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!