Houndstooth...

Round two of the plague monkey battle has seemingly come to an end. I am no longer taking the Devil's Ju-ju to stop coughing long enough to get & stay asleep. All of the kleenex in the house has been used up and for now I don't feel the need to go out shopping to replace it.

Despite feeling incredibly lazy for doing so, I took advantage of every possible hour of sleep I could grasp. Judging by how I've felt the last few days it looks to have cured me. For the most part.

While I may have been sick that didn't keep my mind from longing for a run, pool-time, bike training, something. In addition to watching "Spirit of the Marathon" I at times this week found myself following the you-tube rabbit trail of Ironman clips. This is a dangerous trail for me. It makes my heart beat faster and has me tip-toeing the fine line of moderation.

In my more idleness physically, mentally it was a toss-up of trying to fit the training puzzle pieces together of how to make the best use of the winter months & still giving my body a recovery season. There is commitment and then there's having a sport become like a job. I know reaching the fitness level for the full marathon & Ironman will take a lot of commitment, time & sacrifice, but I'm hoping to train smart enough to avoid it becoming a drudgerous (That might be a word.) job.

This afternoon I put on what I felt would be the necessary amount of layers for a run in 5degree weather. It's still a test of trial and error, but today my gear was close to perfect.

I would like to introduce a new ( but needed) member to my already copious amount of jackets. No, it is not my desire to have my winter apparel be a cornucopia of Burton prints, but for a fleece-lined, wind-breaking jacket at only $20 I'm pretty "stoked". I was worried the houndstooth print would bug my astigmatism when running. Fortunately it didn't and as far as the technical aspect, it performed even better then I hoped. :)


My running performance however was in one word: Challenging. Breathing through a face warmer is kinda tricky and when my breathing rhythm is out of sync it really messes with my pacing. I wasn't so much concerned about time, I didn't wear a watch this run, but the time it took for the run to become comfortable could've been better. Once I reached that point it was a joy run though. Great views of the setting sun reflecting across the crystal frozen ponds in our neighborhood & the perfect instrumental techno flowing out of my ipod. Until the battery got to cold and it shut off. That was only a few yards from the end of my run though so I can't complain.

I will have to fill my water bottle ahead of time with warmer water so that the nozzle doesn't freeze up and probably put the ipod (if I use it, zen running is good too) in the pocket of my jacket for anything over 3 miles.

Hopefully I'll be back to 3 runs a week routine starting Monday. We shall see.