There will be thick blood

Yep, my blood must be like molasses right now after running outside the past two days.  It was 14 yesterday with a wind chill of about zero and I ran to the gym this morning in 14 degree weather and no wind.  These are the coldest running days I've ever done.  It wasn't too bad either.  I think I'm getting used to the cold.  As I was freezing my way back to the condo this morning, I started to think of how much harder my heart must be working to push the molasses through the veins.  It hit me maybe it's good to be training outside in the winter putting in those base miles.  The heart is working extra hard but you're not going as far or as fast.  Once spring and summer roll around the blood thins back out and the heart doesn't have to work as hard.  Therefore, you get free speed.  Instead of "train low, sleep high" my mantra is "train cold, race hot".  Catchy!

I watched my DVR recording of the Ironman World Championships in Kona finally.  It got me thinking about doing another Ironman just to see if I could really kill the run.  Seeing Normann Stadler hamstring cramp up in the marathon hit home.  I was worried about my hamstring which is why I didn't push extra hard during the tough time of the marathon.  I'm getting close in my training where I can feel like if I just go my body will respond.  My early running days were always based on just going no matter what.  Recently though my body keeps letting me down so I've been running tentative which hurts not only in racing but training as well.  I can't push myself to exhaustion on tough training days because I'm worried about injury.  I keep just cruising this winter in hopes of being able to unleash some great training this spring and not get injured.

3 days til Xmas and I can tell.  I ran by Best Buy yesterday and the parking lot was pretty packed for a Monday afternoon.  I still need to walk over there and get some batteries for Elena's Xmas keyboard.  I'm hoping I can get them into her stocking Xmas morning without her noticing although at the age of 7 she's getting wiser to me being sneaky.  Every time I mention Elena's age to someone it shocks me that she's 7.  I almost always goof it up and say 6.  6 is such a perfect age not too young but not old enough to make me look ancient.

Happy Holidays!