Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Even Cold February Rain

Yesterday it was beautiful out.  Today was terrible though.  It was barely above freezing and raining.  I thought of going out in the afternoon.  I hoped it would be better in the evening.  It did warm up a little.  I headed out around my neighborhoods for what I hoped would be 10 miles.

I wore my shell over a long sleeve shirt.  I had my gloves and headband.  Tights were the bottom layer.  Going into the wind was quite chilly.  The other way, it was warm.  The real issue is that I eventually got wet and became very cold.  I couldn't have lasted much longer.  This was a tricky temperature, especially combined with the rain.

I wore my compression socks all day.  Whenever I do that, it seems to help my legs out a ton.  They felt pretty good throughout this run.  Some of the uphills were a slight struggle, but overall I wasn't bad considering I put 16 miles on the legs yesterday.

I started off with a partial loop of my neighborhood.  I didn't go around the circle.  I had thought I charged my headlamp battery, but it was still dead.  Luckily, there aren't many cars.  I wore a reflective vest.  Of course, I saw two cars in this first loop.

I went down to the school and was around mile 1.  I headed out to the first small loop.  I heard a new dog's collar making noise.  It didn't bark or follow me though.  Without a light, I could only see my watch when I went by houses with lights on outside.

I did that loop and went into the older part.  By the time I was back to the main loop, it was over 3 miles.  Time was flying.  However, I was getting wet.  It wasn't raining hard, but more than I had expected.

As I headed out, I saw a car approaching.  I decided to cross the street.  I nearly ran into a dog walker.  I didn't see her.  She did see me I guess, as she moved over.

I went on to the next loop.  I didn't quite do this whole one either.  It was only partial.  I was struggling to get myself to do a lot.  However, I knew the more I could force myself to do, the less I would need to do when back at the school.

After this loop, I was somewhere around 5.5 miles I think.  I knew I had a terrible uphill coming.  I took my time with it.  Of course the pace wasn't fast.  I wasn't going to go into the extra loop with the big hill, but I ended up doing so.  It's a nice mile.

The wind was tricky because it was the opposite direction from normal.  I was near the 2 miles to go part of the loop and I realized my shirt underneath was soaked and my stomach was getting very cold.  I was hoping I could tough it out.  I put my hand there to warm it up for a bit.

Regardless, I had to at least run home and that would get me to mile 9.  Things were a little better when I had the wind at my back, but that wasn't much on this return.  Mostly, I was heading into the wind.

I finished up the route without much else happening.  Three cars did go by at once.  Before that, I'm not sure if there were even 10 cars out throughout the entire run.  I did a short out and back.  That got me to the school at a little over 9 miles.

I knew I was wet and cold, but I was also determined.  I figured it wasn't dangerous yet and one more mile likely wouldn't make that much of a difference, so I kept running.  I ran behind the school first.  That got me to around 9.7 miles.

I finished up with a loop around the parking lot.  Some cars were still there.  I guess for basketball practice.  I was cold and wet, but I was glad to be done.  I made it to double digit miles.  I made the short walk home.

Tomorrow looks to be another crappy, rainy day.  At least it will be warmer.  Winter rain sucks, especially when it is nearly freezing.  I'd love to be able to get into double digit miles again.  A 60-65 mile week would be awesome.

10 miles - 1:29:25 (8:57 pace) 200 feet of elevation gain

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