Going Long

First 20-miler.  On a hell of a morning.  Temp -10C by the thermometer outside our kitchen window.  Winds gusting to 70 km/h.  Wind chill in the -16C range.  That's about -2F if you're keeping score in Utah.

I had a really hard time on the out- part of the out-and-back route.  After getting out of the treed residential areas of central Etobicoke, it was really really cold.  Not one stick of a wind break along Eglinton Ave W or on Matheson Blvd up by Hwy 401.   Low rise industrial zones don't to much to keep the wind off.  I guess it's a saving grace that I wasn't running downtown.  Wind tunnel effect would have put me airborne.

This was a scouting trip for the first 1/3 of the RSR marathon and relay on January 18.  I'll be hoping for a calm day.  I knew the route would be desolate - up through Mississauga and Brampton - to my parent's house for a well deserved breakfast.  I'm not sure my pacers have any idea of the pain that they may be in for.  Oh well, I'm thinking they'll each do 1/4 of the route while I'll have to do the whole thing.  Makes me think that I am the one who doesn't realize the pain I'm in for.  :-)

Today was a good dry run.  Dressed well.  Fully hydrated.  Nearly broke some teeth trying to bite into my Luna bars.  They were frozen solid. 

If you can believe it, the toughest part was right near the end near home, on a little side street that had not been plowed overnight.  Only about three blocks, but really slippery and felt like I was not getting any grip and momentum going forward.  I cruised through a stop sign and these young guys rolled down their window and said I'd missed it!  I said, "If I had stopped, I would have never started up again."  They laughed at the crazy runner out on the coldest, snowiest day of the year so far . . .

The french toast for breakfast makes me think of the cold quite a bit less!

Slippy, slidy, crunchy, snowy.  And that was all in the first three strides I made this morning!

Ah, the joys of winter running in Canada.  Makes me realize why I don't do any trail running in the summer.  They say that the effort you put out for trail running is about 1.5 times the effort of road running.  I think that algorithm works pretty well for road running in the snow and ice.  So, I feel like I ran 15k instead of the 10k distance I actually did this morning.

To really avoid the rough stuff on the sidewalk, I'll need to stay on the edges of the roadway more.  That means earlier rising, so I can run when there is no traffic on the road.  Today I was up at 6:05 am, out the door at 6:25, but did the bulk of my run after 7 am.  Way too many commuters around for my taste.

Good to get out this morning, though.  Just didn't have it in me to go in the rain last night.  I seem to be missing some of my practice runs lately.  I'll have to be more diligent and stick to the program a bit more closely. 

May all your winter miles be sunny and dry.

Another great night on the switchback loop.  8 repeats and then one more half loop to begin the cool down run toward the store.  I felt so good I picked it up a bit on the way back. 

The road was dry and traffic on the loop was light.  The faster runners in the clinic were great pacers.  I was losing a small amount of distance to them for the first three or four repeats, maybe four strides per trip.  Then I noticed that they were slowing down, while I was remaining steady at just under 5 minutes per loop.

I nearly caught them on the last go-around, but thought it might be bad form to zip past them on the last repeat.  Kept a respectful, but close distance behind them, and enjoyed the fact that I had a great night.

Got back to the store and found a few of my peeps for a cool down at Starbucks.  Talked details about the first RSR Marthon and Relay coming up in January.  Sounds like they are excited, I just *HOPE* it is a nice day for a run!  Weather is unpredictable in January.  Dee assures me it will be sunny, warm and calm.  Who am I to argue??  :-)

Got out very late this evening - after 9:30 pm.  Managed to put in my scheduled 10k and had a pretty good run.  Everything is feeling suspiciously easy the last few days, don't know if I've moved beyond some physical or mental barrier into a plateau of "everything clicking".  My race is still six weeks away, lots of runs between now and then.  I never count on anything being easy, so "we'll see"(tm).