It's cold, so it must be time to go outside!

It's been really cold here in Boston these past few weeks, and while I generally have some issues with the decrease in sunlight, I've always been relatively OK with the cold. This year, however, I've been a giant wuss about it. Most of my workouts since mid-November have been indoors. It was really rainy leading up to Thanksgiving, and I don't like training in the rain unless it's right before a race.

But with just a few weeks left until the Lowell 1st Run, it's getting to be the time when I need to be adapting to the weather. I have the clothes I need so it's not a real matter of physical preparation; merely the mental process of consciously deciding to go outside in the cold. I usually race better in the cold so it's an easy decision on race day, but on training days it's a lot harder to motivate myself.

Last night was a scheduled run, and i wanted to make sure I got it in considering the weight gain this weekend. Rach also had a run, and because it was after dark, she ran with me due to safety concerns. I'm always happy when she runs with me, right up to the moment about 2/3rds of the way into the run when I'm getting tired and she says "It's hard for me to run this slow". Ouch. But it's always worth it to know she's safe and to get to have her pace me.

We wound up doing 2.65 miles and without stoppage time or a walk break we did around that distance in 36 minutes. Not super fast, and not super slow. But I did almost 1 1/2 miles before stopping to walk. We walked less than 2 blocks out of the nearly 3 miles, and I finished strong.

I had music last night thanks to the H2OAudio Flex earbuds I started using last night. It didn't rain or even mist while we ran, but I sweat a good bit, and the Flex seemed to hold up fine to that. I'll be putting them through their paces the next few days as part of the review process.

Notes:

- I dropped most of the weight I put on this weekend, and am on target for a good day, and hopefully managing to be down a little bit for tomorrow's weigh in.

- I just finished signing Rachelle up for the Hyannis Marathon in February. While not thinking she'll be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon in this race (a future goal for her), she does have a goal of 4:30 on that day. I'll probably wind up signing up for the 10k, but with Christmas almost here I have plenty else to pay for.

- False Chuck Fact of the day: Chuck once shot a man just for snoring too loud. Ok, actually that's a line from a Time Life book series commercial, but he probably almost did shoot a man (me) just for snoring too loud on a road trip in 2005.