Week 9 - Week of December 27th

I should've ran on the morning of December 26th!  We had a great time with family visiting from New Hampshire for Christmas.  They arrived on December 24th, we went to midnight mass, then opened presents on Christmas morning.  There was a lot of food and wine, as well as XBOX Kinect!  Also, we kept on talking about going to Jollibee in Queens (it's a Filipino restaurant popular in the Philippines).  We decided to go on December 26th despite the incoming blizzard!  We left as the first snow began to fall.  By the time we got to Jollibee, snow was falling sideways!  We enjoyed the delicious food and I indulged in their famous fried chicken...skin and all!  We all left with more food for later and carefully drove dack to NJ!  The entire trip took us about eight hours!  The blizzard dumped about two feet of snow when it was over the next day.  After shoveling for the second time on the 27th, I wanted to go to Retro Fitness to run.  I waited until the So Family left and drove out to the gym later that afternoon.  Guess what?  The gym was closed and the parking lot wasn't even cleared!  Even the roads going to and from the gym weren't that cleared!  I was so upset, but I should've called ahead of time!  I couldn't even run outdoors because the streets were even worse and the park was closed.  I tried to think positive saying that the shoveling of snow was my exercise.  I even tried running in place during a football game!  I lost a total of four days of no running!  Ugh!

Week 9 - All runs at John A. Phillips Park, unless otherwise noted.

Dec 29 - Retro Fitness.  Easy run.  Roads still not too clear and the park is closed (paths not plowed at all)!  Felt flat after not running for four days.
Miles = 5
Weight After Run = 148 (not bad after not running for four days and eating all the Christmas food!)
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange)

Dec 31 - Retro Fitness.  Easy Progression Run.  Roads still not too clear and park still closed and not plowed.  Drank my last soda at dinner!  No more soda until after Boston!
Miles = 7
Weight After Run = 148
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange)

Jan 1 - Happy New Year!  Retro Fitness.  Long Sustained/Progression Run.  Ran 8-miles in the first hour (7:30 p/mi ave), then 9.15 miles in the second hour (6:29 p/mi ave).  Felt great taking in GU gels every half hour with water.
Miles 17.25 in 2h 00m 00s (6:58 p/mi ave)
Weight After Run = 146
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange)

TOTAL MILEAGE = 29.25