First things first: Happy Birthday to Michelle! I haven't run yet this morning because a) it's 4 degrees outside, and 2) it's my third son's 13th birthday and I had to prepare a birthday breakfast for him. I'm just going to do some work now in the wee hours of the cold dark morning, and then run later, after the kids have gone to school. **Addendum** 8:52 am, 7-10°F, 64% humidity, winds calm. I was going to go to work and run on the treadmill after I got all the kids off to school, but when I took my daughter to the bus stop, I realized that we had blue skies and sunshine. I was in kind of a bad mood and I decided that sunshine and fresh air, even if it was very cold, would do more to improve my mood than fluorescent lights and heated air in the fitness center would. So I covered myself in smartwool and strapped on my yaktrax and headed out the door. I had 10 miles on my schedule, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go more than 6 in this weather. I have a 6-mile route and a 10-mile route that share a little more that the first 3 miles. So I ran those 3+ miles and then got to a corner and had to decide whether to turn and do the 6-mile route or go straight and do the 10-mile route. I was feeling relatively comfortable, so I went straight. Some of the sidewalks had been plowed with varying levels of success and some hadn't, but the yaktrax were fine in all cases. I did hit one slipper spot where there must have been a sheet of ice under the snow, but had good traction other than that. I surprised myself a little by running slightly faster than I ran this same route on Tuesday (9:35 average pace vs 9:46 average pace). AP: 9:35. Splits: 9:55, 9:42, 9:41, 9:26, 9:50, 9:37, 9:09, 9:22, 9:34, 9:38.
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