Training for a Belt Buckle

Trying to get motivated again.  My achilles in the right ankle is still bothering me and my left ankle has been stiff and achy.  I think it is a combination of cold, old, out of shape, and overweight.

I'm going to go back to a combination of heart rate training and pace training.  I will do my recovery runs and long runs using the HRM.  Other runs are going to be using the Garmin pace calculator.  I was just running too slow doing heart rate training and it was very depressing.

So - for the remainder of February, I will run M/W/F for 5 miles keeping my pace under 12 MM.

5 miles - 57:27 avg: 11:29     11:36/11:34/11:26/11:14/11:36

I leave on Friday to see my daughter and family in Savannah, Georgia and return on February 22nd.  Then I will be in Livonia, Michigan from March 1st-4th.

Took a lunch break for once and ran 4 miles on the dreadmill at the gym.  It is so much easier for me to run outside than inside.

Going to try to get up early and get a run in before 6. Leslie is picking me up at 6:30 a.m. to drop me off at the airport.

I meant to get up early yesterday and run before Leslie picked me up to go to the airport - but I lost my motivation while laying in bed - and didn't.

Shortly after Leslie dropped me at the airport, I found out my connecting flight from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia was cancelled.  They were predicting 6 inches of snow in Savannah and recommended I go home and try again on Saturday - but the weather was not looking good then.

I took my chances and flew to Atlanta.  It was just barely starting to snow, but all flights the rest of the day were cancelled or soon to be.  I decided to rent a car - highway robbery for one way rentals.  The cheapest place I could find was over $250 with discounts, some were over $400.  What should have been a 4 hour drive took 6.5 hours.  Never a break in the snow and lots of accidents all over the place.

Today we did some shopping and then I mixed up a bunch of bread.  I took off on a run and my grandkids followed after trying to catch me on their bikes.  They finally caught me 4 1/2 miles later shortly before the Walmart we were heading to.  We got separated and I ended up running home and they hung in the shopping center for a while.

Ran along a pretty highway - swamplands on every side. We passed over the Okeechokee River (or something like that). A lot of the way I could run on a grassy shoulder.  It was cool out - but all the snow had melted from the day before and a lot of the time it was sunny.  Total of 11 miles round trip.  Much easier running without the effects of altitude.