed with him while I was out. I ran 5 miles in 52 minutes and 14 seconds, Wednesday's 5.2 mile run was 53 minutes and 18 seconds. It is nearly daylight outside with all the snow on the ground, it was so peaceful and just amazing out there. The first mile sucked though; I was concerned that my run would suck, Dorian kept me up all night the night before and even I was mentally awake and alert and feeling fresh, my body was not. After the first 2 miles my body was finally getting into the groove, my splits were:
   Mile 1 - 10:34
   Mile 2 - 10:52
   Mile 3 - 10:46
   Mile 4 - 10:11
   Mile 5 - 9:49
  
   I made up for it near the end, so I am pretty pleased with the run. This week I am aiming for 8 miles but might go ahead and do 7 depending on how the weather is and how my body is feeling. Right now I am at 73 miles for December, and November's mileage was 61 so if I leave December where it is I will still be 12 miles more than November, if I go ahead and run 7 or 8 miles I will reach 80-81 miles and be as much as 20 miles more than November. I am just wondering if it's too much. I think if I do run 7 or 8 I will take Monday and Tuesday as rest days, get back into it Wednesday and run 5 miles. I should be fine if I do it that way.

Signing up for 2013 Races

  Around October I had already signed up for the Go! St Louis Half Marathon on April 6, 2013 which is supposed to be hilly but I think I will be ready for it. This morning I've registered for the Bound the Mounds 10k trail race at Angel Mounds, and the Hearts on Fire 5k at USI (hopefully I can make up for my not finishing it this year) and the Run of Luck 7k race in March. In 7 days I can register for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November, so far my races are:

  Hearts on Fire 5k - February 9th, 2013 - 9 AM
  Bound the Mounds 10k Trail - March 2, 2013 - 8 AM
  Run of Luck 7k - March 16, 2013 - 9 AM
  Go! St Louis Half Marathon - April 7, 2013 - 7 AM
  The Spartan Sprint - April 27, 2013 - 10:30 AM

   I am pretty sure I will register for the YMCA 10k in August (if they're doing the 5k or 10k option) and the YMCA 15k in September, and I will most likely register for the Evansville Half Marathon in October, about 3 weeks before the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon which should be a good taper time I think. In June, around the end of the month I will begin my Marathon training plan, hopefully by then 13.1 miles will be nothing for me or at least easier. It is crazy to think that I will be running my first Marathon next November, I don't plan on a PR but hopefully I won't have any issues finishing the race.
   I'd like to do 3 Half Marathon next year, with one Full Marathon and a lot of small races but right now it looks like I'll be doing the Go! St Louis Half in April and the Evansville Half Marathon in October, I'm not quite sure where I would put another Half as it would have been in November but my first Full is going to be in November. We'll just have to wait and see how things go from here, but I have a pretty good feeling 2013 will be a great year for me.

Haven't posted forever

  It's been a long time since I've posted, I think the last time was around when RW was having so many issues with spam and a lot of people headed over to RunningAhead as did I. I've kept up my runs, last Sunday I ran 7 miles in 1 hour and 16 minutes and it felt great. This past week I only ran 5 miles on Tuesday, Wednesday I guess I came down with a stomach bug or something so I've let myself rest as much as possible and I want to run 7 miles tomorrow morning but I think I might end up doing 5 or 6 as I haven't eaten a lot here in the last couple of days just because I haven't really been hungry.
  My little boy's first tooth is popping out, one of his bottom fronts and I can feel two others pushing their way through at the top front. He is growing up so fast it is unbelievable, in less than 4 months he is going to be a year old and he's already pulling himself up to his feet and standing, I'm curious as to when he is going to start cruising around. I remember the day he was born, how amazing it was to pull him out of the water and look into his eyes, my heart melted so fast. I can honestly say that I am glad the world didn't end.

Tonight's Run

   I don't really feel like saying a lot, I ran 5 miles tonight. I haven't been doing quite as super as I did that one week, but I am mainly keeping it safe. Today is the first full day without my best friend, I am not sobbing like crazy but I feel an empty hole in my heart and everywhere I look there is something that reminds me of her. It's going to take a long time to recover from her death, a lot of people say that but Molly was with me since I was almost 12 years old and up to just a month after I turned 25 years old. She has been through so many parts and milestones in my life that I don't feel right without her, it just doesn't feel the same with her gone. We found Rocky in 2009, 8 weeks old but I know it won't quite feel the same with his passing, Molly grew with me, she became my shadow and pretty much an extension of me and now that extension is gone and I feel a huge part of me died with her. My late childhood, my teens and adolescence, and my early adult years have all had her there beside me. If only I could have given her 10 years of my life, just 10 more years but I know that is impossible. Part of me seriously thought about Cryo-genics or whatever, where they freeze people or animals and bring them back to life down the road.... but Cameron didn't think it would be right. This just sucks....
   My time was 55 minutes and 45 seconds, my splits were:
Mile 1 - 11:10
Mile 2 - 10:51
Mile 3 - 11:14
Mile 4 - 11:31
Mile 5 - 10:55

A Much Warmer Trail Run

 This morning was about 20 degrees warmer than last Saturday but still 47 degrees and I wore my capri's, gloves, an under armour thermal shirt and then a loose shirt on top. Around the 2nd or 3rd mile I really wanted to take my long sleeves and gloves off but I didn't want to head back to the Tahoe so I said screw it. I ran 6 miles Wednesday and thought about running another 6 on the trails today but I opted to do only 5.5 instead, I didn't run Thursday or Friday letting my legs recover from Wednesday AND I was pretty sleep deprived Friday so I chose not to use up what energy I didn't have.
  This morning's run lasted for an hour and 2 minutes, felt great and I loved being out there on the trails. My splits were:
Mile 1 - 11:00
Mile 2 - 11:48
Mile 3 - 11:33
Mile 4 - 11:29
Mile 5 - 11:23
.53 - 10:12

  I think during winter I am going to do my weekend longs runs on the trails, at least as much as possible; and who knows, during snowy/icy mornings I might take my camera with me and after running I might walk through and take some photos.