a cold welcome to winter

Today was the first long run of the winter(fall) done in the bitter cold. The air temp was only 17* but the wind chill was all they way down to 1*. Its been a long time since i have had a long run in the cold. Most of last winter i was out with an injury after my first half marathon. Today i had planed on a run of about 15 miles. Last night we got an inch of fresh snow and the sidewalks were not cleared off before i left for the run at 11:45am. So running was a bit harder than it should have been. Also i had to change my route to roads where there was a sidewalk or were not busy. so all this meant running on snow covered sidewalks and then in the street when traffic would permit it.

I need to find a new route for for longer runs cause this one drove me nuts. Too man turns and my garmin couldn't keep up. It would tell me to turn too soon or too late. I was turned around at least 4 or 5 times. Next weekend i need to make a route with less turns.

Now for the outfit for my run. Like i said before this is kinda a new thing for me so i am testing out how much i need to wear and what i need to take with for colder runs. For today's run i think i had too much on. My under layers were soaked. I even had to take off my gloves and put them in the pockets of my jacket by about mile 6 or 7. I took pics of my self and the layers i picked out for today.

layer one UA cold gear top and bottom


layer two carrhart thermal undershirt, boxer briefs and socks


layer three Nike dry fit pants and tech t-shirt


top layer brooks running jacket, balaclava, mitten/gloves and shades


I need to find a different insulation layer or a warmer jacket. also better pants so i don't need the extra layer over my "bits"

Goals for 2009

I know its early but no time like the present right? So far this is what i have....

1) 2500 miles (average 48 miles per week)
2) run a 50K
3) 10k under 40 mins
4) 5K under 19 mins
5) half marathon under 1:30
6) full marathon under 3:15

and the big one INJURY FREE!!!!!

1) 2500 miles works out to 48 miles per week or about 7 per day. during my peak of TCM training i was in the mid 60's for almost 5 weeks.

2) For the 50k i am looking at i would love if my pace was faster than my TCM. Being that i had an injury for TCM i dont really see a problem with that unless the hills are bad cause it is a trail race

3 & 4) i should be able to get my times down to those for this year. that is only 2 mins off my 10k and 1 min off my 5k

5) With my current PR of 1:34 another 4 mins should not be a problem with a good summers worth of training. depending on how training goes i may adjust that time lower.

6) I would love if i could get my BQ in 2009 but that might be pushing it. but 3:15-3:20 would be a good goal.

Puppy talk

Well as some of you know i had to put my OLD dog down last spring. It was hard to let her go after almost 15 years. So this summer i really didn't have time for a new dog with work and marathon training. I decided to wait till work was close to done so I could give the puppy the training needed. Well the time has come. On Friday the parents at I went to the pound to see what they had. Well it took about 15 secs to fall in love with Kayla. Shes just about the cutest puppy ever. Well maybe i am a bit bias so i will let you judge for your self.

One problem we had was a name. We have a Kayla and Kayle dogs in the family already so i had to look for name. We ended up with Sophie. Well in the first 3 days that she has been here she has only had a few accidents in the house so far, mostly the first night. We are working on crate training right now. I'm thinking I may be starting her very own blog on training and puppy stuff. I cant wait till i can take her out on short runs this spring.