I think i’ve summed up my goal for December with the title of this post. I would think that most of us who continue to keep our running mileage up this time of year all deal with it for maybe the same reason. I’m finding that holiday parties are starting to make their way on my schedule .. and the holiday treats are starting to show up at work each day. Its never a good thing. I love the fact that we have a few ladies at work who constantly bring in holiday goodies, and one I know has spent the last 3 days making cookies and homemade candy, which i’m sure will make its way to work … great! So each morning now as I struggle to get up and out into the cold to run, I remind myself that I need to keep up the miles, to hopefully keep off the extra pounds.

Today was no exception .. it was cold, real cold, and a freshly fallen snow seemed to have had enough time to freeze up overnight to make my 12 miler today somewhat treacherous, but I still got it in. I found out that I got in 12.6 miles instead because i went off course a bit, but the more miles the better. I actually got up at 6:30 this morning, which for me is considered sleeping late and found out it was 21 degrees with a 13 degree wind-chill factor.. wonderful. I waited until 7:45 to go out after finding out that it was only going to warm up a few degrees today, I figured that I should just get out and get going, there was no value in waiting.

So I ended up finding out that although the side roads were somewhat plowed, they were pretty much frozen up from the cold temperatures so i found myself running on snow covered sidewalks. I’m not generally a fan of running on sidewalks, but since there was snow on them, there was traction at least .. there was only one section where I had to run on the ice, but I managed to get through. I think there were two times when I almost slipped on the sidewalks, and it probably would’ve been a broken leg in my opinion both times. It kind of makes me rethink running on the ice .. ok, i’m done thinking about it, i’ll continue to run on the ice (that was easy).

It seems that by running on the sidewalks instead of the road, I may have actually ran more than if I ran the roads … what I mean is that I didn’t cut turns short, I actually ran them to the corner and turned. Its also rough running in snow because it just seems i’m working so much harder in my stride.

Well, this is the beginning of the beginning (if there is such a thing). A few weeks until I start training for the Ocean Drive, so the cold is going to be normal for me as the weeks go on… hmmmm … I hate winter.