Merry Christmas!

About a year ago I happened to catch a Christmas special on TV called "Christmas in Washington". There were a bunch of artists performing, none of which I can remember except one. The band Casting Crowns performed their version of a very popular Christmas carol called "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". It's a very powerful song by itself and is one of my favorites. Then I began to hear and read about the story behind the carol. It was originally written as a poem during the Civil War by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("Christmas Bells").
The story behind the story is told by Edward K Herrmann and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra below. Being somewhat of a Civil War buff I find the history fascinating. This incredibly moving rendition of what inspired Longfellow to write the words to his now famous Christmas carol is worth watching.

Now take 13 minutes and 18 seconds out of your day and watch the following 2 videos!

And here's the modern version of carol performed live by Casting Crowns. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

800's

Week 3 at indoor track had us doing 6 x 800's with 400 rest. It was good to see a few more brave souls move up to Group 1 (the so-called fast group). I can't imagine I intimidate anyone with my speed, so I'm guessing people didn't think they were fast enough and couldn't keep up Well, just because I'm running 80s quarters doesn't mean you have to. It's a workout, not a race. Run your pace, not mine. Lots of runners make this mistake in workouts and run too fast, run inconsistent laps or continually slow throughout the workout (or all 3). Part of a good workout is self-discipline, running at a consistent pace regardless of what's going on around you. It is HARD to run at your pace when you see folks just a little faster in front of you. Everyone wants to run faster so it's easy to get sucked into a faster runners pace. Resist the temptation of racing your workout. I promise we'll wait for you and regroup during the recovery lap. Ok, I'm stepping down off my soapbox.

To date I've been pleased with my workouts, consistently running faster than last year during the same workout. More importantly (at least to me), I've been running consistent laps, running each of the two 400m segments at almost identical times.
I hope this translates into some new PR's for 2010!

		2008	2009
800		2:54	2:49
800		2:55	2:46
800		2:49	2:45
800		2:50	2:40
800		2:45	2:40
800		2:45	2:40

The first snowshoe race of my season is this Sunday in Woodford,VT. Sounds like they have plenty of snow (12+" on the ground). Looking forward to racing again.