Running with the reindeer...December runs!

[emily_in_nc]

Everyone, heal up or, if you are healthy, stay healthy! Happy running over the holidays and may we all have super-duper running in 2012! We rock!

Love this, yellow! I second this wish!

And I will try to stop complaining about running in 80 degrees and humid conditions...

[Veronica]

I haven't done as much running as I should have this month. I strained a hamstring running on my birthday last Saturday. (The rest of my day was great.) Thus I haven't gone out to run this week until today. It was 45 degrees - which is a little cold for us - but wonderfully sunny. I had a great 5 mile run - average pace of 9:43. I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm going to need to work at it to get in the rest of mileage this month. But as long as my hamstring stays good, I know I can do it.

Veronica

[emily_in_nc]

I had another below-par run this morning. It was 80 degrees again, humid, and very sunny by 7:30 am. I intended to run 4 but started feeling nauseous somewhere around 3.3-3.5 so walked the rest of the way.

Strangely, it was cooler many mornings in November and early Dec. than this past week or so. I hope the cooler pattern comes back. I am already dreading "spring" runs, if this is "winter"!

[skhill]

Emily, if I moved to Belize, I'd probably be an ex-runner soon. I'm in awe of how you're dealing with heat and humidity!

Seems like my running mojo has gone on vacation. Didn't feel like running on Friday, but did it anyway. I took a local history route, going past a bunch of local landmarks, enjoying the Christmas decorations and not worrying about pace. It was nice!

Today, I didn't feel like running yet again. I think I had a sugar hangover from too many cookies last night. So, no long run, just 5 miles in the neighborhood listening to the mp3 player.

Santa, can you bring some running inspiration?

[Veronica]

3.5 miles for me today in my elf hat. It was good run, 31 degrees out and it took awhile for my hands to warm up. But my head was warm.

Veronica

[OakLeaf]

I had a decent run today, first time in a week my legs haven't felt like absolute lead. It's a bit cooler but I don't think that was the whole problem. Whatever it was I'm glad it's gone. I'm still fighting a low-grade nausea, which in my world almost always means I'm not getting enough salt, but with my BP I'm afraid to really pack the salt in, so I'm taking it Zenergize tablet by Zenergize tablet and we'll see. Anyway, I did the bridge loop again, 7.6 miles and a handful of Merry Christmases.

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, if I moved to Belize, I'd probably be an ex-runner soon. I'm in awe of how you're dealing with heat and humidity!

Thanks skhill! I'm from North Carolina, so it wasn't a big change when we first moved here in August. And I didn't deal with the heat/humidity combo well at all at first. My first runs here were miserable, 1-2 miles, having to say a mantra in my head just to survive them. It is only as it became cooler in the mornings that I was able to up my mileage and started feeling much better on runs. But this week we had a mini-heat wave (for December, anyway!) that really wiped me out. The problem is that the day's high is often reached by 7 to 8 am as the sun rises SO early. It's actually cooler in the afternoon (just the opposite from an N.C. pattern), but I much prefer to get my runs over with in the morning. I am much too likely to find excuses to skip a run if I wait until afternoon.

Supposedly it's going to get a little cooler now so hopefully next week should be better, but we'll see as springtime comes if I can maintain running at all. At some point it may just become impossible. In NC I never ran outside during the summer, only on the treadmill, but I could ride my bike just fine in the summer. Don't have the treadmill option here.

[skhill]

At about 5:40 am, 2011 became our wettest year ever recorded. More percipitation than I am tall. So I "celebrated" the milestone by heading to Y to do my run on the treadmill. It was freakishly quiet there this morning; there was no one on a treadmill or eliptical at 7 am. Intended to do 5 miles, went only 4, but faster than usual.

Hopefully it was my last treadmill run of 2011-- but with the wind and rain predicted for tonight, it might not be. Oh well.

[emily_in_nc]

Finally, a "weak cold front" in the Yucatan brought the morning temperature for my run to 75F with a nice breeze and cloudy skies. Felt MUCH MUCH better and managed 4 miles. My last few runs had been in the 2.5-3.25 range, so this was a nice change. I love sun, but not when I run!