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| My eyelashes are frozen together. No big deal, right? |
With the rapidly changing weather this last week it became slightly more difficult to get motivated to lace up the Brooks so I could head out for some miles. Case in point, on Monday when it was 7 degrees above zero but -11 with the windchill. However, after a brief text-change (texting exchange -- yes, I'm THAT clever!) with Coach Barbara to discuss proper layering I pulled some clothes out and started to get dressed and before I knew it I was headed out for 3 miles. I was, for the most part, comfortable during the run. I mean, let's face it, I was cold but it wasn't really THAT bad. That is, until the last mile when I had a full on head wind. I'd worn sunglasses to protect my eyes from the wind (and sun) and they had been fogging up the entire run but as I was heading west the glasses wouldn't unfog (is that a word?) and they literally froze over. With about a quarter mile to go I took off the glasses to finish running so as to avoid falling on a curb or something. When I finished I felt pretty badass and perhaps a little more like a "real runner" after that! Would I do it again? Who knows? It would definitely depend on the distance because I'm not sure I could do much more than the 3 miles I did without doing a slight wardrobe change (to swap out the wet items for dry ones).
With that... here's what my training plan called for this week:
Monday: Run, 3 miles, easy
Tuesday: Cross train
Wednesday: Run, 3 miles, easy
Thursday: Strength
Friday: Run, 30 minutes, easy
Saturday: Run, 4 miles, easy
Sunday: Off
And here's what actually happened:
Monday: Run, 3 miles @ 10:13/mi
Tuesday: Bike trainer for 45 minutes
Wednesday: Run, 3 miles @ 9:48/mi (not exactly easy but when I saw what pace I was running I thought I could run a 5K sub 30:00... I failed. By thirty-three freaking seconds. Oops.
Thursday: Bike, 27:00 (I accidentally cleared my settings when I stopped to help someone else use a bike) so I had to restart. Total distance was about 6.6 miles and after that I did some strength training.
Friday: Run, 30 minutes, 3.13 miles @ 10:23/mi
Saturday: Run, 4 miles @ 11:01/mi. This was a new route and was REALLY hilly and I ended up walking up a couple of the hills. I will do this route again but without walking.
Sunday: After eleven straight days of activity I definitely rested. Literally, I napped. It felt glorious.
How do you manage your training when the weather doesn't necessarily cooperate?
The newer Oakley sunglasses don't fog as much in weird conditions, not sure about cold but I have rode in the pouring rain and mine didn't fog up. Can't say the same about my older Oakleys though. Also there are some face masks out there that direct your breath downwards so your glasses won't fog when you breath :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen it's windy or I'm just not up to being in the elements, I'm lucky to have an indoor track at one of my gyms. So much better than the dreadmill! Wednesday's six miles happened there; sure, it was boring (36 laps ... yawn) but at least I create my own breeze on the track! When it's not windy, though, I'm out in it. My coldest outdoor run to date was in -11 windchill; if you dress for it, it's not that bad. (PS, I find that if I move my sunglasses down my nose a big to allow the steam to escape, they don't fog as much. Maybe that'll work for you?)
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