good afternoon all. I am so happy it is Friday. I am running tonight and then we start to change weather wise. Tomorrow morning is good but late afternoon we will be seeing below zero temps again.

stan - good to hear from you. I hope you feel okay after the workout. Pretty soon you will be back to full strength. Please, keep us up to date.

joe - no actually the wind wasn't too bad in the snow. It looks like you are increasing your mileage?

macd - you deserve the day off. It was a tough week and it seems as if they are getting tougher, or is it me?

kevee - if your race is in the AM you will be fine. Afternoon the winds are to get really strong and then cold again. Good luck!!!!!

stephanie - with the snow I take shorter steps, that has worked for me. Just be really careful!! You can buy items to put over your shoes to help in the snow. Your goals are where they should be, finish the first HM and worry about time later.

cara - where are you today?

Misswendy - are you feeling better?

laurel - we need to know how you are doing!!

take care all.

Hey Everyone! It's the weekend!

I got a run in at lunchtime as I was working from home. As soon as I started I realised that my legs were very tired from a couple of fast 6 milers in the week. After about half a mile I thought I was going to have to turn round and walk home, but I kept going and just took it at a really easy pace. After a while the legs felt better and I managed 4.18 as planned. When I finished I checked the watch and my easy pace was about a 10:30! Excellent for me as that used to be my fast pace! I love seeing the results of my effort finally and it was a beautiful sunny day so perfect!

Joe - I vote for you as a moderator! You've kept us all going after all! Have a great 6 tomorrow and enjoy that rest! hmm - pink camo kilt... we'll have to keep working on that one

MissWendy - Hope you're feeling better and get back out running! Sounds like you've got the family well trained though looking after you

Kevin - nice to see you're back outside and braving the elements. Good luck for your race!

Andahuff - Welcome! Glad you decided to join us... and I hope the talk of thongs hasn't put you off too much!

Jeff - good luck with the 10K... and whatever time you do it'll be something to aim for next time!

Toshi - Hope that business trip to Japan goes well and you get some runs in over there! And yes - for my sins I live 40 miles south of London and am well and truly English! You'll probably notice I keep having to ask what everyone is talking about March madness indeed

Spicegeek - Glad that running is coming back to you now! I've just looked up plyometrics now as it sounds interesting!

Macd - Looks like you've been through it a bit with the weather recently. Great that DD1 is thinking of the May HM... could you think about walk running it?

Chuck - I was looking at the coolrunning 10K plan the other day too... not sure if it's going to be too much for me though so will decide after my HM in March! I think the idea of Farleks is that you can play around with how long and how far... I usually go for about 6 - 8 2 min stints with 2 min recoveries inbetween but then i've only been doing this for a few weeks myself. Oh - any maybe don't do these on Thursday Thong days

Runjr - hmm natural runner don't think that's going to happen to me anytime soon! Great 7.2 through all that snow... have you stopped shovelling yet?

Stan - Glad you're over that flu and are getting back out there! hope those legs have held out today! And you are right about us being a community... i love the motivation and encouragement that comes from being a part of this group!

Stephanie - glad you've hung around! My aim is also just to complete my first HM, but I can't help but dream about possible times

Everyone enjoy their weekends! I think the weather's supposed to hold here and i've got 9 on the schedule for tomorrow but if the legs are really tired I may shorten it a little... LOL - how many times have I said that and then ran further than planned

Happy running all

Cara

Hi all

Sorry I have been a little remiss with the shout outs - got home late last night after teaching my scuba class and my DSL connection was playing up - I hope it`s all better when I get home !!

The class went well - just one good student ! better than one no show like last weekend - I did the swim test with her - just because it`s less boring that standing watching - so I got a little extra work out - I haven`t swam in a while - but let me tell you I could feel the benifit of all that upper body weight lifting - I`d swim more but I just hate chlorine !

My legs feel so great today even after the 4 miles yesterday - I am so happy there are just no words !! I`m a teeny bit stiff in the calf - but really nothing noticeable

Boxing lesson today - trying to break in my new gloves - they felt very stiff and weird - my trainer decided to test my core strength having me do punch combos then dropping to the floor for 10 crunches - if I didn`t get back up fast enough i had to do squats. Then he knelt on my feet and had me crunch - drop back slightly so the abs were working then throw 4 punches - drop back the the mat ... repeat .. 20 times - then he had me do 10 crunches - 10 sec plank 9 crunches - 10 sec plank ... down to 1 crunch and 1 min plank to finish = I was pouring with sweat when he was done - there were other forms of torture in there too ! I pooped now !!

Anyhoo ... Andahuff - sorry - I missed welcomeing you - glad to have you on board

macd ... yeah for eye candy thats what I say ! when I got to the gym today my boxing trainer was just finishing up with one his gay clients who I know from seeing at the gym and we`ve talked - the first thing he said was I saw you talking to my boy friend yesterday ( meaning my #1 ec - who he is also crushing on !! ) we`re going to have to fight for him - my trainer said - Claire will win no contest ! .. very funny .. I just hope no one EVER relates that story to the EC

chuck - sounds like you have a great plan of action there - I don`t think there are any rules to farleking - i think the idea is you change your pace up and just have fun

runjr - nice run with DD - it must be a good way to keep in touch

Stan - keep you chin up - don`t over do it coming off flu - you`ll get yourself sick right away - are you eating normally ? that`s a good sign that you can start working out normally. I am in total agreement with you about the folks in this thread - I think we have made a solid supportive team of fairly new runners for the most part. I love that we all get to share everyone`s progress and success and everyone is doing so well

Joe - nice run - wow .. they do like to hand out packets early for your races !

Stephanie - I can not tell you how important it is not to push too much - I didn`t think I was beign that aggressive and ended up out of action with a stress fracture - so you are doing the right thing !

Cara - you really are getting wizzy fast girl ! and don`t worry not know what some the american stuff is - in case you didn`t realise I`m a transplant from the UK - I`ve lived her 10 years and still get caught out on occasions and I NEVER knwo when there is bank holiday or what it`s for ! Plyometrics workouts are great for explosive power - pushing up hills etc - they basically consist of jumping - but the key in control in the take off and ( soft ) landing,

Hey everyone! Happy no panties friday!!!!!!!!. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.

72 today, let the top down and drove my car and acted cool for a little while. Forgot my shades at work so I had my Bi's on, not to cool I guess, but hey. I'm a cool Pa Pa LOL....... Can't remember who asked but yes this is my first.

Steph and huff welcome.

Happy Friday!

I'm ready to go home...

I couldn't wake up early for my tempo run this morning, so I'm planning to run after work.
I think I had one too many banana chips last night. My stomach is acting up

kevin: Good luck on your 5K! Thanks for the info on Stabilicers. I wanted to run in the snow when I go ski/snowboarding with my friends. I didn't think it was safe to run in running shoes.

JeffRW: Have fun on your 10K. I misread your post. Your 1/2 is on the RR bed, not your 10K!

joe: I haven't received your mail yet, but no worries.

runjr: my longest race is a marathon. 50K on the trail will be a new challenge for me. There's a county park near my place called Quicksilver Park and I've been hitting the trails sometimes.

stan: Hi Stan! Nice to meet ya!

mac019: I couldn't wake up this morning either. Barely awake right now. zzz

Cara: You're so faraway. Will you visit US for a run someday?

Spicegeek: You're from UK too! So, that (kind of) explains where you got your name.

Sephanie2: Hi!

chuck: no panties... for you!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

toshi

forgot to say good luck to this weekends racers .. Have a good time, great weather and lots of fun !

Toshi - it was actually someone I work with who gave me my name - we had an internal chat channel for all us geeks and this guy turned around one day and I`m going to call you ..... Geeky Spice .. it was one letter too long for the system so it became spicegeek .. the name stuck