5 miles @ 9:20/mi Wayne and I finally got together and got some miles in this afternoon. With sunshine, temps in the mid-40's, relatively clean air, a mostly clear path, it was quite nice. It would have been even nicer if I was fit and not fat. It's been a rough winter. Frigid temps, snow/ice covered roads, bad air from inversions. I've also been working long hours before, during, and since the Christmas break. In addition, we had some house flooding in early January that took about a month to recover from. I think the low point was when we had 16 fans or so blowing 24/7 in our house for about a week to dry it out. It seemed like an eternity. (I've heard many have had similar experiences this winter.) For quite a while it was just too hard for me to get up to run in the mornings. A big part was the frigid temps, dangerous roads, and bad air. Many mornings I didn't want to get up at all. I'm guessing many of you know that feeling. Sometimes it takes the endurance of a marathoner just to get through each day. Fortunately, winter never lasts forever, and spring always follows. I welcome and am grateful for the sunshine that has dawned in all areas of my life. We have a re-built basement bedroom with new walls, paint, flooring. We finally went through all of our piles of storage in the basement. We have new flooring on most of the main floor. The yard and roof finally thawed enough that I got the Christmas decorations down today. Pressures at work are letting up. Warmer temps. Sunshine. Melting roads. ...And I'm running again. | 