Cold? Â Yes. Â Scared? Â A little. Â Remember to bundle up something fierce for Saturday’s run–Duct Tape on your shoes may be a nice addition as well. Â Because of the cold, we’ll meet just in side the door of Dunn Brothers, right next to the Longfellow Grill at Lake and West River Road at 8 AM. Â Details can be found at the group page.
Click on http://groups.google.com/group
I made a very stupid mistake yesterday when I went for an easy 5 mile run. I didn’t really know what the temperature was (first mistake) and didn’t have enough clothes/layers (second mistake) on over my core, let alone my extremities. Back in December I gave 9 Winter Weather Tips, I should follow my own advice!
I had been playing on the Internet, so I had no excuse for not checking the weather at a variety of weather sites (including this blog and my browser’s weather plug-in). The temperature was in the mid-teens with wind chills in the single digits. Not too bad if you are prepared. So what was I wearing? I had a long-sleeve dry fit shirt and a fleece vest, with shorts and warm-up pants. I had normal socks, cloth gloves, and a silk balaclava. My run was an out and back. During the out section I was comfortable, even using the balaclava as a hat.
When I turned around, I came back into the wind and quickly realized my folly. The wind quickly became biting and I first really felt it on my exposed face, so I pulled down the balaclava. Then I began feeling my abs get really cold, then my fingers and arms, finally I felt the sweat in the crook of my elbow freezing. It was a long 2.5 mile run home.
I made it back, peeled off some of the layers and jumped into the bed, between the top 2 covers. My core temperature didn’t seem very low, but my stomach and back were very red (think sun/wind burn). After warming up a little bit I got into a cool shower. You don’t want to warm your body up with water that is too warm, you can slowly increase the temperature as your body thaws.
So hopefully I have learned my lesson and will dress smarter for my runs. I have plenty of clothes for layering and I have nicer gloves that will stop the wind. My run was officially 5.03 in 41:24. I didn’t really want to run today, but decided I needed a few more miles for the week to continue building up my mileage.
[tags] Winter, Running, Safety [/tags]
Last night I bit the bullet and registered for my first 2008 race. My plan has been to run a spring 1/2 marathon before my fall marathon debut. There was a lot to consider:
So with all of the those factors combined I chose the Earth Day Half Marathon to be held on April 19, 2008 or Earth Day. I’ll begin my 12 week training program on January 27, 2008. Until then I will be increasing my mileage and doing base-building.
2nd – PR – sub- 1:34
Sidewalks are generally a safe place for us to run. Though I found out yesterday that that might not always be the case. As we are adjusting to a new city and schedules I have been running in the morning. This is fine except that it is dark and since I don’t have a light or much reflective clothing, I thought it would be safer to stick to the sidewalks.
There are plenty of sidewalks near us, so that isn’t a problem. Except that as I reported on Monday the roads aren’t all plowed to smooth surface, so goes the sidewalks. I would be running for awhile on smooth sidewalk, then hit a patch of frozen snow that has been tramped through, thawed and re-frozen. This makes for a running surface that is worse than most of the trails I’ve run on.
Other times the sidewalk is clear, except for a thin layer of ice. As the snow thaws during the day, it makes for wet sidewalks, which re-freezes at night. Finally and maybe the worst, I was running along and stepped into puddles. It was dark enough that I couldn’t tell when water had pooled and frozen. My feet didn’t really get wet, which made me very happy.
What’s the Cure?
I’m not sure which I’ll do, but I will probably keep running on the sidewalks and do the roads whenever possible.
I ran 3.59 miles in 32:29 which is 9:03 pace. That’s not too impressive, but given the conditions I was happy with that. My maximum pace was 7 minutes at one point according to my Garmin.
A nice easy run is a good introduction to any new city and this was no different. After spending too many hours in a Penske moving truck, towing a car with my wife driving behind me, it was nice to stretch my legs out Sunday morning.
We arrived on Saturday evening and were able to move our stuff into our new apartment. We knew coming up that we would be living in an extended stay hotel for a few weeks while the landlords finished doing some remodeling, but we really liked the location and they made it financially worth the wait. So we’ll be staying in the suburbs until everything is ready to go!
We are spending today relaxing and lounging around the hotel, we’ll hang out with our friends and attend an evening Church service with them.
Running
It was a little chaotic trying to pack everything that we’d need for 3 weeks and at the end we were just throwing stuff into bags and boxes, so I had a little trouble finding some of my accessories for this morning. When I looked at the temp it was a mild 35, so that is pretty nice for running. Last week temps here were below freezing with the wind chill.
I had trouble finding my “warm pants,” you know, the thin ones! It turned out ok and I may have been a little underdressed upstairs (I was warming a tech shirt with a t-shirt over it). The slight wind was a little biting, I also couldn’t find my hat, but my ears didn’t mind too much. I scoped out the run on Google maps to get an idea of the neighborhood and then relied on my Garmin (I haven’t written about it yet, but soon will) to actually measure the course.
It turned out that it was fairly hilly, so that was a little surprising. I did a nice easy pace and finished the 3.78 miles in 30:07 which is an 8:04 average. I haven’t imported the workout so I’m not sure of the elevation gains and losses, but the hills weren’t little molehills!
Snow
There is lots of snow and slush! The roads are pretty much clear but the sidewalks haven’t been plowed to the cement. I tried to run on one and changed my mind since there wasn’t lots of traffic and the roads were clear! It seems like the primary and secondary roads have been plowed to the surface while other roads and a lot of parking lots have only been plowed to make it passable.
These are just a few of my first impressions!