How cold is too cold?
I am turning into a southerner. I find myself getting cold all of the time. But I still enjoy winter running. Well at least most of the time I do. Yesterday's run was one of the most miserable I have ever done. We were recently the beneficiaries of two large winter storms exactly one week apart.
Last Saturday I went for a run during the storm. It was cold and the snow was coming down hard. But I was able to run in the tire tracks on the roads most of the time. It was a beautiful run except when I had to run directly into the wind, which wasn't too often. I kept the run short because running through snow really tires my legs out. The snow pelting my face during those times when I was apposing the wind caused skin issues later in the day, but I was feeling good.
Contrast that to yesterday. It wasn't too cold (about 30 degrees) and there was very little snow on the road. I had gone to the battlefield near my house because it had rained all night and many of the roads around here were pretty wet. The road that I ran on had been plowed but had sections where there was some slush...no problem. I have been slowly increasing my long run and had planned to do 9 miles either last week or yesterday. But since the road is only 3.5 miles long and the weather wasn't great, I decided to cut it short and do 7. The first mile was ok. The second was heavenly. It was so beautiful in that section of road. And the snow made everything very quiet.
I just had another 1.5 to do before the turn around. As I came out from the more wooded area and entered the open fields I started to realize that there was indeed quite a bit of snow coming down.....WET SNOW! And the wind seemed to be blowing harder than I had remembered. No problem, it was just another 1.5 miles to the turn around and I would have my back to the wind. I started hitting wind gusts that seemed like they were 50 miles an hour. I am sure they were not, but it seemed that way at the time. I kept checking my garmin to see how much longer I had before I could turn around. I climbed one final hill before the turn around and thanked God that I didn't have to go any further in that direction.
When I turned around the wind died down for about 10 seconds. Then it started back up more continuously than it had been before. I was sure this must be what it was like to run in Antarctica. The funny thing is that my body was actually a little too warm, but my face felt like an icicle. The wind didn't stop until I re-entered that beautiful wooded area of the road again. As beautiful as it was, I just couldn't enjoy it anymore. By this time, the dog and I were both so miserable that we had been pushing the pace and I ended up having to stop and walk multiple times. What is crazier than running in a blizzard...why, of course, walking in a blizzard! We spent the rest of the time alternating between walking and running just trying to get back to the car as quickly as possible. Then I tried to stretch without the wind blowing me over and we were on our way back home.
Funny, looking back on it, it doesn't seem that bad. But at the time, I know that those park rangers that drove by me were not the only ones who thought I was nuts for being out there. Oh well, at least I didn't have to do my long run on the treadmill.
Posted in: on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at at 3:40 PM
