It's been a busy month, thus the lack of posting... that's my excuse anyway. My lack of posting of course would not have anything to do with my lack of running or doodling would it? No!

At first not having a specific race to train for or group to run with was uncomfortable and I was a bit whiny about it. I had gotten used to always having both. My enthusiasm suffered for about a month or so. But then something interesting happened... I continued to run on my own, when I could, about 3 times a week, with no real goals, sometimes without even wearing a watch, and usually only going between 3-6 miles, just the way I used to before I joined any groups or had any goals, and it started feeling good again. I actually feel stronger than before - I think the biking has been helping a lot.

So, I'm ready to step up the running again. I just signed up for the Atlanta Half Marathon training group - although I've already missed their first run and will miss their second as well. Off to a great start!

It will be good to have the discipline of a group again and meet other runners who are all training for the same race. Another nice thing will be that I don't have to pull out an excel sheet to figure out a training schedule - all the thinking will be done for me. Hopefully this group may carry over into training for the Georgia Marathon in March.

Within 5 minutes of signing up for that, I found that there is a 10K this Saturday that starts and ends a block away from my condo. How can I pass up running a 10K on my home turf? Although it's a 5k double loop, not my favorite kind of 10K, but whatever...