Finally! Winter!

And of course, that would be my first long-run of the training season...

We have had very unseasonably warm weather here in NC.  It's been AWESOME.  But today, my first run of the training season, was a chilly one.  27 degrees!  Where did that come from??!!

Alisha and I are officially training for our 2nd half-marathon.  March 18th in Wrightsville Beach.  I'm pretty pumped about it.  Should be a bigger race, and much more scenic than lovely jacksonville was.  Also, not quite so many marines.  Probably a few more penguins like us.

Also, it's the day after St. Patrick's Day.  This is good because we can hang with our friends for the holiday (we'll go to bed early and bunk at our friend's house who is running the race too) and then alll of our buddies can haul their hungover butts to the finish line to cheer us on, lead of course, by U-S Husband and Alisha's beau, Rob. 

But, given that it's (eep) exactly 3 months away, we've got some training to do.  We go up from the 4-miler we did today by half a mile each week.  We're hoping to take a yoga class on the days after the long run to limber up. Two 3-4 mile runs a week, some strength training, and spin class on Sundays will round it out.  It will probably be intense, but I feel good about the cross and strength training element which we more or less left out before.

Our goal is to finish stronger than the last one, but hopefully in under 3 hours.  Seems totally do-able - especially because we've done it before.

Any whoo...

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!  I'm spending most of my time eating sweet treats... ugh.  (also YUM!)  I'm participating in a running blog gift swap again this year - While I'm a bit late, I picked out some AWESOME stuff for my buddy.  Fun!

So, dear readers, what races are you gearing up for in 2012?  Anything new and exciting for you?

Sarah