Winter Running- "The weather is here, wish you were beautiful"

Winter is traditionaly my favorite time of the year to run in the south. The leaves are changing, the kids are at this point really settled into their school routines, and best of all the temperatures are generally fantastic for running. My favorite is when the weather is in the 50's. Not cold, but not so hot that you have worry about finding the next quick-mart to jump in and buy water every few miles.

I spend many of my weekends logging miles on the Chattahoochee River. I ran the hooch on a recent Saturday. I saw a deer, rabbit, ducks, a dead racoon, a man fishing in 40 degree water in waiters and at least over 2 dozen dogs. I know that running in the south is much differant than friends of mine who train in the Northeast and Northwest. However, no apologies here. It's one of the greatest things about living in Atlanta. Four seasons, great sports, great running city, and lots of support if you want it.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas mixed into the equation, it's also the time of year when many people start setting their sights on New Years and keeping the weight off. Therefore there seeem to be more active people out on the roads trying to stay healthy. It's very differant than the 90+ degree heat that you normally train at during the summers in Atlanta. This year training actually took a unique turn for me after the Chicago Marathon. My recovery was very quick and I was back running within five days after the race. I felt so good that I threw my name in the ring for the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving. After getting through that I just kind of worked on general fitness for the rest of the year. A pleasant change after having spent two solid years of training for one event after another without a break.

The great positives about running this time of the year are the weather, the number of great local races to enter, and the ability to try out all of that wicked cool training gear you've accumilated during the year that you've stored away in some drawer because it's been to warm to pull it out. For very differant reasons than how the lyrics were originally intended to be perceived, I always keep the song "The weather is hear, I wish you were beautiful" by Jimmy Buffett in my running mix this time of the year. The weather is so great and if I want to keep the weight off during all of the eating that surrounds two big holidays I better keep my legs moving. Welcome to my twisted mind.

Now that New Years is upon us and training for another marathon has officially kicked in I remain thankful that the thought of another winter awaits ahead of me. As training gets harder and the temperatures rise the cooling feeling your mind gets with knowing that there a great training runs ahead but knowing that you have to pay a price to get there keeps you going.

Enjoy your winter!