Strong Start

After battling a minor back injury late in January, I was off to a pretty strong start in February.  I went out for a nice 4.35 mile run on Sunday before the big game and felt great.  I haven't felt that good on an outdoor run in quite a while.  No headphones, just some snow flurries and a neighbor out walking were all I really encountered.  Strength training is going well and I'm logging plenty of miles with my dogs as well.  My time on the bike seems to be helping as well.  I've made more of a conscious effort to log bike miles during the week and that is going well for me.  The nice part is my kids enjoy being in the basement while I'm on the stationary bike and my oldest daughter has been asking to get outside for a bike ride.  My goal was to run at some point today, but I think I'm going to reserve myself to the bike tonight.  I tweaked my back just a bit carrying my oldest daughter up to bed last night and my gut tells me to just leave the pounding of the road alone tonight and stick to the bike.  I will plan for a longer run tomorrow once i see how my back feels in the morning.  My first half marathon of 2013 is less than 6 weeks away and I don't want to risk aggravating an injury if I don't have to.  I've decided on a May half marathon, and I think I might do 2 in October along with a 10K.  Not sure if all that running in the fall is wise, but I think I'm going to give it a whirl!

Girls are doing great.  Saturday we went swimming at the pool at the YWCA, and then to the Hershey Bears hockey game.  My oldest daughter no longer wants to go to the hockey game.  She didn't like the boys punching each other!  Then once Hershey finally scored in the 3rd period, the horn scared her, and that pretty much sealed the deal for hockey.  Happily baseball season is right around the corner and both daughters enjoy the Harrisburg Senators games(although I really think they enjoy the family area with the bounce houses, not so much the baseball).  My youngest daughter didn't seem to have too much trouble with the fighting or the noise at the hockey game. but was definitely more focused on finding the mascot than watching hockey.  Sunday we were at church and my daughters helped with the offering and were very well behaved during the service.  As for football Sunday night, they had no interest and were upset we couldn't watch cartoons before bedtime.  Other than that, they are doing great!

I have two funerals to help provide military honors with, one Friday and one Saturday.  Friday will be a mess standing graveside in the snow/sleet/freezing rain and Saturday will be miserable in the wind and cold.  Oh well, we will get through it. 

Have a great evening!