I guess I should put snow shoes on my list to Santa

I should be very VERY thankful that the winter weather held off considerably this year.  Usually we have snow and very cold weather mid-October until late March, hence why I always falls off the running bandwagon mid-October.  Brrrr.  Luckily for us, and probably unluckily for the planet (hey-o Global warming!), winter has just recently appeared.  I had expected I would have to do 60% of my Dallas Half Marathon training in buckets of snow and below zero temps.  It hasn't even been below zero yet and it's December.  That gets an A+ in my books.  So with all that THANKS out of the way, it's time to start complaining.....

I had my last long run of 12 miles on the schedule for this weekend, and had looked at the weather report on Thursday to determine whether it would be nicer on Saturday or Sunday.  Saturday Hi of 28, Sunday Hi of 22 w/snow flurries.  Well, Saturday, you win resoundingly, congrats.  I waited until 1:30 as it was the "warmest" part of the day.  I think it got up to a whopping 27* with a windchill of 18*.  HEAT WAVE, look out.  To be honest, it wasn't actually that bad, except for the portions where the wind was whipping at my face.  Apparently I'm a big ol' wussy when it comes to wind.  It's painful.

I fueled up with a bowl of coffee ice cream with caramel syrup for breakfast (I wish I was kidding, but when you want something, sometimes you just have to have it. :p).  Shortly before the run, I had a banana with some PB.  Of course, THAT would upset my stomach not the ice cream.  Go figure.  :p

The run started off great, and the first 2 miles came in much faster than I had planned.  After last week's long run , I knew I had the confidence mentally to rock Dallas, so I had just planned on taking these 12 easy.  Shortly after the first 2 miles, I realized the rest of the run wasn't going to be nearly as speedy.  The trail was covered in 1-2" of snow.  Well if that won't slow you down, I don't know what will.  Luckily it wasn't slippery under the snow, that would've been unbearable, it was just hard to get good traction.  One highlight of the run, was that I set a new Jeri record for snot rockets blown in a run.  If you follow me on twitter you might have caught me complaining about a new cold setting in.  My nose has been completely plugged up since the end of work yesterday.  Well she was floooooooowing today.  Yikes.  I feel like Hansel and Gretel, except instead of bread crumbs to mark my way, I used boogers.  Sexy.

The last few miles of the run were really nice because the wind was at my back, and the sun finally sneaked out from behind the clouds to warm up my frozey face.  Plus, I knew that once I got 2 miles away from home, I could enjoy snow-free trails again.

I ended the 12 miles in 1:50:08 for a pace of 9:10.  Not as leisurely of a pace as I had planned, but apparently my legs were ready for some speed the last 2 miles.  [Sidenote:  I may or may not try for roughly the same time on my NEXT long run....to give you a glimpse of my race day goals :D]

1. 9:03 
2. 9:05 
3. 9:18 
4. 9:16 
5. 9:26 
6. 9:36 
7. 9:20 
8. 9:21 
9. 9:08 
10: 9:06 
11. 8:53 
12. 8:30


No ice baths for this girl, thankfully.  But when I got done, my ankles were sore from the sliding around on the snow.  So I stopped on my stoop, took off my shoes and socks, and grabbed some handfuls of snow to "ice" my ankles with.  Some may say that's a big "unconventional"I say it's genius and resourceful. :)

My knees were pretty sore throughout the night and on Sunday.  I'm guessing the sliding around probably caused some extra stress to them.  I was having a terrible-rotten-no good-very-bad-day, so I forced myself to head to the gym to sweat off the crabbies.  Since my legs were tired, I opted for an hour bike ride on the stationary bike.  I did some rolling hills at a decent resistance and went 13.65 miles.  My best mph yet.  WHOO!  Plus I got through some health and fitness mags, as well as some trashy celeb gossip mags that were lying around my gym.  I loooove to read them, but refuse to buy them.  And I only let myself read them while working my booty off.  :)

Sweating helped and so did a visit from one of my favorite people in the world.  Of course, his arrival meant I had to watch the end of the Vikings slaughter game, which I giggled and giggled about.  I do still love me some Brett Favre, so I wasn't too upset about it.  Watching some Christmas Vacation was the cherry on top of my SUNDAY (sundae, get it?!?!  muhaha).  Crabby mood, buh bye, see you late in 2010.  :p

Tonight my best guy friend from college is coming to stay with me before his job interview for a job much much closer to meeeeeeeeeee.  Ok, that's not the reason he's applying for the job, obvi, but it's what I'm most excited about.  We were pretty much connected at the hip for 2 years in college.  We're going to hit up the gym and leave our mark in sweat,

Funny story:  His nickname in college was Sweat King, because of his ability to sweat.  I had heard about him and his sweaty ways, and introduced myself to him at a party.
Jeri:  So uh... I hear you're the Sweat King (as he's standing in front of a boxed fan in a 98* basement at a party in early September).
SK:  Uh..yup.
Jeri:  I think I could be your Sweat Queen.  Share the fan please.  :)

And the rest is history.

Anyway, after sweating all over the gym, we're going to head out for some drinks and some foods and cheer on our Packers.  Yes, he's also a GB Packers fan.  A match made in sweaty heaven, I tell you.  Hopefully tomorrow's post will be riddled with fabulous pictures of the Royal Reunion.  Yes.  I went there. :)