Nope, I'm not really going to talk about football... However, last week my knee was sore so I only ran one day then on Saturday we went for our long run which was 10 miles! Because I had only ran one day, the first few miles were kind of rough but then I settled into a nice pace and we headed towards home. 10 miles down 16 more to go. Doesn't that sound crazy!!!

We are getting pretty excited about heading up to run in the Groundhog run. This will be the first run that we have done together. The 10k should seem like a breeze after doing 10 miles on Saturday.

One thing that has always been fun about running is running in groups with friends. No matter if you are a guy or a lady, young or old, experienced or not – runners have fun with each other. We have talked two people into running with us in the St. Louis marathon and at least one in the Groundhog run. We are looking forward to run with our friends and supporting each other as we try to accomplish our goals.

If you are running in the Groundhog run or the St. Louis marathon let us know.

Not only are we crazy enough to run in a marathon we are actually trying to run in a event in January, February, and March leading up to the April 11 marathon in St. Louis. We have chosen to run in the Children’s TLC Groundhog Run on Sunday, January 31.

It is a fun run that takes place completely underground. The Groundhog Run will take place at the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis. It is kind of a weird thought that you are going to run a 10k with Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun sitting on top of you.

Tonight I ran 5 miles on the treadmill. It was sheer torture. I'm not sure what even kept me going, but one thing I did think was that if I did complete this run, then I would have accomplished a major mind over matter issue. I began my run with a one percent incline. Apparently this is supposed to better mimic outdoor running and also be better on your joints. I barely made it to one mile before I was feeling ready to quit. So at 1.5 miles I decreased the incline to .5 percent. I think the only reason I didn't put it on zero is because I knew this was better on my knees. Then I made it 2 miles and had decided to quit, but instead I decreased the speed a little bit. I figured I should go to three since that way I could at least trade training days. I made it to three and was planning on quitting but kept running a little bit. If I quit at three, then I would probably just be here again tomorrow night trying to run five again. I decided to go to four. But as I approached four, I decided to go to five. Actually, I pretended to think that I was going to stop at four, but in the back of my mind I had decided to stick it out. If I only went to four how would it fit in on my training schedule? It wasn't three and it wasn't five.

I know the long run of the week is really important to build physical and mental endurance, but does the medium run really depend on it's length? Tonight I felt like I couldn't do another run on the treadmill. In fact, I was really questioning my running ability period. That was quite a change from my positive attitude after Saturday's long run. We've had snow and ice on the ground here since Christmas Eve and even though it's been above freezing for two days, it hasn't melted too much off the sidewalks. It's only January, so I know that we've got days ahead that will be cold and/or icy and snowy, but I think I really need a few nice days outside before I have to stick it out on the treadmill again for any length of time!

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." - John Bingham

Saturday we did three things that if someone would have told me just a few months ago that I would be doing in January I would have thought they were crazy! First, we ran in single digit temperatures. Secondly, we ran while it was lightly snowing the entire time. And third, our long run this week was seven miles - and we did it and it felt pretty good! We ran at a nice, easy pace and it seemed to go well.

We were at a friend's house for the weekend, so that meant that we got to run together! I was nervous going into this run because I knew it was going to be so cold and it was the longest run yet. Truly the hard part wasn't the run but actually taking that first step out the door. Every time that we do something like this that seems impossible, then we are training our bodies and minds that, yes, we can do this!

This is week four of our training and after this week, we'll be 25% done. This week we have another long run coming up - 8 miles. I try not to think too far ahead because there will come a time when 8 miles won't be the long run, but will be the medium distance run in the middle of the week and there will be a truly long run at the end of the week.

We went to the Y the other tonight because it's cold and snow covered outside. We have 2 YMCAs in our town and the one closest to home is usually not that busy. We refer to it as the old Y and the other as the new Y (although we realized that the new Y is actually 10 years old now). Our son said he wanted to go to the new Y, so we did. I'm not sure how many treadmills there are (I think the old Y only has about 7 or 8), but there were a lot. And they were all occupied. Along with most of the other equipment. So instead of waiting for 2 treadmills to open up, we decided to run our 4 miles on the track. Hey, it was only 48 times around! Thank goodness they had those little clickers so that we didn't have to count. I know the new Y is normally pretty busy, but I bet a lot of those people there were New Years resoluters (that's a new word!). In fact, while we were plodding along for 48 laps we saw quite a few people start out running on the track. They sprinted right by us. But then half a lap, or in a few cases a few laps later they were walking and huffing. I admire their desire to begin running, but someone needs to tell them you can't start off your running career in a dead sprint. You're only gonna last a half a lap! Seeing all those people at the Y, it was nice to realize tonight that I don't have the goal this year to start some sort of exercise program or to begin running or to walk every day. I'm already doing that! We've been doing it for over a month now! I wonder when we go back to the new Y sometime in February if the treadmills will all be occupied then?

Although, I was a few miles short reaching my total running miles goal, I think that our 2 mile hike around Ritter Springs Park with a two-year old on my back made up for it. We set out to have a family day of fun as we went to Fantastic Caverns and decided to stop for a few Geocaches at Ritter Springs Park with my Christmas present, the Garmin Forerunner 305.

How much fun it is to go out for a hike and search for "treasures" as my son likes to say. Now, that’s some fun cross-training and family time.