Still alive and kickin'

It has been far too long since I've posted, my friends. Things are good and lots has been happening. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of winter and finding motivation to do things has been a challenge to say the least. It's a good time for me to do things I put off during the busy summer months- especially since most of it was spent training for a marathon.

Alas, I've been busy with life. Things at the office have been ridiculously hectic as of late, sometimes juggling up to three projects at a time. I'm not complaining at all, and thank god that I am as busy as I am in these tough times. We're in the early stages of planning a major email system upgrade which will take me into the new year.

I've been picking up the guitar quite a bit lately, and at times practicing with a dear friend of mine who is just learning to play. She wants to be a rock star, and doing a fine job at it if I may say :) Honestly, it's a passion of mine to write music, but my ability to do that has lay dormant for a long time and I'm constantly searching for the spark to get the pen moving again. I suppose dusting off the old Gibson Les Paul is a good start.

As for the running? It's become such a part of my lifestyle now that I can't imagine myself NOT running. I'm still training for the Melbourne and Beaches Half Marathon in Florida this coming February, and have a 13 mile run planned for this Saturday. For whatever reason, I found it particularly hard to get motivated to run last week. The winter here in the Chicago area has been brutal, and it isn't even OFFICIALLY winter yet!

It has snowed on my scheduled run days, and I have not felt comfortable running on the snowy roads. It hasn't helped that the area communities are being stingy with their salt reserves and only plowing the major roads. I've kept from going completely insane running on the treadmill by throwing in some speed and hill workouts, sometimes raising the incline 6 to 8 ticks at a time!

I've been feeling incredibly strong during my runs- more than I've ever felt before. I've started my strength workouts this week, which can only make me stronger leading into 2009, I hope.

As I mentioned before, I'll be doing my longest training run yet since October this Saturday at 13 miles. I keep having to remember what I need to prepare for a big run such as this one!

I have a feeling I'm going to love it.

Until next time!