Well, I went out and ran my 5.5 miles anyway. It was darn windy and the second I stepped onto the road, I regretted going. The wind cut right through my clothes and even my chest was cold. Next time I’m adding a heavy sweatshirt under my windbreaker. My wrists were cold too. The Forerunner was cold. Even the display was moving slowly. And my ankles were cold. My legs were cold. Wind went right through my sweats and the lycra I was wearing under them. And I’m not mentioning what else was cold but you can just guess how cold it was.

Enough whining?

I wore my HeadSokz hat thing. If you don’t have one but live in a cold climate, this is the thing to have. Wears like a hat that has a built-in scarf. Very warm, and I needed every bit of it today. The wind out there was just brutal.

There was 4 miles on the plan but I wanted to do 5. I went a little farther at the end of the run and then added a small detour through a closed neighborhood to finish the last mile. A small miscalculation added extra distance. At one point through this neighborhood, the wind was really strong and I tightened the strings on my Headsokz so that just one eye was peeking out. I need some skiing goggles.

At one point while I was on the main road, I realized that I was not running alone. I looked to my left and saw this big black dog with a red collar running along beside me. Just jogging along. I think he runs with his owner and got caught up in some kind of pavlovian conditioning thing and just started running with me. He gave up after a little while and headed home where it was warm. Wierd.

The last mile was pretty warm because the wind was at my back and the sun was in my face. I was able to pull the scarf back and have my face exposed. I found that opening and closing my hands as I ran, kept them warm, but I think I should wear mittens instead of gloves for the very cold days like this one.

Total time 51:11, 5.51 miles. 9:17 pace, which is just about where I wanted to be. I doubt it was very steady throughout the run because I was real slow going into the wind.

My poor wife has to work tonight and being the awful husband that I am, I forgot to warm up her car for her. She has asthma and its real rough for her when its cold. I’m not good about these things. I wanted to buy her a remote starter but since she parks in the garage it would be kinda stinky by the time she walked out to get in the car. I need one of those snorkels for the exhaust like they do at the repair shops.

Last thing. Last night at church, a bat was flying around inside. Its a very small church and only holds about 350 people when every seat is full and we’re all snug and cozy together, so a bat flying around is really obvious. The thing was swooping and dive bombing the congregation. It was tough not to laugh. I think they are pretty near-sighted so he would come within about 2 or 3 feet of you before veering away. The darn thing just couldn’t seem to find the open doors and windows. I think it took it about 30 minutes before someone was able to “guide” it out the door with their coat when it came close. Funny.

4 degrees? Its 4F outside. And windy. Windchill -10F. I don’t really need to run today do I?

I ran my 4 mile long run on the roads again today. I’m getting used to the surface and the hills. I think this is good for me since my races are on roads so far. Ok, the trail 1/2 won’t be, but today was like a trail run.

We had about 2 inches of snow on the dirt roads. The top was fluffy and the bottom was hard packed slush. Together with all the potholes, it had to be similar to trail running with all the slipping and sliding and sudden drops. Can’t wait for Santa to come and bring the Yaktrax.

I could feel my foot slide backwards on the pushoff and it reminded me of ChiRunning where they said to not do that. They say to lean forward, relax the lower legs and let gravity move you forward. I haven’t worked through the mechanics of all that and why you might be trying to make a perpetual motion machine with gravity, but I did notice that as I did these things, I stopped sliding in the slush.

Lots of horses out again today, all huddled around the hay pile, eating and trying to keep out of the wind I suspect. It was pretty gusty out and the snow blowing off the trees was tough to take in your face.

This was a really good run for my legs. I had no shin splint pain at all, depite the hills and the slipping. The wind picked up about halfway through and I ended up running into it on the way back, which dropped my pace down a bit. Still, shins were happy and I didn’t feel really dying out there. My breathing seemed like 4/4, but I always have trouble counting in time. Music minor in college, but no rhythm.

Stats: 4.0 miles, 36:17, 9:04 pace.