I've lived in Portland five years. I moved here fully expecting that it would rain nine months out of the year. That's never really happened yet. This year, though, is off to a very soggy start. December was the wettest December in Portland in 75 years. January isn't shaping up to be much better. I don't really mind running in the rain, but I will admit to having my limits. When you finish every single run looking and feeling like a cold, wet, bedraggled cat, it gets irritating.

Motivating myself to go run in this weather is just about impossible, so I'm imposing some discipline. My first race of the year is February 14th, the 25K Hagg Lake Mud Run - I can't really think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day than covered in mud! I hadn't planned to do a training plan for it. I know I can go run a 25K pretty well without doing much in the way of training for it. My only real goal for this race it to get incredibly muddy and have a lot of fun. A training schedule is the best way to get myself out running on a regular schedule, though. It's only four weeks, but it will get me through the worst of the winter rains. It will also be a good little precursor to my 50K training that will start the first week of April - it's very similar to the first four weeks of that plan but with a bit of reduced volume.