Another cold day in January on Long Island, therefore another day at the gym on the treadmill. Thank goodness for the Australian Open, my major distraction which allowed me to do 5 miles. Four to five miles on the treadmill is now my new standard. How sweet – incremental distance increases for incremental weight loss to contribute to better performance and speed.

I have made plans to go down to Florida over President’s Week. I arrive on Saturday night, Feb. 16th. This means I am unable to make the A1A Half Marathon Expo for the race on Feb. 17th. The race starts at 6:00 AM – so the good news is I don’t have to get up at 4:30 AM to make it to the start on time. I’m a little bummed, though – I was so up for an event while in Florida. Looking around for alternatives, the pickings in South Florida are pretty anemic! I will just have to train solo, as usual. I am really surprised at how little Florida running clubs have to offer in terms of races.