Holidays Are Upon Us!

Only way MW, LK & I will do an Ironman

Ten days ago I ran a mile on the treadmill without any significant pain from my Plantar Fasciitis! It took twelve weeks to get to that point. Last Sunday I made it to three miles, still staying on the treadmill. I have no desire to go out onto snowy, slippery roads right now. Also, if I begin having pain that get worse I can just hop off instead of wondering how I'm going to make it home without increasing pain.
I have been stopping after a mile and resting for a minute and my pace is quite slow, but I'm running again, which feels fantastic. I'm still doing all of my therapy, stretching, leg exercises, ice after running and wearing the Strassburg sock for at least half of a night. I can't stand the sock for longer periods.
I've also been lifting weights a lot, so in my mind I look like this snowman;

Under my belly fat I have ab muscles like this;

So I weighed myself two days ago and was pleased with the progress I had made. Then I checked my weight again this morning, 5lbs heavier! How is that possible in two days? I really look like the snowman above in the red cap.
I hope everyone has a great Christmas/Holiday season. Run, swim, bike, enjoy family.

Rochester Runner of the Year

Amazingly, five members of our gang finished in the top five places in our respective age groups, thereby winning Rochester Runner of the Year awards.

Our running/triathlon/snowshoe group, "Sals" (I've got an old mule and her name is Sal, fifteen miles on the Erie Canal) is doing well. I know the song is, "fifteen years", not miles, but miles fits us better. In years past our typical long run on the canal path was fifteen miles. Aging and injuries seems to have changed that. 

Jan finished third in her age group, Eileen fourth in her group, I finished third in my group, with Mike finishing fourth in the same group and Pete finished third in his group. Not a bad representation. Placing in the top 5 in an age group means you ran at least 4 of the 12 twelve series races and earned points in those races. You have to finish in the top 10 in your age group in a race to earn points. You can race in all 12 events, which range from a 1 mile race to a half-marathon, but only your top 6 races count. 

To me the series serves as another form of motivation to get out there and race, especially as I age, and to be as competitive as possible in each of the races. I can't control who shows up at each race, only my own effort. It's  normally best to run as many of the series races as you can to pick up points, but if you are fast, like EW and MW, you can sometimes get away with only running four of the series races. I typically need to run more of the RROY races to get a decent amount of points. With a few fast people moving up from a younger age group next year to my category I'm going to enjoy this year's accomplishment while I can.