You and Me Burning Matches

Well, we've had some weather here in the last 24 hours...Actually, almost ALL the weather. It rained, it sleeted, it ice pelleted, it was windy, it snowed...Okay. I guess I mean we had all of the BAD weather.

It's supposed to get a lot colder in the next couple of days, so I woke up this morning at 5 and went running on the fresh snow while it was still 27 degrees out, with very little wind. I forgot how much harder it is to run on snow, than just running on pavement. If you ever want a killer calf work-out, run uphill, in the snow. Yow! Since I've never run on a treadmill before, I have plenty of good cold weather gear and even before I had the proper gear, I've been running in below zero temps since the 70's in my big, bulky, cotton sweat pants. So, my body is used to it.

All of this is leading to (FINALLY!) my month of December. Usually, December is my "off" month. After a full 9 months of different kinds of racing, I need a month to not train or race and just do whatever I feel like. Last year, we were training for CX Nationals in January, so I made January my off month and started doing real training in February. It really set me back.

Since I ended up taking both October and November as "off" months this year, I decided to use December as a build-up month. I've been trying to be healthy about building up my miles for running and swimming and I've only done bike rides, when it was possible to ride outside. Next month, I'll start increasing intensity, and distance for running and swimming and I'll start doing my Arnie Baker bike trainer work-outs twice a week. It will be interesting to see how next racing season plays out.