Alright, back again for another entry. So this entry represents the first time where my personal schedule made my training a little bit harder than it should have been. So, as I mentioned in the last entry, my schedule last week was pretty horrible. Thankfully for me though, this past weekend was the first weekend where I had both days off since before Thanksgiving. As such, Renee and I had a few Christmas Parties planned. As is always the case, we ended up enjoying the parties a little bit too much and I spent most of the weekend laying low on the couch recovering from a busy work week and a couple of late nights at the xmas parties. Always in the back of my mind was the fact that I needed to get in a long run, but since my schedule was lightening up this week I should be able to fit it in on Monday since I was planning on getting out of work around 230 or so. The only problem with my plan, which I didn't find out until Monday, was that I didn't take the weather report into the big picture.
So fast forward to Monday. The weekend is over and I am planning on fitting in a 6-7 mile run. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn't get that memo and decided to drop the first winter type weather on Boston. The morning started out OK, but as the day progressed it started to get cold with temps in the 20's, windy with gusts of 15-20 mph and there was always the occasional flurry of snow. As I had planned earlier, I got out of work around 230 or so and headed home on the bus. Renee was trapped on the Cape, fighting with the insane traffic that gets caused by the first snow storm of the year (where somehow most New Englanders magically forget how to drive in the snow and end up in the snow bank), so when I arrived home it was just our dog Chloe there to great me. I sat on the couch for about 5 minutes trying to think of what to do, as I figured there were a few options that I could potentially take: 1- Change into my gym stuff, hop back on the bus, and do my long run at the YMCA (from my previous blog you know that I dread being on a treadmill for long periods of time due to boredome), 2- Try to wait it out for a bit and if the weather didn't improve I would scrap the long run for the week (unfortunately the old "I'll do it tomorrow" wasn't an option since I was working a 30 hr shift), or 3- Man up and just do the run outside because this is what I get for not having done it over the weekend as I had planned. This one played out in my head for a solid 5 minutes before I made a decision ...
So ... one pair of underarmour spandex pants, warm up pants, underarmour long sleeve, regular long sleeve shirt, insulated sweatshirt, hat, gloves and neck warmer later ... I was outside getting ready to go for my run. Honestly, didn't know if it was a great decision or not but deep down I keep reminding myself that this is really a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. Looking ahead, I don't know when I will have the time or ability to train and get a spot in the Boston Marathon so I want to make sure I do everything I can to complete it.
So I started our Garmin watch and headed out. Not going to lie, it felt like I was carry a 20 lb weight with all of the winter gear I was suited up in. I headed out on my normal route ... down E 2nd Street to Dorchester, up the hill and around the Dunkin Donuts to West Broadway. When I hit the Dunkin Donuts which is about the 0.5 mile mark I definitely had my doubts as to whether or not I was going to be able to finish this run. It was windy ... and anyone who has run in Southie knows that for some reason it is the only place on earth that no matter which direction you run the wind is in your face. Not only that, but as there was about 1/4 inch of fresh snow on the ground, the wind was able to kick it up which made it even colder.
I managed to push through a little bit despite the cold. Thankfully, once I had finished that first mile I started to warm up. My face was no longer cold from the powdery snow, instead it seemed to just melt when it him me. I had also built up some body head and my chest, arms and hands were back to normal. I kept going on the run and eventually I had finished two miles in just about 20 minutes. Overall, it didn't seem like a bad pace given the conditions and all the clothes I was wearing. I took a short 30-45 second walk and then picked up my pace again. Since I didn't want to dare running around castle island since the wind is honestly about 10x stronger down there, I decided to run down Summer Street to South Station. Once at South Station I hooked a right and ultimately came back towards Southie through the Seaport. At this point in time, I had developed a good stride / pace and surprisingly felt pretty damn good. I was definitely getting some weird looks as I was the only one out there who was running (literally, not even I saw anyone else dumb enough to do it). I hit the 4 mile mark at 41 minutes and felt good.
My doubts of whether or not I would finish the run had pretty much gone away, now the only thing I was fighting was the fact that it was getting dark out and that the snow was building up alittle. I hooked back on Summer Street heading back into South Boston. When I got to the corner of E 1st and Summer I was at 4.6 miles, which was perfect since I knew that running down to the end of E 1st and back was 0.75 mi each way and that would put me at my goal of 6. I took another 1 minute walk before digging out my last leg. Unfortunately, the run back down E 1st was pretty hard since the wind literally put me at a standstill a couple of times.
In the end I completed 6 miles in cold, windy and snow drift conditions in 1 hr 1 minute. Overally, I was pretty happy with that performance for a few reason. 10 min / mile is really what I aim for on these long runs. I have learned from a lot of reading and my own experience (which isn't much) that the most important thing is doing the time and getting in the distance. This is a huge contrast from how I used to run back in med school where once I couldn't run any more I was done. I have found that walking a few times but completing the set distance, even if the time sucks, is the most important thing. The last thing this run proved to me, is that I am able to run in cold weather. Before this I had had my doubts as to whether or not I woul be able to manage when the true New England winter weather hit, but I think this puts it to rest.
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