Ice Skating Cross Training

I did my 6 miles today on the ice at Westchester Lagoon, on my ice skates.  What a beautiful day for it too.  Just the right temperature with bright sunshine and not too many people.  The first few laps went pretty slow but after a while I got my 'skate legs' back and was able to move pretty quickly.  It was nice to go to Anchorage and get away from the high winds out here in the valley the last few days too. I only fell once when Sombra the German Shepherd who likes to knock people down decided that it was my turn. That dog needs a spanking!

5 Miles With The Team

I went into Anchorage today and ran with the Alaska Team In Training team.  I got lost looking for the place where we were supposed to meet.  So spent a little time driving up and down the road to Pt Woronzof while talking to my mentor on the cell phone.  I finally found her. We ran about 5 miles over the snow on the Coastal Trail. It was really cold!  Lots of little hills too, so it was challenging and a really good workout.  I like running with the team because it is a lot more fun to be with other people. I think I run faster with them too because most of them are faster than me, so I push myself more to keep up with them.

I'm posting a different photo on my Facebook page each week as an incentive for people to make donations to my fundraising page.  $25 donation or more and I will send an 8x10 print of the photo of the week.  This week I am offering my Snowy Egret photo.  It is one of my favorites. Click on the picture to make a donation to help end cancer.

Indoor Run 5 miles

I ran 5 miles at the Sports Center track today.  Way too much wind and icy cold 10 degree temperatures to consider running outdoors.  I always get a really good run when I use the indoor track. I felt pretty good and actually ran a bit faster today.  My goal is to increase my pace so I can finish a lot faster at my next marathon.

I am not having any luck with donations to my Team In Training fundraising page. I still need to raise $3625 to reach my minimum.  Please consider making a donation to help me fight deadly blood cancers. http://www.race4cancer.org/

Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio

Aother marathon completed. I sure didn't break any speed records though.  It was so hot that at times I really wondered if I was going to make it. I felt on the verge of heat exhaustion the entire time even though I drank water and Gatorade at every stop.  So my slow time, over 6 hours was quite a disappointment, but certainly not a surprise considering how often we have weather in the 80's in Alaska.  At least we were blessed with a cool breeze at times.
 
Friends took this photo of me right after I crossed the finish line.  I look like I just did a triathlon and didn't dry off after the swimming portion!

10 Miles

I ran a nice 10 miles at the indoor track at the Sports Center today.  It felt great.  A nice way to get in a good run without dealing with the 15 degree weather outside. Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon on Sunday so I want to get in some good runs this week.  It's about 70 degrees warmer in San Antonio than here today.  So that might be kind of challenging.  But I think I am kind of looking forward to actually being warm for a change!

It's been really beautiful around here though. I went for a drive up to Denali Park yesterday and was blessed with this view of Denali.

Denali View

 

Arctic Valley Road

Wonderful workout today with the Alaska Team In Training Team.  It was dark and cold and the road was snow-covered, but it was a great hill run.  We all ran about 2 hours and my Nike+ GPS said I ran 8.6 miles.  I ended up walking parts of the uphill, but ran non-stop back downhill.  I wasn't very motivated when the alarm went off this morning but I knew I would be really mad at myself if I just rolled over and went back to sleep.  It was well worth getting up for!  We had a breakfast get-together over at Ruth's house afterwards and I finally got to meet most of the team that will be also running the Walt Disney World Marathon with me.



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