Saturday, February 13, 2010

It Was Cold Out There

{I had a major problem with my computer so I wrote some of this on Saturday and the rest on Sunday}

Mike was unable to run this morning so I decided to go to East Troy anyways and run a modified looper. I woke up nice and early and even though I knew it was cold, I has no thoughts of bagging it and just crawling back in the warm bed. It was 5 when I woke and still very dark. Heck, it was still dark when I started at 6:06AM from the Square. But I have to tell you it was cold, no, I take that back, it was F'ing cold. The sun was still down and the temp was a nice 9F at the start.

I was only planning on running 17 miles today since I had to be home buy 9:30 the latest as it is Pinewood Derby day for 2 of the girls. I ran 6 miles last night so at least in a matter of 15 hours, I would get in the 23 miles I had planned for today earlier this week. I had also looked at the map and found a nice 17 mile loop that uses a lot of the usual roads we run out in East Troy, but adds a road I was interested in seeing what was like.


So, like I said, it was cold when I started. After 1 mile, I was actually contemplating going back to my car as I was so cold. The chill was going right through my running tights and my hands were quite cold through my gloves (socks actually). I also do something that is not so smart when running in the cold, I do not wear a hat! I can't stand the feeling so I only wear ear muffs. Dumb, I know. I decided to keep going hoping I would warm up after a few miles and when the sun came up. I was right, sort of, I did warm up at times and also got colder at times.


At about 2.25 miles, I took my first short walk break and got a little water in. At mile 4.5 or so, I stopped for more water and found out I had a problem. My water bottle caps were frozen shut. I could shake and feel some water moving, but I could not get any out. This made me nervous since I had 13 miles still to go with no water but at least I wasn't sweating too much. Good thing I drank a lot of water the night before and while this helped me last the entire run, it caused a new problem. I had to pee. The roads were not travelled much so being seen wasn't an issue, the issue actually was my fingers. They were already cold from the socks only working a little, but when they were in the open air, it was frickin cold. During the run, the tingled often from the cold. I ended up pulling the sleeves of my long sleeve shirt down further to cover my hands for double protection.


At about mile 6, I had a "Forrest Gump" moment. I was running down the new road I had never run down before while passing some horses that were startled by me going past when I looked over just at the moment the sun was rising over the horizon. It was spectacular to see and the light was so bright. I couldn't stop looking over again and again as it felt like it was just me and the sun out there. I was one with the road and the ice and the cold for just a moment.


The roads I took had quite a lot of hills so I was able to work out that part on my training. One part of the run that was a little annoying was that when I got to the bottom of some of the large hills, it was really cold, something like 5 to 10 degrees colder than at the top. The cold air just sits in the valleys.


By mile 10, I looked at my Garmin for the first time and noticed I was at 9:25 pace which actually surprised me because I thought I was going much slower because of the cold.

{It is now Sunday Evening}

The computer seems to b working now so I will try to finish the post.

There was a major hill at about mile 11 that is quite steep. To maintain running form, I have to run on my toes like a sprinter. This caused some discomfort in my ankle that has issues but by now (Sunday Evening), it is feeling better. The rest of the run went well and I maintained close to the same pace. The run ended up being 17.25 miles.

After I finished, I went into a coffee shop to warm up and put on some warmer clothes. As I was changing, a guy asked me about my Garmin. He was interested in getting one for Cross Country Skiing. I told him there are newer versions but they work very well. He was looking at it and saw the 17.2 miles and asked if that is what I just ran. I said yes and he just looked dumbfounded. Yes, the normal folks out thee just don't understand us.

Time to watch some Winter Olympics. The Moguls are on right now. I love to watch the Speed Skating and a lot of the skaters live in the Milwaukee area and I see them at times at the Pettit Center where I run at times. Good Luck to Shani Davis as he skates later in the Olympics. I ran a few laps with him once at Pettit. He seems like suck a nice guy!

1 comment:

Beth said...

Be careful with those hands in the cold. My hands get really hot when I wear gloves, so I used to take them off mid-run. Now I have some lovely nerve damage on my fingers to show for it. Whenever they get cold, they hurt like anything, turn white and then turn purple. It's really painful. Invest in some good gloves if you are going to run in those temps. I'm glad you got such a great run in, but the mom in me is worried about you. :) I love Forrest Gump moments- they are part of what makes running worthwhile. Glad you had a good one!