Tonight’s run felt good. 4 strong miles at a strong, confident pace.

I had taken a few days off — did a long-ish run on Saturday morning (7.2 miles) before Tony and I left for our day trip to Montreal. Then, no running until today, so that was a three day break.

Still, I felt like I got enough good exercise.

In Montreal, we were there for the Nuit Blanche and we walked around going to events and bars until 5 a.m. I’m going to guess it was about 3 miles worth of walking. We met up with some of our good good friends from high school & college (and some of their friends) and it was so good to see them.

I took off Sunday for the drive back.

Monday, I made up our long absence to the dogs with a 40-minute walk. It was snowing, and the streets in our neighborhood hadn’t been plowed. It was a lot of work. Mostly for them because they have stumpy little legs.

It also snowed all day on Monday, so I shoveled the driveway three times. Yuck! I’m ready for winter to be over, please.

Monday night, we went to see Girl Talk at the State Theater. The show was sold out, and there was an amazing energy. So many lights! So much dancing!

Even though I tried to be good, I’ve not been eating as well as I could be this week, in addition to skimping on my mileage. I saw a disturbing number when I stepped on the scale Monday morning, and I felt … I dunno, flubby … sitting in my desk chair all day today. Walking and shoveling are good exercise, but not a good long term substitution for running. I know that I didn’t gain back three pounds in a night of drinking, but I’m ready to atone for my sins and try to end this week with 25 miles.

I finished February with 78 miles. 22 miles short of my goal of 100 — that’s more miles than I even ran last week. But that’s OK. I know I’ll make my goal of 100 miles in March.

I’m still debating what my next race will be. The Mid-Winter Classic was canceled after all, which makes me feel bad for the runners but secretly happy I didn’t entertain the idea of skipping our planned trip to Montreal for a race that would have been canceled anyway.

I’m thinking my next race will be Race the Runways. It means I will have to up my long runs’ distance to 13-15 miles in the next 30 days. I haven’t done a 10-mile-plus run in more than two weeks now, but I feel pretty confident that I can do this race.

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.