It’s cold out there. And some photos.
It was 15 degrees with 15mph winds at 6 a.m. this morning and yet I still went out on a run. At this point I’m not going to let the weather keep me from running.
Though it was cold, I was somewhat ready for it. I had tights, shorts, two polyester shirts, a wool cycling jersey, a cotton long sleeved shirt, a jacket, thin gloves and socks over those gloves, and a hat on.
I’m not used to this kind of cold, we don’t normally get temperatures like this in Georgia. But I’ve committed to running through the winter, and I am really glad I’ve stuck to it. I feel so much better knowing I have the discipline to run in weather like this, and I know I’m building mental and physical toughness because of it.
Anyways, I wish I had some more money for a real set of winter running gear, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. Plus this won’t last a long time. Might as well wait and spend the money on something I’ll use more.
Longer Morning Runs
I have one longer run during the week, usually scheduled on Wednesdays. Since I in the mornings, I tend to wake up pretty early and get going. I’m a morning person even though its a little tough to first get out of bed.
I had usually been running a route towards Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park and then back, but Thursday morning I decided to do some loops around roads right near the apartment. It made all the difference.
Even though the temperature was down in the low 20s, I was feeling pretty good. A cup of coffee and a Jet Blackberry GU (look for a product review soon) with double caffeine woke me up.
Here are the stats from the run:
Ouch
This was just as I was finishing the Elf Trot 5k (in 20:22, 9 seconds off of my PR, damnit). Possibly the worst photo taken of me. It was freezing and raining, as you can see, and I just wanted to be finished. All excuses aside, that’s just bad. Plus it looks like I’m almost heel striking there. Lazy.
Not surprisingly, Sara loves this.
In other news, be sure to check out Running and Rambling’s giveaway today if you happen to be looking for running tights.
Also, I might have to ‘work’ another 5k this Saturday, so we’ll see what photos come out of that.
My Favorite Trail
I love running out at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. The trails are some of the best I’ve seen around Atlanta, and there are plenty of miles of them.
Birthday weekend, 9 second 5k
I ran the Elf Trot 5k.
At 4 I headed over to the Elf Trot 5k. I was planning on running it in a squirrel costume from work to promote the 10k race we have in February, but it was raining and I didn’t want to ruin it. Instead, since my peroneal tendonitis felt like it’d cleared up, and it was raining and 50 degrees, I decided to just go out and really run the race.
I was a little upset I hadn’t brought my Garmin 205, but I did at least have my regular digital watch, so I tried to check that at the mile markers. However, they had numerous markers and at seemingly random points in the run, so it didn’t really help.
I ended up running a 20:22. I’m really happy about it because I’ve been injured lately and also I haven’t been doing any speed work. It’s good to know the miles I’m putting in are getting me in pretty good shape anyway.
They gave out a ton of trophies at the race (top finishers and top three age group finishers) and I won my age group, so I got a trophy. This thing is pretty funny since its a bobblehead, but actually really annoying because it’s fallen over twice, broken its neck once, and broken its arm another time.
It’s really tough to glue a bobblehead back on to its body, by the way.
Soup of the Day
I made some soup a couple of days ago. Yes, I have nothing better to post right now.
Sometimes it hurts
Sometimes a run can turn into the opposite of what had been planned. Thursday’s run turned into exactly that.
I generally plan for a run well in advance, but Thanksgiving (and my plans to see my family up in Balsam Grove, NC) threw last week for a loop. Add the facts that I was dealing with a touch of peroneal tendonitis, and that I had a 15 mile run planned, and I came up with a mess of a schedule.
So after some thought, we decided that instead of a rest weekend after the half marathon, I would run 15 miles instead of the 10 that we scheduled. That way, I thought, I would just push my 10 mile rest run back one week and have the added benefit of not being too tired on Thanksgiving day.
Well that didn’t exactly work out. I had chosen a trail out at Black Balsam, as it would have been decently level. It’s a fun trail to hike and leads out to a designated wilderness area. It’s really pretty out there. Once I got to the parking lot, however, I realized the trail was soaked and there were sections with inches of standing water. I decided we’d try to climb up to the Art Loeb trail and run up there.
But, of course, that wasn’t going to work out as the wind was blowing like crazy. The only other people out there were bear hunters (who sit in their warm trucks while their dogs run around looking for bears to chase) and for good reason. It was freezing and windy. Eventually I decided to just head out to the Blue Ridge Parkway and run on the road. This was turning out to be a mess.
It was cold, windy, and foggy but we decided to get our 10 miles in anyhow. I was coming off of a week of not running due to my tendonitis, and we noticed the toll that was being taken. It was possibly the worst run I had been on in 2010. But I stuck through it and actually enjoyed a few miles of it (mainly the downhill portions).
It was a tough run, and I learned a few things. I was reminded of the importance of sticking to a schedule or really allowing it to change.
Still, I had some fun and now know what’s needed in the future. On to this week of running.
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