Where's the Beach?

I know that winter is unavoidable, unless you live in the Bahamas or Hawaii perhaps. But this year I think many of us are experiencing a much colder than normal winter. I sure know we are here in the south where our average highs should be around 50, but we're barely hitting 30. I've really only been seriously running for about 5 1/2 maybe 6 years now. The first year or so, I didn't mind not running if the weather was cold. I'd either hit the treadmill at the gym, pull out a DVD or take a step or spin class. Times have changed, however. As I've become more passionate about my running, I've learned to better deal with the weather conditions. A big part of this is that I really dislike treadmill running and don't have easy access to one either. You start to learn to just deal with Mother Nature. I don't mind running in the rain, by the end of summer I start to wish for colder temps even, and running in the "normal" cold doesn't bother me....

Oddly Good Run I ended up making Wednesday a rest day. I wasn't necessarily feeling any worse, but decided to just give my body a break. This meant I had time to get to the grocery store. Not the most exciting thing on a Wednesday evening, but necessary. Today was a long long work day. I was looking forward to getting in a run, but was still feeling stuffy and lots of drainage. I went ahead and went for it, meeting my running partner at her office at 4:45 for our usual route. I remember to bring my blinking light this evening since we got stuck in the dark on Tuesday. I should have brought the headlamp she got me actually. We ended up with a great 6-mile run. I have no idea how I did it, but I managed an 8:38 pace. The only downfall (other than really choking on snot and not having water) was dodging lots of traffic and almost getting hit by drivers totally not paying any attention, dodging meandering pedestrians, random potholes, and then a Doberman that darted straight at ...