Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Objective: easy/recovery + fighting mental battle to run in winter conditions

Weather: Thanks to this website that gives more accurate neighborhood weather, I can be more specific now: 25F, wind 24 mph gusting to 40, wind chill ~10F.  Partly sunny, thin layer of snow on top of lots of ice, a few bare patches.

OK, so it's me against Winter now, and one of us is goin' down.  Or... we might just make peace and be friends.  But today, as I looked out at the frigid dawn, I could have sworn Old Man Winter was taunting me. (Did he just call me "treadmill carrion" or was that the wind?)  It was war -- the gloves were going to have to come off! Or rather on, as the case may be. 

True, it's a record low for December around here, but things aren't so bad. For one thing, it is not technically snowing although a lot of snow is blowing around.  Furthermore, it is a gorgeous morning. And it's icy, but I was able to find plenty of rough spots and snowy places to put my foot.  (Just for record, Yaktrax are wonderful unless it is solid, bare ice.)

Today's run was great practice for January when I'll have plenty of ice, longer harder workouts, and no cheery xmas lawn decorations to lift my spirits.  My quest and my vow is to keep running outside unless I have a speed work day scheduled and it is icy.  The laws of Physics must be respected.

For my own records, today's attire (from the ground up): Yaktrax on my Nikes, Smartwool socks, Sugoi Midzero tights (needed one more layer on legs), unmentionables, Smartwool top, Brooks fleece top, Cycling jacket (impenetrable), Nike gortex cap, fleece Balaclava, Smartwool gloves + Nathan neoprene LED gloves.

Objective: easy

Weather: Clear and starry. 20F, wind chill 10F, wind 10mph gust to 23. Pavement mostly clear in parts of neighborhood, very icy in others.

20 min. core & wts.

It was part running, part dancing this morning. I ran about a half mile and returned to the house to take off my Yaktrax, since the pavement seemed clear enough for normal running.  About 2 miles from home I found that the dry streets and sidewalks were not consistent.  And that's when the dancing began.  Hopping from one dry patch to another, doing a little slow tread across ice, and leaping sideways to run on the snowy grass -- I must have looked pretty funny if anyone was around.  But it was pretty quiet this morning.

While trying to run on the snowy grass without twisting my ankle, I was reminded of a question that I've had for a long time.  Title IX didn't come about until I was in high school, where it did me very little good, so I am very ignorant about cross country running. Is it a figure of speech, or do they really run on grass and uneven ground?  If the latter, how do they avoid twisting an ankle?  I can scarcely do a little trot movement and stay upright. let alone race. 

Attire: same as yesterday except: 1) heavier fleece top, 2) Extra layer on upper legs (I have an old pair of REI fleece long underwear that I had cut at the knee a couple of years ago. I just wore them on top of the tights. It was great.  No stinging cold on legs today.)  What I should have changed: as the wind was not as fierce today I wish I had worn a lighter windbreaker; the cycling jacket was too much, but I did need a wind shield.

Winter tip! Burt's Bees Lip Balm - not just for lips!  All over the face for freezing temps and wind -- feels great, protects skin, lasts longer and is less sticky than Vaseline.  (Do not use the mint flavored! Br.) 

Objective: Moderate

Weather: Clear & calm, 17 F

20 min core & weights

Welcome to Minnesota!  Obviously, we are breaking some records this week.  But since the winds are not howling anymore and I wanted to work a little harder today, I pared down my layers a bit: same bottom half as yesterday, but on top: Nike thermal t-neck, fleece half zip, nylon vest, neck gaiter, Nike gortex cap (it has ear flaps), Smartwool gloves & stranded mittens.  "Stranded" refers to the method of using two colors by carrying or "stranding" the unused color on the wrong side of the fabric; it means there is a double layer of wool -- very warm. 

The neck gaiter is a simple tube knit in a 2 x 2 ribbing with soft Merino wool (the knitter in your life can whip this up in about an hour or two).

This outfit worked well once I warmed up,  but the first couple of miles were a bit uncomfortable.   But it was a beautiful morning, with lots of moonlight to see the surrounding mountains.  Yesterday was gorgeous too. 

Objective: easy

Weather: 32F, snowing lightly. Windy in open spaces (gust to 17 mph). Thin layer of snow over mostly bare pavement w/ icy spots.

15 min core & weights

I never thought 32F would feel so pleasant.  If we had a spike to the 50s (as sometimes happens in winter around here), I might just get heat stroke.

Now that I have settled on Eugene for my spring marathon, I started the happy task of working out my training schedule, to begin around the first of the year.  Although I did plan to include his workouts, I was not going to use Brad Hudson's Run Faster schedules because they were not quite right for me.  The Marathon 2 schedule was a bit too light and the Marathon 3 schedule too heavy. But buried there in the chapter on how to put together your own schedule was another sample schedule, and it was (ala Goldilocks) just right. 

I still wanted to adjust the printed schedule for my own little preferences and needs but it is looking very good to me.  I substituted some of the workouts for ones I want to include, reduced the number of "recovery weeks," eliminated the Saturday runs in favor of resting, and cranked up all of the long runs to the distance I like to cover.  It took me about 90 minutes to get it all polished and copied into my planner (in the tiniest possible print, and in pencil of course).   It's like a little work of art to me. :)

Objective: moderate effort

Weather: 25F, variable wind (0-10 mph), snowing lightly.  2-3 inches fresh snow on top of patchy ice. 

15 min. core & weights

Random observations: Cars that can normally be heard 5-6 blocks away are only heard 1-2 blocks away on snowy ground. Running in 2-3 inches of snow is a lot like running on sand.  People seem friendlier when it snows.  When the whole world is white, a headlamp is superfluous.  In the time it takes me to select, put on, and adjust all my winter gear, I am losing .5 to .75 miles of running time.  Snow is best when it's fresh.

Newflash: Yesterday I did what I have procrastinated about for months. I drove to the school district office, filled out a form, showed them my drivers license and received... a key to the track.   The next step is to decide how on earth I'm going to get to use it. Lttany of excuses: I am not permitted to go while school is in session,  I don't want to give up my weekend long runs for track work,  if I go during my normal pre-dawn running time the track will be pitch dark and scary... 

I will work something out, but I am pretty sure I'll still be doing most of my speed work here in the 'hood.  One thing for which I really wanted that track key is to do Yasso 800's.  Ever since I met The Bart Yasso at Portland, I've been meaning to include them in my training cycle, about 6  and 4 weeks from race day.  In any case, it's always nice to check something off the to-do list that's been there so long it's growing moss.

Objective: easy

Weather: 19F, partly cloudy. A couple of inches more snow on the ground today.

I stayed in the compacted snow of the street whenever I could.   A pleasant run.  I'm in a rush this morning...  Cheers.