Last week!

This is the last week of TRY for the year.  This run is really to enjoy the lights and spend one last night as a group!  We will run at a comfortable pace for everyone...no speed at this one!  We will meet at 5pm.  I hope to see everyone one last time for the year.

Now we are moving into the winter months, and do your best to keep up your running through the winter.  The one thing we have found that improves running is consistency.  If you can keep your mileage up through the winter, you will have a much better fitness base for the spring and summer races.  Aaron and I spent last winter running during lunch at work.  We both had a great season, and I believe our winter base really put us in an excellent position for the year.

There are plenty of motivating opportunities in Syracuse to run through the winter.  There are races in the area (Turkey Trot, Jingle Bell Run, Reindeer Run, etc).  Fleet feet has the Dusk Runs now (http://www.fleetfeetsyracuse.com/training/dusk-runs) and Cold Feet Training Runs (http://www.fleetfeetsyracuse.com/training/cold-feet-training-runs) later in the year.  There are also plenty of running or triathlon clubs in the area to join if that is your thing (CNY Tri, Lake Effect Running Club, Syracuse Chargers, Syracuse Track Club).

Keep an eye open for Terry to organize a cross country skiing event when we get enough snow!

Here is where Terry adds to my post...I'm not sure why he isn't just writing these things ;-)

2 Weeks Left and Fast Women Have the Best Times

We are nearing the end of the TRY year. We only have 2 weeks left. Wow, this year has gone by fast! We hope to see everyone for the last couple of times for the year :)

This week I recommend doing a 4 mile tempo. That would be a 1 mile warmup, 2 mile at a faster pace, and a 1 mile cool down.

Next week is Lights on the Lake for the final TRY run. Check back next week for details!

[Terry felt like spicing this one up a little...read on]

Next weeks detailed plans:

MONDAY night - a walk under Lights on the Lake. Meeting at the normal Wegman's playground end of the park at 6. Walking from 6 - 7:30ish. Then going to Bankgkok Thai Restaurant for dinner starting at 8. Since I'm hoping for a decent turn out for dinner (It'll be Ivy's first time!) please let me know if you plan to join in as I may warn them and make a pseudo reservation. The point is to walk under the lights but if you can only join in for dinner - or can't make it at 6 and want to run us down under the lights, I'm flexible.

TUESDAY night - a group five mile jog under the lights on the lake. Meeting at normal TRY time at 5 next to the bike rental building and then jogging til 6:15ish? (Lots of people to dodge along the way.)

Note that it is free but they do recommend a $2 donation. If you are like me and haven't donated to the park in a while, this is a great time to give extra money to the park that gives so much back with all the exercising it allows us to do!

I was rather shocked this weekend to stumble across and interesting and insightful article on female marathon running on Grantland.com (which is an offshoot of ESPN.com). Here is the grand finale:

"...women running fair and square in a race from which their own mothers were expressly banned. Less than half a century ago, coverage of the sport in major magazines included descriptions of "fragrant hair" — imagine how they'd react to this new kickass generation of fast and feisty ladies."

It goes into some of the history of women's distance running, Syracuse University gets mentioned, there is a fun sidebar on why the former world record has been disallowed and also on the side there is a link to an article from Running Times that goes into the difference in gender based time standards.

Since we've had a glut of marathon finishers in TRY this fall (and all but one have been women), I thought it was a very timely analysis of the Boston Marathon qualifying time schemes. The articles are probably more interesting to women then men, but we all can get something out of them.