Things Fall Apart: The Weight of Winter

Sorry Beautiful, but I’m into my winter 10, and just to be honest, it turned out to be a winter 12 this year. Whew, I feel better now.

So, since the OUC 5K, I basically forgot to run for a while, and therefore my running habits haven’t been going strong. In fact, they got pretty ugly pretty fast. I’ve had an 8M long run and a 10M long run sitting around and talking trash for weeks now. I asked the sloth sitting next to me to get my back, but he said I made him look productive. Make him look productive?!? That jerk has been wearing the same pair of my underwear for the past five days. Sometimes I hate the sloth more than the goat.

And then the Pillsbury Dough Boy called and said I was fat. I told him to come on over and say it to my face, but I really just wanted to bake that little punk and later him up with butter—then enjoy crispy deliciousness.

But training for Boston starts this week, and I finally managed to get a 10M run in last weekend. The real problem is training fast in snow. I believe there is a limit to how fast you can run in the snow. My best guess is that I can only hit about 80% workout effort on snow covered sidewalks/roads. After that, pushing it only serves to greatly increase the likelihood of a fall.

Point and case, on clear and open roads I hit 5M in 25 degree temps at a 6:50/M average; on snow covered sidewalks I could only manage 8:05/M for my 10M. Then, on mostly clear sidewalks, I could hit three mile repeats at 6:10, 6:19, 6:14. So, for everyone out there dealing with the same crap I am, I feel ya!

And finally, tomorrow I leave to Chattanooga to go spend time with a certain wonderful Redhead. We will be doing out first ‘long run’ together. I believe, in running relationships, this is considered the ‘biggest test’ there is. I better not fail.