Coffee, coffee, coffee.....

It is my friend indeed. I am waiting for the pot of coffee to brew, then it's time for a nice cup of joe and maybe a little bit of plain bagel. Then, I suppose, I won't delay the inevitable 18 or 19 miles through the Colorado Riverfront trail and Connected Lakes area.

The big lake on my route, on a section of gravel trail (or the "inner loop" section, as label it on my runs) was covered with a beautiful layer of snow last Saturday, and was just as quiet and free of noise pollution as could be, even though it's not really all that far from roads and civilization. Just thinking about getting two miles in, and running around the lake, are enough to motivate me to get out there. It's another cold but very sunny day already-just the best for winter runs around these parts.

Then it's time for much thought and pondering about how to finish this marathon training cycle. I got my new second edition of Advanced Marathoning, and there were actually a number of changes, one of which was the inclusion of four marathon pace runs. I've already missed the first one on the new schedule at this point and I'm just not sure how crucial and important it would be for me to add another pace run to the existing schedule. I have to say that I was a little cranky and irritable yesterday for various reasons, so a nice three hour run sounds like the perfect cure to purge the negative.

After the run, I've got a big day of back-and-forth between home and the dance studio, for various classes the kids are taking, plus rehearsals for the year end ballet in which my 9- and 6-year-old daughters have parts. I've been hemming and hawing (and getting an earful from the others in the adult ballet class) over playing a pirate in the show (Peter Pan), so who knows...I may suck it up and sit in for the pirate rehearsal as well. ARRRRRRRRRRRRR!