Cold Weather + Short Days = Boo

Well, it's that time of year again.  Holiday madness begins, the weather turns colder, sunlight is more and more scarce..... All of these things have one thing in common: they are NO GOOD for runners (well maybe not all runners... but Mr. Marathon and I don't like it).  Our training is taking a hiatus of sorts as we recover from all of our running in the past few months, and as we now regroup and rethink our training schedules for our upcoming goals.  The fact that Mr. Marathon has been getting out of work so late recently and that I have been working so hard finishing up my semester have also put a kink in our running.  By the time we both get home and ready to run, it's dark.  And not only is it dark, but it's cold.  Yuck.  Now, we're not trying to make excuses.  But we definitely need a new plan of attack for the holiday season.  I will be finishing with all my school stuff which will leave me with plenty of free time (until I find a job, anyway!) which in return will leave me with plenty of running time!  YAY!  But Mr. Marathon is still in a bind.  Any daylight he sees, he's either heading in to work or stepping outside on a quick break.  But hopefully he will be able to take advantage of some valuable running time in the next couple of months before his races start back up.

Oh, and we almost forgot.  Not really; we were trying to avoid it on purpose.  Anyway, there's no avoiding it any longer.... let's take a peak at last month's mileage numbers.  Yikes.  Fortunately we didn't set any goals....
Mrs. Marathon: 27.27 miles
Mr. Marathon 54.5 miles

Shameful, we know.  But no excuses.  We slacked off and took our little break, but seeing as my half-marathon is quickly approaching (81 days!) I need to kick it into gear.  I have two 5K's coming up that I would like to do, so maybe that'll give me the kick in the rear that I need.  And Mr. Marathon has the Martinsville Half Marathon (but so does Mrs. Marathon.... maybe....) in March that he has high expectations set for (1:29:59 or faster... he can do it!).  And he also has his fourth annual Blue Ridge Marathon (America's Toughest Road Marathon!) in April 2013 (goal: 3:59:59 or faster).

So for the month of December I have a few goals set.  Like I mentioned, I have two 5K's that I would like to try and run, and I also want to try to take a couple of good, long runs (10+ miles) to help me prepare to go the distance at Disney.  These goals are all weather-permitting, however.  So we'll see how it goes.  Hopefully we'll work out a better training plan, as well.  And hopefully we'll remember to post how things are going!