Christmas is the reason...

Cookies, snacks, dinners, candy, chocolate, more cookies, restaurants, etc... - It's hard staying on task during this time of the year. I didn't feel much like running this morning but am so glad I did. I ran a 5 miler and averaged 8:56 miles. Slowly building up that speed on the long runs and although I'm burning calories to eat calories during this season, I'm feeling pretty good about the progress I've made so far. Once January hits, I'll focus more on diet too - then lookout because I should really see the speed increase.

I'm running a 6 miler with my friend Elise on Saturday. She's never ran more than 5 miles before, so I'm excited to help motivate her in achieving this new milestone! It's an incredible feeling when you push yourself to go that "extra mile" and you feel like you can push past any barriers in your life!

Snow, Snow, Snow

Winter is here! I've been getting my daily runs in during the morning and it is always fun to leave the first tracks in the freshly fallen snow. Although today was a little bit deeper than normal... I started training for the 5/3 Riverbank Run on May 8th. Expert training started on November 29th - so I'm about 1-1/2 weeks into it. The nice folks from 5/3 mailed me a training calendar. It is so nice to have a plan laid out in front of you, checking the runs off as you go. I also started doing some weight training this week - using a work out video titled "ChaLEAN Extreme" by TurboJam found Chalene Johnson, whom happens to be a personal friend. What a motivator she is! If you haven't tried one of her DVD training programs, I highly recommend it!

Talk to you soon - and watch out for us runners on the road in the wee hours of the morning (or dark hours of the evening!)