Happy New Year!

Time is running (pun intended) out as we are coming closer to races for 2010. Tomorrow is the Siberian Express Trail Run at Kickapoo State Park. 7.55 miles in the snow; it should be fun, forcasted temperature of 12 degrees (Fahrenheit) . In order to be sure I could do it, I put on 7 today (10 degrees, 9:20 pace) and felt pretty good. I have been training on the tread mill over the past few weeks and it felt good to get out on the road. To actual feel like I was going somewhere was extremely enjoyable. As I have said in the past, the treadmill is frustrating for me; putting forth all kinds of effort and getting nowhere; kind of like most of 2009 for me. However, that is changing.

I can't wait for other people to take action. I need to go after what I want; just like my running. With that being said, I am upping my effort in all areas for this year. I am getting an average of 35 miles per week and will be working more on getting pace up so I can hit that 3:30 pace. I will also become more active in my own community as well as my home community in the North State. I am joining a Yoga group next week and will start travelling more this spring. I guess that a lot of things came together for me over the last quarter of the year, but there are just a few pieces missing in completing the new puzzle that is Adam and I look forward to completing the puzzle this year. The chapter has been closed on a turbulent past couple of years. The next one looks very exciting and continues into tomorrow when I will post my race results. Hopefully, no frostbite!

Speaking of taking things into my own hands (no, not that THING), I ran the Siberian Express Trail Run today. It was, in a word... COLD! 1 degree Fahrenheit before wind chill, which was negligible at race time. We got a start with over 200 runners at about 11:00 am and we were off (to the races?). Pace at first was difficult as we were spreading out the field and working through some tight areas in the first mile, but then things stretched out. It was my first ever trail run and I was surprised that we had some straight up climbs that prevented maintaining pace all the way through. Overall, I think that ate about 5-7 minutes throughout the race. There were other climbs that we ran that reminded me how my legs during the run were like the cook top on my range in the kitchen. They were both quad burners! (I know, bad joke). Anyway, it was a great run; I worked up a sweat and felt pretty good about it. Plus, I got a real cool beanie!

Great start to the year!