Training in Montana

Even though I slept in today until 8:30, after church I took an hour nap and it greatly improved my attitude. Also took the chill off having to substitute teach 8 year olds today at church, and one of the boys was very tough, and my 12 yr old boy who was "helping" me was worse than the younger ones. Grrr. But after the nap I felt awesome. I need to sleep more this week so I'm not so tired by the end of the week.

Planned on running this morning, and should've, but I was couldn't get myself out of bed on about 4 different chances. I was always planning on Boot Camp, though, and I made that at lunch. Ran around the block 3 different times, then had lots of upper body stuff. Good workout. Upper body is a bit fatigued, thighs are still a bit tired from Saturday. I'm hoping I can keep up the mileage plus BC 2-3 times per week. I really enjoy it and it gets me my fast twitch workouts (even though they aren't much) and builds some good core and upper body strength, plus works leg muscles I don't normally hit during running. Halloween tonight - supposed to rain/snow later on. Hopefully it holds off until the fun is over.

Garmin wouldn't stay on, so no idea on time. Ran a nice 1/2 mile as-fast-as-I-could and it felt good. Wish I knew how fast it was. Run felt good.

26 degrees; 14 with wind chill. It was tough psyching myself up to get out the door, but I did and I'm glad - it wasn't bad at all. Fleece is my friend when it's cold. I wore a short sleeve running shirt under my Turtle Fur fleece zip neck underlayer that I've had for years, plus a jacket that I took off 1/2 mile into the run. Wore my fleece hat, tights, and my running gloves inside my windproof mittens. Perfect running attire for this weather. Could do with some thicker running tights, but wasn't chilled. It was a beautiful cloudless morning thick with stars on the way out and a gorgeous pre-sunrise across the high plains during the return. Maybe treadmill running in a planetarium would be cool - otherwise, it's all about running outdoors.

AP: 8:22. Splits 10:11 (took off my jacket), 8:40, 8:29, 7:44, 7:28, 7:41.

Lunch - did 1 hour Boot Camp. Great workout, lots of sweat. Seeing great returns from the muscle workouts - none of the pains I was feeling at the end of the summer have come back since I started up BC again. Note to self that I need to keep up weight training even when marathon training. Speaking of, not sure which races I'll do next year - need to plan out the summer vacation schedule first.

I'm heading to Florida on Saturday so I skipped my run to spend some time with my wife. This was poor planning on my part - just got back 10 days ago from 4 days of elk hunting, now heading to a conference for 7 days. It's a learning conference I've been to before that's the best in the industry, so I'm excited about going and it's only once a year so the timing couldn't be avoided. Regardless, it will be awesome, not to mention the weather. 35 degrees in Billings, 80 degrees in Orlando. Looking forward to running at sea level in summer clothes again.

5 miles this morning. 36 degrees, only a slight breeze. Very nice running conditions and gorgeous starlit sky. I love O'Ryan's belt, but seeing it means Winter is near so that's a bit of a double edged sword. I saw a shooting star just past mile 2 - that was cool. Just a short blip, but still. I'll take what I can get.

AP: 8:24. Not sure of my splits as my watch is now at home.

10 chilly miles before the snow hit. It was another tough Saturday run for me & I walked quite a few times. Finally started feeling it after mile 5 & I ran all the way home. Snowy day after that, snowy football game. They played well but lost so now all 3 boys are done for the season. Bball starts Monday...

AP 8:37. Splits 9:09, 8:38, 9:17. 8:33, 9:02, 9:07, 8:33, 7:48, 8:09, 7:52.