It was pretty warm, but also very windy and raining. Oh well. I least I got to wear shorts.

I left Pepper at home, since he’s run the last two days and tends to hate being outside in anything that’s too cold, too hot, too windy or too wet.

The wind was pretty annoying, particularly for the roughly 6.5 consecutive miles I seemed to be running head on into it, but I still managed an easy 8:21/mile pace, finishing my 10.5-mile loop in just under an hour and 28 minutes.

I did some push-ups, invisible chair-sitting, barefoot exercises and stretching at home.

Tomorrow is my first of three 20-milers. The rain should have moved on by then, so it should be a better day for a run.

Tomorrow is also Clark’s 29th birthday. We’re having dinner at his parents’ house tomorrow night.

Sunday, I’ll take Pepper to the trail for a few miles, and then I don’t know what I’m doing the rest of the day. There’s no football and NASCAR doesn’t start for another month. Maybe we’ll do something exciting, like our taxes.

I decided to just let Pepper go as fast as he wanted today. I figured it would be too fast for a pace run, but that was fine with me, since I’d skipped out on that tempo run two days ago.

The first mile was slow, just under 8:00, as Pepper took several pee breaks and we got held up a little getting out of the way of a tractor and another car trying to get past each other on the road. The second mile was faster, but we were held up again by one of the neighbors’ dogs coming out of its yard to say hi to Pepper.

The last 2.5 miles were mostly distraction-free, and we were rolling at or under 7:00 miles. In the end, we ran 4.5 miles in 33 minutes on the dot, average pace of 7:20/mile.

At home, I gave Pepper a treat and did some stretching and foam rolling.

Lame blog post, but that’s all I’ve got.

As I did my warm up mile, I could tell attempting 45 minutes at a hard pace was only going to end in frustration. When I got to the point where I should have started running fast, I just kept up my easy pace.

I ran the 9.5-mile loop I would have done had I actually run the tempo run. I didn’t time it.

When I got home, I did some stretching.

I dilly dallied long enough that I decided to skip the weight training this morning and just do my run. I’ll do the weight training when I get home from work tonight. Probably.

It was cold, gray and wet outside, a real peach of a January Monday morning. I put Pepper in his jacket and harness, and we went out for a lap around the 4.5-mile loop.

About two and a half miles in, the rain came down a little harder, but otherwise it was a pretty routine run. I did some barefoot exercises and stretching at home.

This weekend’s weather was very much like today’s. Saturday morning, I woke up intending to run my 19-mile long run. But it was pouring outside, and my legs felt heavy after the two previous days’ hard runs. Nineteen miles in cold rain sounded like a prison sentence.

So I cut myself some slack. I decided to hold off on the long run until Sunday, when the rain was supposed to have moved on, and do my 3-mile trail run Saturday. I knew Pepper wouldn’t want to run in that rain even if it was on a trail, so I went by myself.

The run was OK. The trail was soaked, and my shoes and socks were waterlogged after the first quarter mile. I ran into one other person on the trail, an old guy out walking with his poodle. The poodle was not leashed and kept trying to run after me, and the old guy wasn’t doing much to try to stop it, which bugged me. I shook the poodle and finished the run.

At home, I did some yoga. Then I wasted a few hours watching crap TV. I finally got up the motivation to do something and cleaned the house and baked cookies and brownies for watching the football games at Dave and Kasey’s house the next day. That night, Clark went out to a bar with one of his friends, but I stayed home with Pepper, ate sushi and watched “Ghost Adventures.” I love that show.

Sunday morning, the rain was gone and with it had gone my excuses to hold off on the long run. I ate some breakfast and headed outside.

It was still gray and windy, and the temperature was just above freezing. The first mile was head-on into the wind, and I actually felt a little sorry for myself, as though I was being forced to do it. 

Then I made a turn onto another road and out of the wind, I realized my 19-mile run was already down to an 18-miler and I felt better. By the time I hit the 5-mile marker, I was feeling pretty good. I had my water bottle with me, and I took a salt cap every 45 minutes, and ate half of an Odwalla bar around the 6.5- and 13-mile points.

I finished the 14.5-mile loop and went in the house to get Pepper for the last 4.5. I got him into his coat and harness, but as soon as we got outside, he made it very clear he had no interest in running. I ran him back to the house, dropped him off, got my iPod back and took off to finish the run on my own.

That last loop flew by. I felt really good through the whole thing, and even sped up to 8:00 miles for the last couple. Two weeks ago, I felt like total crap at the 13-mile point of a 17-miler, and had to walk much of the last four miles. Yesterday, I was cruising when I hit 17 miles.

I finished the second loop and checked my time — two hours and 44 minutes for 19 miles, average pace of 8:37/mile. I felt invincible as I walked a short cool down back to the house. I felt like I’d just started, and I almost wanted to run some more. I love runs like that.

I took a shower and headed over to Dave and Kasey’s house. We watched the Ravens lose to the Patriots and the Giants beat the 49ers. At one point in the 49ers-Giants game, Clark told me to pick a word, and we would have to take a drink every time the announcers said that word. I picked “down.” I think we both finished off two beers before the commercial break. Every other word was down — third down, down by seven points, going for a touchdown.

I crashed as soon as we got home. And then this morning came.

I took Pepper with me for a trip around the ol’ 9.5-mile loop. It was a beautiful morning for a run, clear, cold and just a little breeze, nothing annoying.

As usual, the first mile was pretty slow, this time mostly due to a lot of traffic on Woodpecker Road for whatever reason. We passed the utility pole that marks the first mile in 8:20, 35 seconds off goal pace.

Pepper seems to naturally run progression runs though. The closer we get to home, the faster he wants to get there. He always knows which road will get us there quickest, and I always have to yank him back on track if I’m not planning on going that way.

By three miles in, we were averaging 8:00 miles. We were getting closer and closer to a 7:45/mile average as we passed the four- and five-mile marks. Beyond five miles on that route, I’m not really that sure where the mile markers would be, so we just kept running until we finished the loop.

In the end, we ran 9.5 miles in 1:12:45, average overall pace of 7:40/mile.

Those runs with Pepper are the only time I wished I had a Garmin that would measure out miles and record each one’s split for me. I would love to see just how fast we were going those last few miles, compared to the first few, to get the average down to that.

At home, I gave Pepper a treat, did some push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and barefoot exercises and finished up with stretching.

Tomorrow, I’m running a 19-mile long run. I think I’ll do the 14.5-mile loop on my own and get Pepper for the last 4.5.

Sunday, I’ll take Pepper to the trail for a few easy miles. In the afternoon, we’re going to Dave and Kasey’s house to watch the Ravens-Patriots game. The Ravens are definitely the underdogs going into this one, but it’s not impossible. Stranger things have already happened this post season.

I decided on my 9.5-mile loop. I did a mile easy to warm up, and then set off on the tempo run with a goal pace of 7:16/mile.

I felt really good today and, with no wind slowing me down, sailed through just over 6.2 miles in 45 minutes, average pace of 7:12/mile.

I did a five-minute recovery jog and then ran as many 30-second sprints as I could before I got to the point in the loop where I’d have a half-mile left, which wound up being seven sprints. I then ran that last half-mile home slowly to cool down.

In all, I ran my 9.5-mile loop in about an hour and 13 minutes, average overall pace of 7:41/mile. I did some stretching at home to finish up.

Anyway, the Shamrock Marathon is exactly two months from today, so training continues, and so does this blog.

This morning, I did some push-ups, ab exercises, invisible chair-sitting and weight lifting upstairs, and then Pepper and I went out for a lap around the 4.5-mile loop.

The wind had died a little since last night, when it was blowing so hard it was keeping me up. There’s a cover over the crawlspace, under one of our bedroom windows, and when the wind blows the right way, the cover bangs against the opening. It was banging around like crazy much of last night. I hate running in wind, so I was lying there in bed dreading my run later.

But luckily, we seemed to have gotten a bit of a reprieve this morning. Though it was still pretty breezy, there were never any gusts that stopped me or Pepper in our tracks. We finished the run, and at home, I did some barefoot exercises and stretching.

Yesterday, I got a little post-race program from the Steamtown Marathon in the mail. It had the newspaper articles on the men’s and women’s winners, testimonials from runners who’d emailed the race director after the race, pictures of runners finishing and hanging out near the finish area and a complete listing of all 1,869 official finishers. That’s the first time I’ve gotten something like that. It was a nice touch. Clark called it my yearbook, haha.

Usually, I ride my bike out to my “hill,” the Sharptown Bridge, but winter is in full swing now. This morning was particularly nasty — chilly (though quite a bit warmer than yesterday), windy and pouring its ass off. I couldn’t imagine riding a bike 10 miles round trip with that shit blowing in my face, so I wimped out and drove my car.

There’s a nice little pull-off area just before the bridge, so I was able to park my car well off the road and  out of everyone’s way. I stepped out of my warm, dry car into the downpour and set off for a warm up mile.

There’s a shoulder on that road, but it’s only about a foot and a half wide. I think that road’s been resurfaced about 12 times, because the asphalt is layered on top of itself, like a stack of pancakes. It’s a very steep drop down to the soggy grass off the edge of the tiny shoulder.

I tell you this because you’re probably going to wonder why I didn’t get out of the way of the giant wall of water that washed over me at 50+ mph the first time an 18-wheeler drove by. I saw it coming and heard a car coming up from behind me in the other lane, realizing the 18-wheeler wasn’t going to be able to give me any extra room. I actually held my breath when it passed by, like I was diving under a wave in the ocean.

I laughed after it had passed, just picturing how absurd I looked, running down the road on a rainy day in my tights and dayglo green shirt while an 18-wheeler coated me with road spray.

Now that I was thoroughly soaked, I could just get on with my workout, so I did. I finished the warm up mile and ran up and over the bridge six times. I got blasted by 18-wheelers’ road spray several more times, and once, it whipped my hat right off my head. I laughed at that one too, because there was a car stopped at an intersection right there, and I’m sure the driver saw the whole thing and muttered something about how stupid I was to be out there in the first place.

After the final repeat, I ran one last mile to cool down, for a total of 5.3 miles today. Then I put a towel on my driver’s seat and drove home. I was really happy to not have to ride my bike home after that.

When I got home, I dragged Pepper out of the house and didn’t let him back inside until he’d used the bathroom. Yesterday, he’d refused to go out because it was so cold, and when I came home from work, not surprisingly, there was dog poop all over the utility room. This morning, he again refused to go out, this time because it was raining. I was already soaked after my run, so I didn’t care if I had to stand out there with him for a half hour, he was going to poop outside like he should.

He looked completely pitiful as he followed me to the field behind the back yard, like I was horrible for forcing him outside in that weather, but we were out there less than a minute before he took a dump like a good dog and we could go back inside. Obviously, he really had to go, and obviously, he was just going to wait until I left for work so he could do it in the house again. Jerk.

This morning, I got up at 5:30 a.m., ate breakfast and headed upstairs for strength training. It might have been the coldest morning yet up there. I did my push-ups, ab exercises, invisible chair-sitting and weight lifting as quickly as possible. Clark was still home, so Pepper didn’t have to come upstairs with me, which worked out much better than if he had, I’m sure.

It was just after 6:30 when I came back downstairs. We don’t keep the heat up very high at home to save money, but the difference between the uninsulated upstairs room and the heated living room was pretty amazing. It felt like it was about 85 degrees downstairs to me.

I fed Pepper and tried to let him outside to do his business, but he didn’t want to go. It was too cold for his dainty little paws, I guess. I left him home to do my easy 4.5-mile run alone.

Thankfully, it was a perfectly calm morning, after all the wind we’ve had here the last few days, but it was bitingly cold. The only exposed skin on me was my face, and it felt like my cheeks were going to crack right off my skull the whole run. I never really warmed up.

But it was a very pretty morning. I left right as the sun was starting to come up. As much as I hate cold weather, I can appreciate how pretty the first light in the sky looks, glinting off a frost-coated barren field. If only I could have felt my face, it would have been even prettier.

By the time I finished the run, the sun was pretty much up. I took a hot shower and got to work so I could cover a mock freedom march in Denton, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I nearly froze to death for the second time today. It was close.

Saturday morning, I did this week’s long run, a lap around my 14.5-mile route. It went a thousand times better than last week’s long run. I felt great when I finished it, unlike at 14.5 miles a week earlier, when I was shuffle-walking because I was so hungry. It was cold and breezy though, and I hadn’t even broken a sweat when I got home.

That afternoon, my friend Julie and I had lunch, jumped Clark’s truck’s battery at the Harley shop (where he had just bought a 2011 Sportster) and went to Wheaton’s, where you can make your own 24-pack of K-Cups from more than 100 varieties they keep in stock. I got one of pretty much every flavored coffee, as well as a hot chocolate and a few flavored cappuccino varieties. Clark and I spent the evening watching the 49ers-Saints game and the first half of the Broncos-Patriots game.

Sunday, I took Pepper to the trail for three rather chilly miles. At home I did some yoga. Then Clark and I went over to Dave’s house to watch the Ravens-Texans game.

In the middle of the game, completely out of the blue, Dave announced he has joined the Preston Gym and he is going to start running outside this spring and summer. The main point is just to get back in shape, but he said he’s also going to run the Rock’n'Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon on Labor Day weekend!

I am really excited he’s decided to run it! I’ve already registered this morning, using the $15 discount code I got in an email last week. I’m going to be pretty ticked off if he backs out, haha.

Anyway, the Ravens held off the Texans to go on to the AFC championship game against the Patriots next week. The 49ers and Giants will play for the NFC championship, and the winner of each will go on to the Super Bowl on Feb. 5. I would really like to see an all-Harbaugh Super Bowl.