Half of January

With the coldest month of the winter half past, I've already been sick (for most of last week) and missed a couple days of running, so hopefully I'm good for the rest of the winter. We've been through some bitter cold and seem to be settling into a more normal weather pattern, with temps in the 20's-40's, which is also encouraging. We've had a decent amount of snow, but it's virtually all melted, so the roads and sidewalks are clear and the trails are close.

Personally, I seem to be capable of running 50-mile weeks fairly consistently without any apparent risk of compromising the torn meniscus in my left knee. If anything, my legs feel stronger and better able to compensate now that I have been running again consistently for a few months.

It's tough not having any definite races on the schedule (until Half at the Hamptons March 4), and little opportunity to find something available on short notice. I'm hoping we might be able to sneak up to the Bradford 5-Mile in a couple weeks if we can co-ordinate some childcare for the morning. My parents, who are almost always available to hang with the g-kids spend most weekends in the winter skiing.

The Whitaker Woods snowshoe race was postponed indefinitely with all the rain last weekend, so I'm waiting to see if the reschedule date will be something I can make.

Friday I did my almost 8-mile loop and expected to feel better than I did. 6:46 pace was a struggle and I felt like I definitely still was not recovered from the stomach bug.

Saturday, with no race I headed out for something. I almost didn't run at all I still felt so crummy. I went two miles and turned around to come back and call it a day. Then something in me decided to add a little on and before I knew it, I was heading out along the Wenham canal in a test of my endurance and toughness. I was running into the wind in the mud on the shady side of the water. I came through to the rail trail, which was clear except for a couple super-dicey sections that I basically had to walk. Got out to rte. 97 in Topsfield and ran up the big hill back toward Wenham and then headed home. Almost 10 miles in 7:14 pace.

Sunday afternoon (3 o'clock) I ran out to Lord's Hill and up. This week I ran the entire perimeter of the neighborhood and came back for about 7 miles.

Finished the week at 35 miles, which was a step back, but a necessary one. Only ran 3 miles the first 3 days of the week, so recovered ok. Just about every day was a struggle to get out.

Yesterday I finally felt ok again and did a loopy out and back 15k under 6:30/mi.

108.75 miles for the year through 15 days of the first month.