... your teeth are sensitive to the cold air outside
... your water bottles freeze
... the tips of your ears are painful and you wonder about frostbite
... gels become sludge and GU chomps become... unchompable...
I was out for my long run in beautiful, picturesque Inglewood on Sunday morning after my swim. Such a pretty little village from which all roads seemingly go uphilll. I was excited to be there because the sun was finally shining and it's such a pretty place! I was also excited to be there because I was on a character-building mission: to run hills on my LSD run.
I've decided that now I'm starting to build some speed and strength on my run, I owe it to myself to frequent hillier locales for my long runs. (Actually until now, I've been too afraid that I would have to walk most of the hills and not be able to run them, so I've put it off...) No more copping out by running the relatively flat streets around my house (not very scenic anyhow) or quietly creeping onto the treadmill at the gym for a long session of boredom-induced fantasy life. Nope - I'm headed for the hills!
It was actually a lovely day for a run. Lucky for me, before I hit the trail, I stuffed a few "Honey Stingers" (something I picked up in Lake Placid in the summertime - really yummy!) sport chews into my mouth and washed them down. I started off with about a 3k warmup on a 'flat' trail - of course, that was more like an agility course, because of the water, snow and ice which was solidly packed but broken up by oh so many foot and pawprints and downed tree limbs... so I hopped from place to place, trying not to break an ankle as I nimbly leaped over tree branches and super icy patches. After about 20 minutes of constantly telling myself to relax so that I wouldn't be as likely to injure anything if I went down, I'd had more than enough fun, so I ended up veering off my chosen path and going due north for a long, steady climb towards Forks of the Credit Road.
Wow. That was pretty miserable. I ran on the soft shoulder, facing oncoming traffic but it was ssssooooo..... ccccc-cold... I trundled along, looking lovingly at the outside of Flapjack's and trying to come up with a good reason to scrap my run and sit inside for warmth (and maybe a few pancakes...) but I wasn't in the mood to invent a reason to quit, so I went on. Slowly. Steadily. Uphill.
By the time I hit Forks of the Credit Road, life was looking up and I had hit the small rollers part of my route. I have no problem climbing a hill when I know that I get to descend on the other side :)
Right about then, I realized that I should really be eating... and imagine my delight to find my GU chomps (favourite fuel of choice) had frozen so hard that the only way I could describe them was as a lozenge. UGH! I sucked on a couple, trying vainly to run my frozen tongue around my mouth and the lump of stuff in my mouth - to melt it... so I could have a drink to wash it down and then spent about the last 5k of my run vainly trying to pick the sticky bits out of my teeth with my still frozen tongue. Not my finest hour. I think I was muttering aloud at that point. I gave up at that point, and instead just focused on drinking my icy-cold slushee - I mean, my E-Load, that I had carefully packed in my Fuel Belt...
Winter running is an acquired taste, I think. I've spoken to several people this year who will not run outside. They have been doing all of their training on a treadmill. While I like the treadmill for certain shorter training sessions, nothing bores me faster and makes me want to scream aloud, than thumping along going nowhere for an hour or more... We are so lucky that we have such pretty places to run that are within a 30 minute drive from home: Inglewood, Caledon, Terra Cotta, Milton, Niagara Escarpment... just to name a few.
I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep my fuel from freezing... clearly, having it in a fuel belt or fanny pack doesn't work, even though I wear them next to skin to provide warmth... Maybe it's time to try wrapping them in wool socks inside my carriers? Anyone else got any good ideas??
Happy Trails!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Race Report: Robbie Burns 8k - January 23, 2011
Each year, I like to do something 'fun' for my birthday - usually a birthday challenge kind of thing (although not as extreme as Jack LaLanne's birthday challenges... may he rest in peace...that man was amazing!)
This year, following 3 months in physio for my shoulder, I knew that it wouldn't be a swim challenge so instead, I signed up for the Robbie Burns 8k in Burlington, ON, trying for a PB in a running race.
I woke up at 6am to -29 temperatures and windows that were covered in ice. Oh, goody!!!! I sat in bed, eating oatmeal and cuddling a warm cat, wondering what my coach would do: suck it up and run or bail...
I waited... no emails granting permission to stay under a warm duvet seemed to be forthcoming... drat!!
Just to be sure, I fired off a tentative email at 7 am, sort of a 'conversation opener', to see if my coach would then suggest that taking a pass would be okay... the response was something like, 'dress warm and have fun!'. Oh. Okay, then... so I got up and starting putting on my many layers of clothing for the fun event.
Several layers later (about 4 to be exact...) and 3-5 frustrating bathroom breaks later (when was the last time you had to pull down 4 separate layers and get dressed again... sweating and roasting inside your clothing... only to finally get it all back together and realize you have to go again because your bladder recognizes that it's cold outside...????) it was time for the race to begin.
By then, I admit, I was bouncing around like the Happy Pixie... dancing to my iPod tunes at the start line and generally doing whatever I could to get the blood moving... I didn't hear a start gun but apparently there was one - and we were off!
It was fun to see the runners wearing kilts (over tights) and tartan accessories all around me. It was horrifying to see one man who was wearing ultra-short nylon running shorts with bare legs! I have no idea how he survived that - it looked painful!!
It took less than 2k for my glasses to fog up and then freeze, so that I literally couldn't see 2 feet in front of my face... I tried peering underneath them but it was uncomfortable, so not relishing having to explain that I broke an ankle because I couldn't see the road conditions, I pushed them off to the top of my hat and ran without... experiencing for the first time the feeling of icicles on my eyelashes - that was interesting...
Each time I glanced at my run pace it hovered around 6:25-6:35/km... I was still kind of on track... but I couldn't run without breaks yesterday - it was too cold and my asthmatic lungs protested too much!!
I don't recall 8k feeling like such a long way before yesterday but by the time the route hit Lakeshore Drive I was comfortably numb (or at least my lungs were...).
Two Ventolin breaks plus 2 more just to catch my laboured breath, and I could see the finish line. Yay!!! I hit a 5:45/km pace as I dashed (your definition of 'dash' may differ) across the finish line and then spent a few minutes doubled over sucking wind through my frozen balaclava before going to find Eric - who missed seeing me crossing the finish line - and then getting a bowl of hot oatmeal to warm up.
The Burlington Runners put on several races each year and I've done their events 3 times now. My first ever 5k was the Good Friday Road Race and although it was the hardest thing I had EVER done at that time, the race organizers did a superb job and there was a ton of swag to give away at the end for door prizes. I won a book at my first race!
Yesterday didn't disappoint: I won another door prize !!! Yay!!!!! As I ran down the auditorium aisle to pick up my prize, the guy just ahead of me, after accepting his, turned around and BAM! The hard, sharp plastic of the casing of his prize hit and scraped me across my eyelid and upper cheek. This is the problem with being 4'11" tall!! 'Regular' sized people just don't look down and I can't remember the amount of times I've been walked into, struck in the face by random elbows, or just not SEEN... because I'm the size of an average 10 year old kid. OMG - that hurt! Luckily he missed the eyeball itself... so I guess I got TWO door prizes...
Once again, the Burlington Runners put on a lovely race with great swag and a good feast afterwards. Way to go!!
Oh yeah - my finish time... was not what I had hoped (52:00) but instead was 55:37. Not so bad considering I had to stop 4 times... and still a PB for me (I've never run an official race of any distance at a pace under 7:00/km) so that was kind of neat :)
And for those of you that know me... this was the THIRD race event where I DID NOT STOP TO PET DOGS; In addition, I did not get passed by most of the walkers in the event and I actually PASSED a few people (other runners!). All in all, it was a good day. I'm so glad I didn't bail!
Stay warm, everyone!! Spring is coming... one of these days ;)
This year, following 3 months in physio for my shoulder, I knew that it wouldn't be a swim challenge so instead, I signed up for the Robbie Burns 8k in Burlington, ON, trying for a PB in a running race.
I woke up at 6am to -29 temperatures and windows that were covered in ice. Oh, goody!!!! I sat in bed, eating oatmeal and cuddling a warm cat, wondering what my coach would do: suck it up and run or bail...
I waited... no emails granting permission to stay under a warm duvet seemed to be forthcoming... drat!!
Just to be sure, I fired off a tentative email at 7 am, sort of a 'conversation opener', to see if my coach would then suggest that taking a pass would be okay... the response was something like, 'dress warm and have fun!'. Oh. Okay, then... so I got up and starting putting on my many layers of clothing for the fun event.
Several layers later (about 4 to be exact...) and 3-5 frustrating bathroom breaks later (when was the last time you had to pull down 4 separate layers and get dressed again... sweating and roasting inside your clothing... only to finally get it all back together and realize you have to go again because your bladder recognizes that it's cold outside...????) it was time for the race to begin.
By then, I admit, I was bouncing around like the Happy Pixie... dancing to my iPod tunes at the start line and generally doing whatever I could to get the blood moving... I didn't hear a start gun but apparently there was one - and we were off!
It was fun to see the runners wearing kilts (over tights) and tartan accessories all around me. It was horrifying to see one man who was wearing ultra-short nylon running shorts with bare legs! I have no idea how he survived that - it looked painful!!
It took less than 2k for my glasses to fog up and then freeze, so that I literally couldn't see 2 feet in front of my face... I tried peering underneath them but it was uncomfortable, so not relishing having to explain that I broke an ankle because I couldn't see the road conditions, I pushed them off to the top of my hat and ran without... experiencing for the first time the feeling of icicles on my eyelashes - that was interesting...
Each time I glanced at my run pace it hovered around 6:25-6:35/km... I was still kind of on track... but I couldn't run without breaks yesterday - it was too cold and my asthmatic lungs protested too much!!
I don't recall 8k feeling like such a long way before yesterday but by the time the route hit Lakeshore Drive I was comfortably numb (or at least my lungs were...).
Two Ventolin breaks plus 2 more just to catch my laboured breath, and I could see the finish line. Yay!!! I hit a 5:45/km pace as I dashed (your definition of 'dash' may differ) across the finish line and then spent a few minutes doubled over sucking wind through my frozen balaclava before going to find Eric - who missed seeing me crossing the finish line - and then getting a bowl of hot oatmeal to warm up.
The Burlington Runners put on several races each year and I've done their events 3 times now. My first ever 5k was the Good Friday Road Race and although it was the hardest thing I had EVER done at that time, the race organizers did a superb job and there was a ton of swag to give away at the end for door prizes. I won a book at my first race!
Yesterday didn't disappoint: I won another door prize !!! Yay!!!!! As I ran down the auditorium aisle to pick up my prize, the guy just ahead of me, after accepting his, turned around and BAM! The hard, sharp plastic of the casing of his prize hit and scraped me across my eyelid and upper cheek. This is the problem with being 4'11" tall!! 'Regular' sized people just don't look down and I can't remember the amount of times I've been walked into, struck in the face by random elbows, or just not SEEN... because I'm the size of an average 10 year old kid. OMG - that hurt! Luckily he missed the eyeball itself... so I guess I got TWO door prizes...
Once again, the Burlington Runners put on a lovely race with great swag and a good feast afterwards. Way to go!!
Oh yeah - my finish time... was not what I had hoped (52:00) but instead was 55:37. Not so bad considering I had to stop 4 times... and still a PB for me (I've never run an official race of any distance at a pace under 7:00/km) so that was kind of neat :)
And for those of you that know me... this was the THIRD race event where I DID NOT STOP TO PET DOGS; In addition, I did not get passed by most of the walkers in the event and I actually PASSED a few people (other runners!). All in all, it was a good day. I'm so glad I didn't bail!
Stay warm, everyone!! Spring is coming... one of these days ;)
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