Thursday, December 29, 2011

Cold Winter Days

To Do List:

1. Get long running pants.
2. Start blogging about running again.
3. Get out of bed (it is 11:18) and go for a gosh darn run!

It's the end of December, and been a while since I posted. If you are a friend reading this, thank you. Even if you never tell me how humorous my posts are (they are, I know it), how proud of me you are, or how much you love me, I know that you care. (The hard part with self-deprecating humor is that someone might take that previous sentence as a statement of fact, rather then humor.)

To bring you up to speed, I'm still out there running. I average about 9 miles a week-3 runs of 3 miles. Due to work, sketch, and other commitments, that number is a bit lower then I would like. My ideal would be to run 3 miles a day 4 days a week, and maybe do a little something else to keep me limber. (this is the whiny part) It's just hard to get out when it's dark and cold after work, and more fun to go out for dinner with friends or watch Glee. However, there probably isn't another time in life when I will have this much freedom to actually commit to running for distance. Yep, distance. Still proud of my penguin status.

I've registered for a 5K in February, and know I can do the distance. A friend wants to RUN the Bay to Breakers. All 7.5 miles of it. So I've registered for that. It seems to me that I should run a race at about a 10K (6.4) mile length before that. So I'm looking into a few races in April. One is on the 1st and is through the SF Dolphin South End running club and costs $5. It's flat and looks totally doable. The other is the Presidio 10 and has the hill between Chrissy Field and the Golden Gate bridge to run up. That one looks harder and costs 7 times more then the DSE club run. Since they are 2 weeks apart, I might just do both-the first for distance (to prove I can) and the second for the hill running. Anyone want to sign up with me?

I found a training schedule that if I start middle of Jan. will have me ready for early April 10K.
http://running.about.com/od/racetraining/a/10Kadvbeginner.htm

Then, I just have to add in an extra mile to that distance to be able to finish the B2B. It sounds easy enough.

As a reminder, I did ask people to hit me over the head with a 2x4 if I ever signed up for a 10K or half marathon. I'm amending that statement to just include the half marathon. I think to get into shape to run that far, I would need to loose a bit more body mass.

Any pointers on nutrition, stretching, how not to die while running in the cold are greatly appreciated.

It's now 11:33. Still cold out, but I just remembered I own long underwear which I could wear under my running shorts. That is going to be a great fashion statement. Guess I'd better hit the road. It does eliminate my To Do list.