I can't think of an original title today

The sound of heavy rain hitting the roof woke me up this morning before my alarm went off. Normally I love this sound but it's not what I want to hear when I'm heading out for a training run in January. I got up to check the weather, praying that what I heard was just regular rain and not freezing rain (I learned my lesson in Buffalo). Thankfully, it was 36 degrees and the roads were ice free so I was able to meet my group up at Crossroads.

I skipped breakfast since our schedule only called for a 6-7 mile run. I hate eating before a run and I can usually do six miles on the reserve from my caboose. However, our group has been split into two and my half was supposed to do 7-8. Doh. The head coach said we should take the run easy, doing our marathon pace plus 30 seconds. He then yelled out the different paces each coach would be running. No one was running slower than a 9 minute mile. Grrrr. I don't have any idea what my goal is for the Pig given that it's so much hillier than Columbus. But even if I took my Columbus pace and added 30 seconds, that would still be a 9:36. I'm a little frustrated because I felt like our summer group was also really focused on the fast people and I always felt like the fat kid on Goonies chasing everyone (hey you guyyyyyyyyyys!). Hopefully I'm stronger now since I have one marathon under my belt? I guess we'll find out.

Anywho, our run took us through Oakley, Norwood, and Hyde Park...and it rained the whole time. The weather wasn't really a bother until I got back to Crossroads and noticed that everything, including my base layers, was soaked. So much for "all conditions gear". :-)

Despite the rain (and the fact that I skipped breakfast), I finished the 8.06 miles in 1:09:55, which averages out to about an 8:40 minute mile. Decent. As part of my training, I've been trying to stretch for at least 10 minutes each day and have been lifting weights twice a week. I'll be curious to see if it helps my body hold up a little longer this season...