JUST A REMINDER...

The first annual 8 on the 8th Run will take place this Saturday, December 8.

The object is to cover 8 miles that day, any way you can, as best as you can. We had hoped to get some shirts, but without a firm commitment from at least 20 people, the cost would have been too high to order, so we'll have to do our own thing on shirts. I'm still willing to order if we get 20 orders though!

In preparation for Saturday's run, I have been running consistently, and on weekends have been doing between 5.4 and 7 miles. This past weekend was a treadmill run. I had only intended to do 6.5, but then I got involved in watching a movie and decided to continue on and ended up doing 7 and walking until 8. I needed to see if I could hang on for 8 miles on the treadmill if the weather forced me inside again. It wasn't the worst thing I have ever done, so I think I'll make it Saturday, either way.

And speaking of weather forcing me inside. We have had quite a wild weather week, and the sidewalks and roads around my house have been quite icy. Not sheet ice, but patches here and there, enough so it makes running in the dark not so safe. I have fallen quite a few times on black ice, chunky ice, and glare ice so I am a little paranoid. Until I can run on either completely dry pavement or pavement with enough snow on it to cover the ice, I am sorry to say I will be forced inside.

And the forecast for getting the roads cleared this winter is dismal, thanks to our brilliant state budgeting that cut back on road commission allotments, so that now, in a snow state, the road commissions are laying off people who would normally be available for snow plowing. They're just warning us ahead of time that snow clearing will be spotty at best and slower than normal. Reminds me of the 70s.

Also changing up my morning routine is needing to be around for Don in the morning to help him with a few things and get him set for the day, so I have been going to the gym at lunch or after work more and more, something I hate to do, but at least I am getting in some spinning classes that I have neglected doing by not going in the evenings.

I also signed up for the indoor triathlon at the end of January, so that's a motivation to keep up the spinning and swimming. I've managed to recruit a few people from work to do this as well, so that is more motivation! These are 25-29 year olds so I don't want them to show me up too badly!

And swimming has been going better all of a sudden too, even though I am not being that consistent with going, sometimes only once a week. Last week though I managed to go 3 times, and all my distances have been faster since a month ago.

That's about it for the last few days. Hope to hear from all of you planning on doing our virtual race this weekend!