A decent week, weather-wise, busy on the work front though. The temps dipped considerably at the beginning of the weekend.  Fun times below 0 again!  My mileage is actually decreasing each week instead of increasing.  I probably need to stop letting that happen, so hopefully the weather will cooperate a little bit!

Monday was a nice day of rest. I thought about running and decided not to in the end.

Tuesday I ran a new 4 mile route in 34 minutes.  I went out 2 miles on the Greenway before heading back up the LRT trail to 24th St and home.  It was a decent route that combined 2 other of my routes.  It was a clear morning and the sunrise was pretty to see. The weather actually wasn’t too shabby either at 12 above and 3 above wind chill.

Wednesday I ran 3.25 miles on my Metrodome loop in28:15.  The LRT trail is pretty messy still so the combination of low traction and overall poor footing made for an ok feeling workout.  Some days when the trail is messy like that my legs feel a little tired. It was 18 above with a 10 degree wind chill so not too bad of a morning.

Thursday I was feeling quite tired after several late nights and woke up too late to run.  I also actually skipped an optional meeting that I had planned on going to.  Oops.

Friday I didn’t run either.  I thought about it and I’m not really sure why I never made it out the door. Maybe to be fresher for the race on Saturday or maybe I’m just a little lazy.  I did get my CPR certification renewed in the afternoon.

Saturday It was -11 with a -21 wind chill for what was supposed to be a half-marathon race but it got shortened to 6.5 miles.  It was cold!  I finished 96th in 45:31.  Stay tuned for the the full race report!

Sunday We met at Minnehaha Falls and ran the Get in Gear 10k course again.  We tacked on a little bit and it was 6.3 miles in 55:51.  The River Road trails offer decent footing but in reality it comes and goes – some places being a lot better than others.  It was -7 with a -17 wind chill, but a nice slow run.

Weekly Mileage

Running – 20.1 miles

Last Year

Run: 10.4 Miles
Bike: 7.7 Miles
Swim: 800 Yards

Last year I wrote a tribute to Jesse Owens for Martin Luther King, Jr Day.  I found some great statistical data about running in 2007 from MarathonGuide.com.  I should look to see if they have 2008 numbers up yet! Some people are dedicated to running, but forget to take precautions and end up winning frostbite.  Like to run outside but don’t want to get sick?  Try eating my one of my favorite foods Clementines! This week last year is when the Spirit of the Marathon debuted in theaters.  I took a picture for Foto Friday.

What a cold week. Wow, I’ve not experienced so many sub-zero days in my life (at least that I can remember).  It was actually the coldest weather in Minnesota in 5 years.  Most of the work week saw the high not making it above 0, but fortunately the beginning and end of the week weren’t too bad.

Monday was a balmy 6 degrees (-6 wind chill) when I set out for a 3.25 mile run on my Metrodome loop. For the most part the sidewalks are still snow and ice covered and I didn’t see many people out this morning.  It was a nice clear morning though.  I don’t normally run on Monday, but seeing the forecast for the week I thought it might be a good idea to get a run in.

Tuesday I almost ran, but the warm blankets sounded much better. It was -13 and the wind chill was in the -30 range.  It was cold enough that the old car didn’t want to start and I had to run to catch the bus so I could at least make some of the meeting at work!

Wednesday I geared up and ran 3.15 miles on the Greenway despite the -6 temp and -21 wind chill. I got passed by 4 bikes on their way to work and saw plenty of tracks to know that I wasn’t the only crazy fool out there.  Footing wasn’t too bad considering we had a fresh “dusting” of snow.

Thursday See the above picture.

Friday When I pulled up the weather on my phone it said -18 and no wind, so I thought that it’d be a nice run. When I logged onto the PC after my 4.3 mile run it said -21 and -34 wind chill. I was dressed appropriately and didn’t feel too cold except for after one turn for a little while.  I ran along the Greenway to the LRT trail to the Metrodome and home.  It was like 5:30 so there was no one out yet really.  A very nice quite run.

Saturday was the weekly Polar Bear Run.  It was a balmy 18 (7 wind chill) when I left home.  We ran 8.5 miles around Cedar Lake and Lake Calhoun.  It was pretty nice for the most part, running around Calhoun got really windy and cold.  The trails were in decent shape (well plowed and not choppy).  So a pretty decent run in 68 minutes.

Sunday group run met at Minnehaha Falls and ran the Get in Gear 10k course.  We ran it a lot slower than my race day performance, but it was also a lot snowier and colder.  The temp was about 13 which felt pretty nice because there was 0 wind!! The ground conditions weren’t too bad, most of the snow has been smoothed out and is packed pretty hard along the River Road trails.  The run ended with flurries coming down and pretty much near perfect day for running.

Weekly Mileage

Running – 25.4 miles

Last Year

Running – 19 miles

Biking – 4.3 miles (indoor)

It was this time last year that I almost gave myself hypothermia on a run due to some stupid mistakes. I survived and offered 5 important facts about Base Training. I offered my 10 Building Bloks of making a blog successful. With the extreme cold weather we are all fortunate to have a house. That wasn’t the point of Running with the Homeless, but is still something to think about.  I had planned to attend my first MDRA Polar Bear Run, but it ended up being cancelled.  This week’s Foto Friday was from one of our first adventures in cold Minnesota, Minnehaha Falls.

I quickly need to be deciding what my spring goal race is going to be.  Some of the marathon’s I’m thinking about require that I start training post haste (last week!) My training is at a fine level for the beginning of marathon training.  But should I do a spring and a fall marathon or should I focus on something a little shorter for the spring and nail a marathon this fall?

Monday I took a much needed rest day as we returned to Minneapolis late on Sunday night.

Tuesday I decieded to accomplish two tasks at once and prepared myself to bring home all of our mail from the vacation hold and ran to the post office.  When I arrived there, the clerk said I was at the wrong place and needed to go to a different place.  She even asked, “You aren’t planning to run there are you.” Obviously not, my mail was another 4 miles away. Ugh.  So I ran home discouraged and frustrated.   My run went pretty well though despite the snow covered and slippery sidewalks both in my neighborhood and downtown. It was 5 miles round-trip in 39:12 with the temp at 15 and the windchill at 5.

Wednesday I ran a 3 mile loop that takes in Little Earth, the Greenway and the LRT Trail.  The -6 windchill was pretty cold! The flurries falling made a nice glisten as I ran around with my headlamp on!

Thursday was even colder with the air temp at -2 and the wind chill at -17 for my 3.27 mile out and back run along the Greenway.  Passed a few bikes.  The Greenway makes a nice wind tunnel and sadly the wind was hitting me from the front or side the whole way! I wasn’t quite sure why I was out there running to be honest!

Friday was a little nicer for a 5.5 mile run.  We were supposed to get more snow, but it never came.  I ran to the downtown riverfront and headed back south along the Mississippi River before heading for home on Franklin.  This threw in a couple of hills.  The footing on the river road trails was less than desireable. It was 12 above with a -2 wind chill.  I also bike commuted to a few meetings getting about 8 miles in.

Saturday morning the MDRA Polar Bear group met at the Longfellow Grille and ran 11.5 miles along the East and West River Road trails.  From Lake St we ran north on the East side cutting across at the Plymouth Ave bridge and heading back south on the West side.  I got pretty tired during the run combination of the distance and the crappy footing.  It was good to catch up with the guys since I hadn’t run with them in a few weeks.  The temperature was around 0 with -9 wind chill.

Sunday since I was already over last week’s mileage I decided it would be a good opportunity to cross-train. 350 yards of swimming was enough to wear me out.  I’m quite a wimp in the pool for some reason!

Weekly Mileage:

Running – 28.3 miles

Biking – 8 miles

Swimming – 350 yards

Last Year

Running 17 miles

This is our anniversary week of being in Minnesota! I obviously wrote about my first cold run in Minnesota and made a few comments about the treacherous sidewalks.  Last year’s Dubai Marathon was giving away a million dollars – oh to be fast! While I haven’t figured out my race plan for this year, you can read last year’s plan.  Of course don’t forget the Foto Friday, of my ice crystal covered face (actually taken while I was still in Indiana!).

Another busy week of visiting friends and family across Ohio and Indiana.  This has been a good trip to explore new and old running locations.  It was a pretty nice week, despite sleeping on air mattresses and constantly being exhausted!

Monday I don’t normally run on Monday’s but thought I should since I don’t know how much time I’ll have throughout the week.  I am glad I did! It was a nice 6 mile run at Fort Harrison again.  I was going to try running on all the trails, but one was flooded over.  It was in the mid-30’s with lots of sunshine. I ran past a bunch of runners from Lawrence Central High School and a couple of park employees but otherwise a quiet and peaceful run.  One part was pretty muddy and both of my shoes are now brown, so they are officially broken in! I think it was 53:25 for the run.

Tuesday due to traveling and breakfast commitments there was no run in store for me.

Wednesday we woke up in Lakewood, OH (a Cleveland suburb) to a fresh layer of snow and blustery wind. No more than an inch on the ground and wind coming from every direction I ran 5.25 miles along the Rocky River.  This is a nice paved (and plowed) trail along the river about 0.5 mile from my sister’s house.  The trail was a little icy and there were some people out. I actually saw a few guys fishing in the middle of the river.  I only ran a short segment of the trail but would recommend it if you are in the area.  On the out and back run there was a nice hill at the end. I felt pretty good and finished in around 42:55 with a 10 degree windchill.

Thursday Happy New Year! I slept in like most of you, though I wasn’t hungover.  We spent much of day driving, again!

Friday After visiting a few people in Anderson I went for a run at Mounds State Park.  When I lived there I ran here almost every day, so it brought back a lot of memories.  Today’s 5 mile loop was pretty muddy, which does add a little element of fun to the run.  The sun was out too which made the 38 degrees feel almost perfect. I finished in 39:02 slowly picking up the pace during the last 1/2 mile.  I am definitely not used to running hills, so we’ll see how sore I am!

Saturday was a beautiful morning for a long run.  I ran from my in-law’s house to Fort Harrison State Park and ran around the trails and back for 10.5 miles. The trail that had been flooded over earlier in the week had been fixed and a new drain added to help funnel the water so I ran on that too.  I’m pretty sure I ran on every trail in the park over the 2 weeks.  Nothing eventful today except for being a little sore from yesterday’s run on the hills at Mounds State Park.  1:26:04 was my time with the temperature at 27 with an 18 windchill and lots of sun!

Sunday was the long drive back to Minneapolis.

Weekly Totals

Running – 26.7 miles

Last Year

Run: 12.0 Mi
Bike: 17.1 Mi

The week began at the end of the year with December Highlights. The new year began with a little euphoria, before the move to Minneapolis.  I also highlighted the new Spirit of the Marathon movie.