Still not sure...

More snow for us today. This is a crazy, cold, wet winter for us. I am SO glad I did not sign up for Lonestar. I would need to be doing a lot of outdoor riding and running and it is nice to not have that pressure right now.

Cowtown. I have done two 22 mile runs. The first (two weeks ago) was awesome. It was in the 60s and I ran easy, felt great, no recovery time, averaged 9:01. Yesterday's 22 miles was a very different story. It was only in the mid-upper 30s and I have not been out in the cold enough to let my body get acclimated to running in that temperature range. I had to bundle up and that alone makes a long run more cumbersome. I started out and felt heavy and slow. By mile 6 I started walking for 1 minute every 3 miles because I still was just not feeling it. I tried hard to psyche myself up to enjoy being outside but to be honest, I was not having fun. At mile 12, a black lab older puppy ran up beside me and he ran with me all the way back to the highway (to the 22 mile mark). I had two miles up the highway back to the house and knew that this dog would not find his way back home, would not stop following me anyway, and was getting very tired. I called Pete and he came and picked us up. I averaged 9:30s for those 22 miles and stopped my garmin when refilling my water 3 times so really, it was even slower than that.

So now I have a dog to find a home for. We are hoping he is chipped; I will go today and have him scanned. As for the race...well, if I run it, it will be nothing more than a finish for sure, and possibly a painful one. Is it worth it? I do really love the race atmosphere. It is so fun to be out there with all of those athletes. But will the fun wear off long before the finish line? Did I mention that I am not signed up for the marathon? I came home from IM Cozumel feeling like I could conquer the world and signed up for the 50k. Stupid, I know. Coach Pete just shakes his head. He is pretty mad at me as a coach right now because I don't run for 6 days and then go out and run 22 miles. He says I am begging for an injury. If it is freezing the morning of the race that will most likely seal the deal for me. I just cannot stand being cold right now. I don't even get very warm once I start running. I love being on the trainer and sweating all over the place; it is the only time I truly get warmed up.

So there you have it. Still undecided.

Oh, yea, and I missed the boat on Boulder! Crap! That was the one race I was sure about for this year and it already sold out. I am so bummed. But on the bright side, I really did want to watch Danna race and now I can do that. She is training hard and will do so well! Now I don't know if I will race at all this season.