Hey everyone! Sorry to hear others are in a holiday slump, but at the same time you have all validated me. Thank you... means alot...

Angel - OMG, I feel the same way... you would think that I would be more motivated by the dress, so why arent I?? I dont want to be in panic mode later. I dont get myself sometimes... maybe its the procrastinating athelete in me... But you are very correct in saying that this IS an on going challenge and nothing has been wasted. Good point.

Jasmine - your post made sense and made me feel better! I just hope I didnt "rest" too, too long!!

Ovenfried - glad to hear that you havent lost much!! I hope I'm in that same boat!

Thanks guys, Happy Running!

ChunkyMonkey.... What a great insight to the battles we face within ourselves!   Thank you for putting into words something that we all deal with but don't know how to express.

Another "Didja know" that I heard (not from a doctor, but from someone I believed) is that for every pound you lose, it removes 4 pounds of pressure off of the hip joints when running.  So since June, I have relieved 120lbs of pressure off of my hips.  I don't know if that number could be backed up, but the math would agree.

I hope I don't have to go to work today....weather is terrible and yesterday we did not have ONE customer come to the shop in the 4 hours I was there.  And we're in a liquidation/going out of business sale right now.  I'd rather spend extra time at the gym learning the other equipment.

Hey Guys,

I've been reading the posts and I feel like everyone of them is speaking to me.  I have a 5K this Sunday, and it's supposed to be 28 degrees with a wind chill in the teens, and me being so slow, I'm going to be out there a long time in the cold.  Needless to say, I'm dreading this run (and it was my idea to sign up in the first place, as my husband keeps telling me!!).  I don't remember, but maybe I was drinking when I decided that running a 5K every Sunday in January was a good idea.  I had high hopes for a mild winter.

Angel and Irish-I wasn't a runner and I was heavier than I am now when I got married.  I regret not being more fit then, but I don't want either of you to be too hard on yourselves. I know there is pressure to fit into your dress, but just remember, it's your day, and regardless, you will be the most beautiful peson at the wedding--you are the bride after all!!  I bet if you run just to relieve some stress and improve your stamina, you will feel better.

Penguin-I hope you are feeling better.  On Tuesday I felt a pull in the front of my right hip, which had never hurt before, and I was in the middle of my 3 1/2 mile run.  My hip was screaming with everystep, and I finally had to walk the rest of the way home. I was in so much pain, I could barely walk and had a lot of trouble sleeping.  I was really concerned.  I iced the area for awhile, rested to two days, and today, it was still stiff, but I felt much better.  I hope you have similar success.

CM and Ovenfried-I like your "didja know" facts.  I can't wait to take more time off of my running, because I'm still turtlin', and it's always better when there is less pressure on your hips, because I've always had problems with them (I was born with a dislocated hip and required surgery and a body cast when I was a toddler).  It will be a great day when I don't expect pain in my hips when I exert myself.

Jasmine-It's good to hear from you again, and I hope all is well. How did you get up to run 6 miles already?  I want to run a 10K on 5/2/10 and need to increase my mileage.  That's really awesome!!  I took a bit of a hiatus around Christmas, and you were right, when I went back to run, I didn't push myself too hard in the beginning, and it felt pretty good.

Runninoob-I'm in NY, and it's been pretty bad here in terms of weather and temp.  There are hats/masks that you can buy that cover you face, but I find that if you wrap a scarf around your face and use that to breathe through your mouth, it keeps the air humid enough that your lungs won't burn.  I will use one, but I will occasionally breathe outside the scarf, and then go back in the scarf if the air feels to cold in my lungs.  Also, when it's that cold, you need to take a little extra time to warm up and get your joints and muscles warmed up before and after running.  And make sure you dress in layers, keeping your wicking(sp?) clothes closest to your body so when you sweat the shirt takes the sweat and doesn't make you cold.  Cover your head and hands also to protect from frostbite. Hopefully this helps with your cold weather runs.  Good luck!

I ran 5K today, just to make sure I can still do it despite my former injury and lack of running for the last couple of days.  I finished in about 46 min.  I've decided that during the winter, I'll continue to increase my stamina, but increasing my speed is going to have to wait until spring.  Anyway, happy running everyone!

"OK, you all may laugh, but I have to ask - How do you folks up North run in this cold weather?"  On a treadmill, cowboy.

I'm originally from Michigan but I've only ran outside in the cold when I was foolish enough to sign up for a race and even then I was thinking, "What the *$%^ was I thinking?"   I know.  Wah -wah.  On the up side:  I did a personal best in that race because I figured the sooner I finished the sooner I could put on my warm clothes again.  Look at it this way: from every run we get something out of it.  Sure we get fitness and blahblahblah, but we also achieve something unique after each one.  Sometimes it's stress relief, other times it's a nice way to enjoy a perfect day, etc.  When you run outside, just think that you are actually becoming a hardcore runner.  You tell people you're running outside in these temps they think you're crazy.  Personally, I kind of like that.  It's all part of running and developing that runner's mentality which is some areas deviates drastically from the rest of society.  Just because it's different doesn't mean it's wrong.  Hot, cold, long, short, early, late, light, dark, easy, hard.  You'll also get some serious street cred from other runners, so that's kind of cool.  And besides, doesn't that warm shower feel even better after a brisk outdoor effort?  Oh, you know it does!

Turtle!  You go out there and give 'em what for, missy!  I'm sure you will do well.  I've seen in a few races I've ran people have shirts that on the back say, "6 months ago this seemed like a good idea" and I think unless the weather is picture perfect or the distance lower, everyone at some point in a more challenging race or even run thinks that same exact thought.  I'm sure you will do well and I look forward to your post detailing your adventure.  I love living vicariously through others.

Angel and Irish - why the pressure for the wedding?  Who put it on you?  I know your grooms to be love you unconditionally and are proud of what you are doing, and your friends and family all support you and are looking forward to a great party afterward.  Take it easy on yourselves.  I know, easy for a guy to say, huh?  One thing I can tell you is future husbands don't really care so much about the wedding ceremony itself, we just want to be married to you.  We'd be fine w/ a JOP and a beer after.  We go through all that stuff for you because we love you and we want you to be happy because it sounds cliche, but on the wedding day our happiness really IS your happiness.  If your guy thinks you're beautiful as you are now, he'll think you're even more beautiful in your dress walking down the aisle.  Trust me. I'm a guy.

Ovenfried, great info on the joint impact stuff.  Yet another benefit to our insanity.  I'd go with it.  I take a combination of Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplement every day and it's really helped me a lot.  As I wrote in one of my earlier posts I have degenative arthritis and my knees are shot, but that supplement has really worked for me and even w/ all the weight I've lost I still hover around 200.  Hasn't taken all the pain away 100% but it has done wonders to the point where before surgeons wanted to do knee replacements, now the knees only hurt when it's going to rain.  It works from the inside out though rebuilding the joint cartilage instead of temporarily deadening the pain so it may be a few weeks before a person feels any relief in their joints.  May want to look at that a little more there, Turtle.

You know, something else people might think about is getting a subscription to Runner's World magazine.  They've got all kinds of really good articles.  Sure there's lots of stuff about the pencil necks in there and their insane training routines, but they have things in there for regular people, too.  I really enjoy it and sometimes you can get a subscription pretty cheap.  I have found it also helps me mentally when I'm not reading it also because I'll see it around the house somewhere and it reminds me.

By the way and just out of curiosity and if you're so inclined:  I would really like to hear about you running epiphanies.  When did it finally dawn on you that yes, you are a runner?  When did you finally accept the title and start to think "us" instead of "them" when you think about runners?

Jcrule how cool!  I thought I was the only one who ever used "slogger".  My sister!

Congrats on the Tri finish!  That is so cool!  I wish I had the time to train for a short one.  I think that would be a most excellent adventure if only for one time but there are some people in this forum that have completed tri's before.  For the weight, I hear it all the time and I guess it's ok.  Do people say, "You carry it well"?  I don't know about you but according to the charts, my "healthy" weight range for my height is 150-185 lbs.  I'll tell you right now if I ever got down to 170 they'd put me in the hospital and stick an IV in me.  My BMI is now just under the "obese" range.  What can we do?  I guess what people like you and I CAN do is enjoy the occasional times where people smaller than us find out we are healthier and can outrun them.  Besides, being small is over-rated.  I think by having an athletic build it actually serves us well as we advance in age because we won't be so bent over and slouched.

Something else I think is a positive for being the size I am:  I may take a while to cover ground, but when the winds pick up I don't get buffetted as much as the pencil necks.  And during races when another runner and I accidentally bump into each other, I am not the one who's stride is interrupted or who's line altered.

Look at it this way: at least in the tri's they have the Athena and Clydesdale classes so we don't have to compete with the "natural" runners.  Wish they had those classifications in running.  I went for a VO2 MAX test one time and when I finished the tester started my debrief with, "You know, for a man of your stature...." which to my little ears sounded like, "You surprised the hell out of me, chubby".

Nice to have you here and I look forward to your posts.

Ya know, I haven't actually picked a real "program" yet. I have just been aiming toward the run-walk-run plan of Galloway's.

I got my Ironman triathlon watch on Monday, but unfortunately that was the day I first felt the twinge in my hip. Two days later out for a run again and the first step had me in pain. This despite walking treadmill the night before without issue.

Now the pain shows up on walks, too. Last night I did 40 minutes of treadmill and kept compensating and figuring out how to keep it from screaming at me. But really I just have to take a few days off.

So I haven't gotten to play with my new toy very much! But I think I'm going to like the interval signals.