No excuses...

The holidays... wonderful and fun, yet horrible for my running.  Thankfully, Rachel and Woody gave me a wonderful gift certificate to Nordstram Rack.... woohooo! This meant that I could finally go buy myself some running clothes for outside.  As modeled in the pictures above... Now I have no excuse... I can go to the gym and NOW run around Patterson Park when I am too lazy to go to the gym... wooo hooo!

Two reasons I may not be running tomorrow

REASON #1:

 In her excitement to get in the back door after our last run Alice yanked me up the back stairs, I tripped and fell and busted my knee on our not-at-all-springy concrete steps.  As of day 2, the knee is turning all sorts of holiday yellow and green.

REASON #2:

We have SNOW!  On Christmas!  The weather folks on tv were salivating over this possibility for no less than a week straight (we just witnessed the last 3 days of coverage because we were hanging out with folks who watch the weather).  We learned that a "White Christmas" occurs only when there is more than 1 inch of snow.  Who came up with this arbitrary rule, we don't know.  But if there is 7/8 inch of snow I suppose it is a Soggy Christmas or Wintery Mix Christmas.  This is why I'm not the one dancing in front of the green screen talking about fronts and low pressure systems...

It truly sucks that my knee is a bit busted up.  I am hoping to run on it tomorrow or the day after.  Remember when we used to bust our knees all the time and get up and keep playing?  Wow that feels like it was so long ago.  Oh wait, it was.

One-Love

On our run on Tuesday, Alice found this outside the B'ton Tennis Association.  She carried it all the way home (over 1/2 mile!).  And when we got home she showed this tennis ball who was boss.  By promptly eating a hole in it.  I did 5 miles on Sunday and this upcoming weekend is a much shorter run of half that distance, it'll be a nice Xmas break!

Downward dog

I keep my exercise mat rolled up in the back bedroom to try and keep dog hair off it...clearly this strategy has failed:

Both Maddy and Alice enjoy the sticky feeling of my exercise mat on their furry bottoms.  Here Maddy is about to go into a headstand.

Four miles happened today -- it was cold out but not windy so no need for the running ninja look.  It felt pretty good.  I tried to focus on the road ahead and think less about my form (mostly because it is so pathetic but a little to just let my body do what it will naturally).  Alice got home from the four-mile run and promptly launched into one of her "tornado episodes."  There is no limit to that dog's energy...

Running ninja

Today was cold in B'ton.  Really cold.  Not cold in a Southern-oh-it's-dropped-below-70 sense.  It was 24 degrees out and with the windchill it was 12 degrees.  I waited until after lunch today and the temp finally got above freezing (but was still 22 with windchill).  Having misplaced my cozy fleece whimple I fashioned my own neck/ face mask with my Buff scarf.  Meet Sister Mary Katherine Ninja Bank Robber:

I've run in 22-degree temps before without this fancy and menacing get up but today there were 20 mph winds.  It was brutal.  When I got to the end of my route and went to turn around I half expected to see Tibetan prayer flags and lots of people in North Face gear talking about "respecting the mountain but, you know, dude, conquering it at the same time."  I thought I trudged past some folks from the Donner party but then again I'm in B'ton and pretty much everyone looks like that.  But I did my 3 miles (4 miles is going to wait till next time when I don't feel like I am going to get frostbite on my eyeballs), woohoo!  Can't wait to see the crop of festering pimples I am going to wake up to tomorrow.

Make sure you are dressed for the weather!!!

Rachel has always been a great sister and has always given me great advice... like what to wear when running in the winter... its true... gloves are meant to wear on your ears!!!!

We so Hood!!! (ummm Well Hoodie!)

Watch out World The Chico Sisters are training hard and we are going to kick some booty in April!