I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- I'm home all week on paternity leave. Took my mom to the airport at 5:15 am, then ran an hour. After taking an hour break to get my 2 oldest ready for school and drive the carpool, I ran another 50-odd minutes. Nice day for a run, much warmer than recent well-below freezing temps. Around 50 deg and light drizzle. Felt ok, slower the second half (I don't advise splitting a run in two with an hour break). 15 miles.

Most of the country would call our weather a light dusting of snow that isn't even sticking to the roads, maybe 1/4" snow total so far. In South Carolina, we call it a snow day with no school. Last week, the kids only attended school two days due to weather, and both were delayed start. I'm betting we have 2-3 more snow days this week. SMH.

PM- 10 miles on a snow day. Felt pretty sluggish and wasn't sure I'd make it past 4 miles. Rather than run my endless loops of the soccer fields, I headed out into distant neighborhoods so it wouldn't be possible to stop short of an hour. On this snow day, the roads were dry and there was basically no snow even on the grass. At least the kids didn't have to go to school ;)

PM- We are supposed to get 5-8 inches of snow tomorrow, which will mean the schools will shut down the rest of the week. That will make for 4 snow days and 2 delayed starts in the past 9 school days. I wanted to get in a BW on dry ground. 6 miles warmup, then 6 miles doing laps on the hilly bike path around the soccer fields. Splits were 6:40, 6:39, 6:35, 6:23, 6:12, and 6:07. Wore my HR monitor- not sure it was accurate, as it said my HR dropped to 175 on the downhills but was 205-210 on the uphills, peaking at 213 on the last lap. I'm pretty sure my heart doesn't really go that fast, but I was working hard. Finished with 15 miles in 1:47 with 900 ft climb.

AM- 8 miles nice and slow on another snow day. Of course, we got about .5 inches of snow and the roads are already clear, but school is cancelled.

This sums up how it feels 

http://youtu.be/kdggmS0c0lI

School is delayed Friday, even though the roads are 100% dry and snow is melted by evening Thursday.

In summary, in the past 2 weeks, we had 1 holiday, 4 snow days, 3 delayed days, and 2 regular days, in response to one storm with .3 inch ice, one storm that left a light snow dusting, and one storm that snowed .5 inch. Less than 1 inch total snow/ice. Oh yeah, plus a state-wide state of emergency. Amazing.

AM- 8 easy before taking the kids to school. My easy pace today was sub-7:30, while yesterday was a struggle to break 8:00 pace. Funny how that goes.

PM- 6 ez. Pretty sluggish.

I think I'm actually figuring out a running schedule for the year. I'm going to sign up for Promise Land 50k end of April as my only test race pre-Western. Eric Grossman has repeatedly told me it's his favorite race anywhere, very pretty. Then June is Western States, obviously. In the fall, I'm leaning towards Barkley Fall Classic in September (winner is auto-entry to Barkley, a valuable thing). Maybe do JFK 50 mile as a fall add-on. Nothing for sure, but those are where I'm leaning right now.

AM- Out for my first 20 miler since... Aug? Sept? Windy and chilly. I was hungry and thirsty by mile 5 so it was a good bonk run. Ran some new roads in the Georgia Road area. Very tired by the end but still moving 7-7:30 pace, with last mile 6:50. 20 miles in 2:28 with 1300 ft climb.

Wore my HR monitor again. Avg 175, with often 180-190 on uphills and max of 206. This seems very high, but I took my pulse by hand once and it was above 180. Does this seem normal to everyone? My resting HR is 40-50, depending on fitness.