Winter Running

It's cold! It's not suppose to get this cold in South Carolina. The thermometer read 32° yesterday but it felt like of 26°. To make matters worse the wind was around 10 mph with 15-25 mph gusts. I braved the cold temperatures and wind and went on my first real cold run of the season. Yes, it sucked. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. It was brutal, lung burning, butt freezing, face numbing cold. I seriously regretted my decision after just 1 mile when I went from being comfortable chilly (as the "experts" always claim you should feel at the start to avoid overdressing) to downright cold (apparently I don't produce that much heat when I run so if I'm chilly at the start, I'll be cold at the end). I had on tights, fleece pants, long sleve tech tee, fleece jacket, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks, a headband and scarf and still got cold. And yes, they were all moisture wicking.

After about 2 miles, I finally started to feel my fingers again and shed one pair of gloves but my legs kept getting colder as they always tend to do during sub 40° runs and my pace slowed to a crawl. Jogging uphill became impossible as breathing heavily in the cold wind became painful. After mile 3, I had no energy left and was pretty much jogging slower than my walking pace. That was it. I had enough and cut my 5 mile run short. I headed back inside the warmth of my 70° house. Took a hot shower to thaw out my legs and face so I could feel them again.

I'm still not sure about this winter running, it's going to take some time to get used to. I don't find it fun while I'm out there and only can come to appreciate it after I'm back inside and warm again and say "Yea, I ran today. The cold weather didn't stop me".

Oh and now my Saturday 5K. The forecast is a high of 31°, low of 16° and windy. Great! I can't wait! (saying with sarcasm). If I set a new PR, it's only because I'm racing to get back in my car and turn the heater on!

2010 Running Goals

Well 2009 was my first year of running, well 8 months considering I started in April. I stuck with it and didn't give up even though at times I wanted to. So it's a new year and with that comes new goals.

1. Sub 30 min 5K - Right now my PR is 33:57 for a race and 32:37 in training. 
   
2. Reedy River Run 10K - This will be my first 10K road race. I did an 8K on November 21st and finished in 53:56 so I hope to finish a 10K under 70 mins.
3. Greer Half Marathon - I'm still scared about this one as my longest run so far is 1 hour or 5.5 miles. I feel confident I can finish as long as I go with the run/walk approach on all my long runs. Time is not important.
   
4. To run 700 miles this year.

Race Report: Run the Falls 8K

I’ve done many 5Ks up to this point but this was my first 8K and I was surprisingly relaxed and confident about it. I was familiar with the first and last mile of the course and knew the middle 2.9 miles were rolling hills much like the hills I normally train.

It was a cold 43° and cloudy at the start and I didn’t want to shed my fleece jacket but knew I would overheat if I didn’t so I threw it in the car and lined up with about 3 mins before start time. At 8:00am, we were off.  It took me nearly 1.5 miles to finally warm up but I wish I wore gloves since my fingers were the only thing that stayed cold throughout the entire run. I had no trouble breathing in the cold air (thanks to the high humidity…I’m learning that it’s dry air and not cold air that causes breathing problems) but my nose decided to join the run and that became quite annoying to say the least. The sun would try to break through the thin layer of clouds but never did come out in full force to warm things plus their was a gentle but cold breeze.

The first mile was downhill, then the next 2 miles were a series of up and down hills through the River Falls neighborhood with a long slow uphill to the finish line (the final 1/2 mile is a pretty good climb). And it was that last mile going uphill where I really started to struggled but not with my breathing but with my quads and glutes which were telling me they have had enough. All those hills really took it out of my legs but I am so glad I did hill repeats in training, it really helped me get up most of them without wasting too much energy and it was were I was able to do the most passing, which always feels good.

With about a quarter mile left, my legs were really starting to feel heavy and as soon as I approached the top of that final hill and knew it would be flat for the last 200m, I gave it one last push and to my surprise finished well under my 55 minute goal with a time of 53:56. After reviewing my Garmin data, I quickly realized I ran a faster pace on this race then I did on my fastest 5K race and that was like icing on the cake.