Sunday, October 30, 2011

Running in a (pre) winter wonderland

Frost on the pumpkins, snow on the lawn
Today's run (street) 4.2 miles

Yesterday was a long day for us. We were at a friend's family event for most of the day and by 10:00 PM we were ready for bed. I hoped to sleep until 5:30 or 6:00, which would be late for me, but at 4:30 AM I was wide awake. Try as I might, I couldn't fall back to sleep so I got up. I made some coffee and considered my workout.

I know that I'm not at my best right now and I'm beginning to think it's the flu shot that's contributing to my stamina issues. It's obviously not exhaustion since I only managed to stay asleep for six hours last night. I decided I'd go out for a neighborhood run, targeting the same distance than I'd covered over the last two days.

The lawns in my neighborhood were lightly covered with snow, but the roads were clear when I made my way outside. The reported temperature was 35° but with the wind it felt much colder. I wore compression shorts under my C9 running pants and added my Zensah compression sleeves over my calves. On top I wore a C9 half-zip layered with a short sleeve running shirt. I also wore a fleece hat and running gloves. Together it made for a comfortable outfit that kept me warm at the start but didn't overheat me when I got up to speed.

I took it easy in deference to my current situation and ran comfortably around the neighborhood. I was both surprised and annoyed to see more than one house watering their snow-covered lawn. I wondered if they forgot to turn off their sprinkler systems or if they were truly stupid. Aside from that I thought the neighborhood, covered in snow, looked very beautiful.

I planned a route that would cover a little more than three miles, but when I reached the point where I'd turn onto the last road, I decided to keep going straight and added another mile for good measure. I ended up running a little faster than I wanted to, but I'd still call it an easy pace. Considering that I'm not at my best right now, I'm happy with the last two runs I've done.

My next race, the Hope for the Warriors 10K, will happen in two weeks. I'll follow that with the Long Beach 10K Turkey Trot a week later. I hope to be back at full strength by next Saturday so I can break out of my 3-4 mile malaise and prepare for a longer race distance.

2 comments:

  1. My wife and I are also running the Hope for the Warriors 10k. Looking forward to a cool, flat and fast 10k unlike Cow Harbor and the Dirty Socks. See you there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great - I'll look for you guys. It was a nice fast course last year. I have to remember to watch out for the walkers though. There were a number of them that started near the front and walked six across, blocking lots of runners!

    ReplyDelete

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