Good lord it's cold!

My two weeks of work in Florida has sadly come to an end. Actually, I wasn't all that sad about it as I strongly dislike Florida and was ready to sleep in my own bed again, but at least it was warm there! When we left Cocoa Beach on Friday it was close to 80 degrees, and when we rolled into Madison Saturday night it was hovering around -10. That's a good 90 degree swing over about 30 hours - certainly the largest swing I've ever experienced, even when flying. It is supposed to stay in the single digits for most of this week, but then creep back up to the teens and twenties by the weekend. Needless to say, any running that occurs will likely be indoors.

I've got an appointment with a sports med doc to discuss the continuing problems I've had with the stress fracture in my left leg on Friday. I was able to run fairly successfully in Florida with minimal pain (in my leg that is, my lungs were another matter!), which is a good sign. Hopefully progress will continue. In the meantime, I am excited that we are getting some new high-end spin bikes at work that should be good for workouts, and I am also going to start swimming a couple of times a week. If I can get in one or two runs, bikes, and swims a week I will be pretty happy!

Warm running!

So I'm in Cocoa Beach, Florida for two weeks for work right now. I wasn't all that excited about the trip other than the warm weather, but I'm actually enjoying it a fair bit. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous with plenty of sun and highs around 80 each day.

With no excuses about bad weather I've been getting out for runs nearly every day. My leg has largely been feeling fine, but I'm still planning on seeing the sports med doc when I get back to Madison. What I have discovered is that I've gotten pretty damn slow! Last year down here when I had done similar training over the fall semester I was able to crank out a ten mile run at 7:11 pace - this year I'm working all out to hold that pace for half that distance. I am hoping that my motivation holds once I'm back in the snowy cold north and that my form will start to return fairly quickly. I also ordered a new training swim suit before I left town with the plan of swimming a couple of times a week. We'll see how that goes....