NEARLY UNBEARABLE

Since my last post talked about being interviewed for this article on winter running, I thought I’d start by posting the story. I think the author did a really good job of tying things together – even though one of the interviewees is a self-described “fair-weather runner” in the winter. Sorry HKM, I couldn’t resist.

One of the guys said that you can’t overheat in the winter. I beg to differ. Saturday the weather channel said it was -7, so I got all bundled up. On the way to my group run the radio said it was 3 above. Plus I forgot to into account the pace that this group runs, which can really heat a person up. Anyway, I was so overdressed it was nearly unbearable.

I’m not sure if it was because I was overdressed or what, but 11 miles into this 16 mile (rounding up from 15.5) run, I was done. I fell off the pace and the last 5 miles were a miserable slog. I guess that’s what you get when you run with people who all have marathon PRs that are 20 minutes faster than your own.

Throw in a 10 mile run on Friday and I ended up with 78 miles for the week.

Sunday, I literally spent 3 hours straight, ice skating. When I was a kid, I went ice skating nearly every night I loved it so much. This is really the first year my oldest daughter has tried it and she absolutely loves it too. She would go into the warming house for a drink of water, but she never took a break – other than sitting in the snow bank to eat snow.

I got in an easy 5 miles Sunday night and frankly I’m surprised I got in any miles, since I was so tried from skating.

There’s another guy in town who runs and does triathlons. I usually bump into him at a few races during the year. Yesterday I actually bumped into him at the rink. Of course we talked running/tris. He’s always wondering if I’m training for another Ironman – even though I tell him I haven’t swum in since 2003.

He’s also always curious about my running mileage. When I told him I was running about 75 mpw he said something like, “Why? You’re not training [for Grandma’s] yet are you?” I never know how to respond to this. Am I supposed to sit around and do nothing until something like 12 or 16 weeks out from the marathon? We’re runners, that’s what we do – run!

I mentioned something about winter being the ideal time to build my base. Again I got, “Why?” These questions are coming from someone who’s teaching beginning running classes and marathon training classes at a local health club.

I’ll end with an updated journal entry from my favorite (male) runner.

Quote of the day;

“The problem with big kickers is they often lose to other big kickers.” – Harry Groves, Penn State coach