What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger

This Week's Mileage : 38.4

This has been the coldest/harshest week of weather I think I have ever run in.  I've certainly run in cold and bad weather before, but not for an entire week!  If I didn't have a race in 2 weeks I probably would have wimped out on several of my runs this week.  But I'm glad I had the incentive to get out there and exercise because even if the run is rough, I still feel much better than if I just sit at home being lazy.

Wednesday : 5.56 / 40:41 / 7:19
-Worst run of the week.  It was 21 degrees out, so slightly warmer than Tuesday, but the wind was absolutely brutal.  No fun at all.

Thursday : 4.85 / 33:30 / 6:54
-Didn't get home from school until 5:30 so it was a race against time trying to get done running before full darkness and before it got any colder than it already was. (14 degrees).  It was a great run though, I felt good, and flew around town, getting more than the 4 miles I had planned on for the day.  First time in about a month that I hit a sub 7 min/mile pace.

Friday : 3 miles on the dreadmill, 15 min/2746 m on the rowing machine
-School was cancelled due to an impending snow storm, but I ended up too awake to go back to asleep, and had a friend at the med school gym offering to let me in, so I decided to attempt a run on the dreaded treadmill to give myself a day off from running in the cold.  It was not worth it.  I had planned on 5 miles for the day, but I started feeling like death about 2 miles in, and barely managed to complete the 3rd mile.  It was pure torture.  Sad to say, it is actually more enjoyable for me to run outside in 14 degrees than it is for me to run on the dreadmill.  I will not be repeating that experiment.

Saturday : 11.61 / 1:32:34 / 7:58
-The roads were still pretty snowy today from yesterday's snowstorm.  I had planned on running 11 miles either today or tomorrow, but wasn't sure I would be able to manage it with this weather.   I certainly could not do the mountain loop I had planned, it would have been much too treacherous.  Today I decided to just go for a run, and let the road conditions decide how far I would go.  I kept the pace slower than usual to help from slipping, but it really wasn't that slippery out, because it's so cold.  I felt pretty good, so I just kept running.  I wasn't wearing my GPS watch so I had to guess at mileage, but at some point I decided that I would run until an hour and a half had passed.  Time spent on my feet is more important to preparing for my race than distance is anyway.  When I got home and mapped the run, I was glad to see that it got me over 11 miles though.


I believe I have earned my day off for tomorrow...hopefully the weather will be slightly more cooperative next week!