When Will it End?

Anyone that knows me, knows I'm a fan of winter running.  I like to be out there when no one else does.  I love the mental challenge of running in adverse conditions.  I feel like that running through winter made me tougher before my second marathon a few years ago.  I also hate summer running because I sweat too much.  All that said, even I am getting fed up with this winter.

Things would be fine if it ever let up.  I would kill for 3 or 4 straight days of temperatures at 40 degrees with little wind.  Instead, every day seems to be around the freezing mark with the wind chill of 25 degrees or less.  Today, I think both of those numbers were even lower.

Today was time for my weekly Trexler run.  This is the 5th week in a row that I've headed out there.  I knew the weather was going to be tough, I just didn't anticipate how bad the conditions would actually be.  There was snow north of us yesterday, but only flurries here.  The ground around my house is clear of any snow.  As I drove to Trexler, I noticed a decent amount of snow in the fields. 

Things seemed even worse when I arrived at my destination.  There must have been close to an inch of snow on the trail.  That was disappointing.  I was expecting a clear trail for the first time in weeks.  Instead, I had another tough run on my hands. 

The wind was brutal.  There was no question that I was going to wear gloves, a headband and a fleece vest in addition to a long sleeve shirt and pants.  I sure did need it with all the wind and cold air at the start.  Some of the areas where I was shielded from the wind, it was warm.  Most of the time, I was freezing and often my eyes were watering.

I started off heading the usual direction.  The snow was solid and crunchy.  That seemed kind of nice.  I had to be cautious though because it looked icy in spots.  That was especially the case under trees where precipitation must have fallen and frozen on the ground.  There were a pair of footprints on the ground.  At first I thought it was one set, but it turned out to be two.  The prints were icy, so I ran on snow and made sure to avoid them.  Later on when I was coming back, I noticed my prints were snowy.  That meant that these two people must've came through right after the storm.  I came after everything had frozen over.

I went up the big hill and thought to myself that it was pretty easy.  That didn't last long though.  It was a grind.  Even though there was grip, I think it took a lot of work to dig into the snow.  By the top of the hill, I was just barely running.  I'm not sure I would even call it running, but at least I wasn't walking.

Going up that hill was so much work that I was breathing heavy for quite awhile on the next downhill.  Recovery is tough, but thankfully there is a lot of downhill after that hill.  When I went down the short but steep hill onto the road, I had to be careful.  It was icy and so was the road out of the nature preserve.  I ran in the clear path that cars had made with their tires.  That seemed to work.

Going through the snow covered rocks was slightly tricky as it often is.  The wind is always blasting in my face here and my eyes water, making it tough to see the rocks.  After the rocks, I headed up the long hill.

My foot was bothering me and I was just going slowly up hill and working too hard.  I was very disappointed in the conditions.  I can deal with cold and windy, tough terrain and hills, but I couldn't deal with all of the above.  When I got to the first part of the hill where it flattens out, I just turned around.

At this point, I recognized that this run was basically a waste.  I was 1.5 miles out, but there was no way I'd be able to make it up the hills on the way back.  I ran back on the road and when I got to the trail at 2 miles, I just decided to stop and cut my losses.  I figured that I would call it a day and stop wasting my time.

At least I gave running a try today.  If I knew it was that bad, I might not have even gone to Trexler today.  I don't know though because I really do want to keep my streak alive.  Since this run was so short, I knew I needed to run again to get some decent mileage.  I thought about running after a high school basketball game tonight.  However, I just wasn't up for it.  It is even colder than it was during the day.

Tomorrow evening is the LVRR Group Run.  Since today was a waste, I am going to try to run twice.  I talked to Flo and she is running from Penn Pump Park at 7:30 AM.  That should work for my first run of the day.  I need to go early because there is a chance I could be working tomorrow around lunch time.  Hopefully I take it easy if I run with her.

This weather is so frustrating.  It is next to impossible to get a quality workout in.  I can't wait for March and April when I can really ramp up my training.  I'm curious to see how well I can run on a clear Trexler trail.  I want to fix my flat tire and start cycling more.  Between running and biking, I'd like to get 2 workouts in on most days this spring and summer.  I need to be more serious and work on improving.  My legs can't afford too much of a pounding though.

2 miles - 19:09 (9:35 pace)