The snow yesterday was bad enough for us runners, but then it was followed up last night and today by bitter cold. They were some of the lowest temperatures ever. It was actually below zero degrees and that didn't even include the windchill.
With those temperatures and the lack of good places to run, I ended up passing up on the BCR run this morning. I did kind of miss it because part of me wanted to run in those crazy temperatures. I also didn't sleep well last night, so that was another reason to pass it up. Props to those that were out there though. It definitely looked crazy.
Originally, I was planning on about 10 miles. Then when I saw the roads were still a little mess, I decided to cut it back to 5 miles. That would give me over 40 miles for the week. I passed on the 50k that I was signed up for this morning. I didn't want to battle snow conditions and end up injuring myself.
Because I saw everyone's facebook posts earlier in the morning, I went out for my run overdressed. I wore my jacket over top of my vest and long sleeve shirt. That was too much. The temperature still was only about 11 degrees out, but the sun was blazing and it wasn't windy.
I started off with a loop around my neighborhood. As usual, my eyes watered early on from the cold. The only difference was that they never stopped watering. The sun was so bright and combined with the snow, I had to squint all run long.
There were patches of snow here and there, but the road was very runnable. The wind was minimal, but you could feel the air was cold in a few directions. I cruised along. I had no idea what my pace was and I didn't care.
I decided after the first mile loop that I would head to the other neighborhood and I'd run the Blue Eagle 5k course. I'd then end with a shorter loop around my neighborhood.
I ended up running all over the road. Sometimes in the middle, sometimes on the side. It all depended on where I could find clean pavement. I only slipped once or twice. I had to watch for cars, but thankfully there weren't many out there.
Around 2.5 miles, I opened up both my jacket and vest. I felt some chafing issues potentially coming on and I didn't want to run into that problem. The cool air on my base layer was surprisingly refreshing and I didn't close my jacket or vest again.
I didn't even notice my pace at all until I got to mile 3.25. I looked down and was amazed that it was a 7:55 at the time. I figured I was going slow and likely running in the upper 8 minute range. This was faster than I usually am running on easy runs and I didn't put much effort into it.
I was thrilled to get to mile 4. I was amazed to see it was a 7:27 mile. The legs weren't feeling terrible at this point, but they definitely weren't sharp either. The uphills were a little tough.
I knew I'd have about half a mile to go when I got back to my neighborhood. That was almost dead on what I had remaining. I did the short loop around there to finish up. In the first loop earlier on a dog on its leash wanted a piece of me, but this time I had a peaceful finish.
It was a solid run to end a productive week. I had a great race to end the year, a fun LVRR group run to start the New Year and my first snowshoe run. Cutting my mileage this week will probably be better in the long term. I'll get back to big miles next week. I may run hills with a friend tomorrow and I'll also likely go for another snowshoe run. It should be fun.
5 miles - 38:42 (7:44 pace)
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