RUN 16 miles in 3:27, Babler
So yesterday's weather was 37F in the morning and a pleasant 42F when I went to bed. This morning it was mid-high 30's, cloudy, light winds, but forecasted to drop to 28 with 20 mph winds. At the last minute going out the door I grabbed my purple windshell, just in cast. 28F as a high wasn't bad, right?
TV and I were going to Babler, hoping that the we'd be mostly out of the wind and running dry rocky ridges that drained all or most of yesterday's rain. Some right, mostly wrong. Lots to say here!
First off, it was damned cold and windy. On the drive out it started snowing more and the wind became fierce. Flags were whipping in the C-field valley. We joked about how awful it would be to run on the Levee Trail. As soon as we started in the park we were shocked at the cold. When the wind hit our face it burned a bit. But we were convinced that'd we'd warm up in a mile or two. The light snow was pellety, and pretty. It rested on fallen, wet leaves and highlighted them without obscuring.
But that's about as pleasant as the weather got. Oh we had other pleasantries in the run, let's focus on them for a bit. It's great to be running with TV again, we joked about what people say when you mention doing a 100-miler (the best answer was from TV-- don't like driving 100 miles, well you just need to train for it!!); joked about how these hardships will make us stronger (and how we'll be running in nothing-but-shorts-and-gloves come March or April); and overall focused on positive things (which included an appreciation of that fact that the ground was freezing so it was less muddy, TV said it was like frosting, lol).
But oh the weather. What a lesson learned. TV had a mylar blanket in case something happened, but we needed more. We could have easily run by the truck for warmer clothes if we'd only had them available. By mile 4 I was mentally thinking "just do this 3 more times". By mile 7 I secretly wanted to quit. By mile 10 I quit looking at the Garmin, it was depressing. By mile 11.5 we were on an uphill horse trail with my face burning from the wind, and we decided that we'd average the half mile difference between our Garmins. By mile 13 I threw that idea out and said I'd be happy with at least 15 miles. By mile 14 I joked about heading to the truck for mile 15, starting the truck to warm it up, then running the last mile in parking lot circles around it. Then at mile 14 we got on the wrong road, I didn't recognize the house we ran by but kept going anyway. Soon after that TV found the positive that now we'd reach 16 miles! :) We did hit 16 miles, exactly at the trailhead and I didn't run another step. I admitted that at mile 7 I wanted to quit, he said the same!
I barely ate or drank because pulling my hands out of my mittens burned them, they were barely functioning and it took 3x as long to do anything. I ate only half a powerbar and a few sips of water! The misery didn't abate until 20 mins of a truck warming up (and happily the blower in the truck was working when we were done, it's been on and off the last few days). Our hands were swollen, my nose raw from wiping with a half-frozen snot-covered mitten, and my toes so cold I didn't know about the blood-filled blister I had until later in the day.
To top it off, my left back muscle is still a spaz-ma-taz, hurting the most when I start running from a stop. Ugh, what a day.
Some new Numerics for the year. Now that I realize how much I'm walking the dog I'm going to include it. Although that number could drop as the run miles pile up! And I set a goal of doing at least 15 minutes of strength, stretch, roll, meditate, something!, for at least 15 mins a day. So I'll add that in.
Next I need to register for my race!!
NUMERICS
SWIM zero
BIKE zero
RUN 44.4 miles in 8 hours
running as 8/3, 3/3, 7.1, 4.3, 16. So two work commutes.
BIKE COMMUTE 6.4 miles (1 trip)
WALKIES 14.3 miles!
Strength/stretching, rolling: 15 mins all four days of goal.
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