Eyes front, chin up, elbows in, headphones on

I missed a couple of days on the treadmill (don't plan to obsess over this, but I also don't intend to skip a lot of days), and it showed on the scale. All this at the time I should be adding miles in the train-up to the mid-March half marathon.

So, this afternoon I tried something a little different. I climbed on the treadmill, and set it for my typical three 10-minute miles with warmup and cool down. Then, as it started rolling, I covered the treadmill's readout, and took off my specs for extra measure, so I couldn't check progress. I put the mp3 player on shuffle and jogged away. I stopped counting songs after seven (that's when I peeked at the display and saw that the three miles was more than half gone). Then I just decided to run until the belt stopped, which it did at the end of 34 minutes, partway through Planeta Sukri by Sara Tavares. I cranked it up to speed again, to see how many more songs I had in me. After another mile (Ship of Fools by Grateful Dead, and part of Tu Recuerdo Y Yo by Lila Downs), I cranked the belt down for a two-minute cooling walk.

By looking straight ahead (mostly), and being mindful of my stride length, my arm motion and respiration rate, and most of all, listening closely to each song, I paid a lot less attention to fatigue and the countdown clock.

OK, so that's what I'll do on everyday runs whenever time permits: cover the odometer, go as far past 3 miles as time and temperament allow, then run an increasingly longer distance each weekend, according to our training calendar.

The Countdown to Tom King 1/2 Marathon March 13

Days until TK	Miles logged today	Comments
62	4	treadmill - with tunes!

What's the best time of day to run?

I've just finished three miles on the treadmill, but I didn't manage to begin until hours later than planned. I was up and dressed in running togs by 8:00 am, QMH and Kid Kate were stirring (two of us work at home and one is on winter break from college), and the run got shoved back, then back again.

Over the next month, I'll be trying to work the daily run back to the very top of my day, for at least two good reasons: one, it'll be finished before the demands of work and family begin impinging, and two, because an early dose of endorphins is a good, good thing.

At different stages of our running career, QMH and I have kept different regimens. When we first arrived in the Nashville area, 25 years back, she worked at a Music Row law office, and we ran after office hours, six miles every other day. More recently, when I was working in an office, I had my run well-cemented into the earliest hour of the day.

The training calendar for the Tom King calls for short weekday runs and weekend runs of increasing length. If I can get the weekday ones back to the crack of dawn, the weekend ones (which will be at whatever pace QMH desires) we can do later in the day without disruption.

What's your preferred time of day to run -- morning, noon or night? Whatever your intentions, NOW is a better time to run than NOT NOW, so

Lace up and go!

The Countdown to Tom King 1/2 Marathon March 13

Days until TK	Miles logged today	Comments
66	3	late morning - let's try it earlier tomorrow

Counting down . . .

Back in Tennessee, with frigid weather and snow in the weather predictions for the week, so it looks as if I'll be on the treadmill rather than the road for the next few days.

For this serious slow runner, the big annual milepost is the Tom King Classic 1/2 Marathon, which runs in Nashville on the second Saturday of March. My sort-of-daily casual jogging routine becomes a training regimen around Thanksgiving, which is to say that I get more or less serious around New Year's, and begin panicking around February.

Thus, The Countdown:

The Countdown to Tom King 1/2 Marathon March 13

Days until TK	Miles logged today	Comments
68	3	treadmill

I hope to offer a training, technique or motivational tip every time I post, beginning here.

Have you heard the saying that the hardest steps of any run are the ones from the couch to the front door? If, like me, you find it hard to get up and get going, take inspiration from the story of Jeff Clark, an over-the-road truck driver -- and runner -- as told in this article from the Runner's World site.

Now, lace up and go!

The Mammal in Winter

On a holiday visit with NJ family, we grab what time we can to run, but weather and holiday circumstance are always in the way. Today is the third very cold day in a row, and also the third without a run. It's been too icy, or too bitter cold and windy since Wednesday. QMH is down with a stomach ailment, and I'm losing the battle with my appetite.

For several years now, I have noticed my winter-time urge to eat more, especially more sweet and fatty foods. Peanut butter sandwich? Yes, please! Have some cookies? You bet! Why bother putting away that little bit of leftover spaghetti? It'll just be another dish to wash later!

I joke that, being a mammal, I must obey the biological imperative to add an extra layer of fat for the cold months. Kid Kate says it's just an excuse to indulge myself.

Dr. Michael Smolensky, who studies chronobiology at University of Texas Houston, says, “Adults typically consume 6 to 7 per cent more calories in the winter,”  in a London Times Online article headlined Are we hardwired to feel hungry in winter and put on weight?

A piece by Donna Watmough at Suite101.com discusses Why we eat more in Autumn and Winter and how not to, explaining that the appetite spike could be linked to a shorter-days deficiency in Vitamin D. The article goes on to suggest increasing exercise, eating smaller amounts more frequently, and getting more Vitamin D either from more sun exposure or dietary supplements.

I know I won't be able to get back to running before Monday, because tomorrow we drive back home, and I hope I can keep from overeating until then.

Do you find yourself packing in more food and packing on the pounds in colder weather? What do you do about it?

Leave a comment and let me know!