"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Winter of Our Discontent

I counted back a certain number of weeks from when I wanted to race and set a starting date to train. Fortunately, the temperature climbed to freezing at that same point and I called it a sign of good things to come. It's now our second winter of the year (and it's not quite March yet!); today's the warmest day of the week (17 degrees predicted), but the windchill is -20. Cabin fever is making me verge on psychotic - I have brief moments of thinking about starting things on fire, just for the warmth, just for a change. It is a grim, bleak landscape here in the hinterlands. I saw a long-term forecast and no relief is in sight for a month!

Okay. Enough complaining. Here's the 1986 winter carnival ice palace. My house would be just to the left of the photo.


On Saturday, I managed to run 7 slow miles, without stopping and without coughing, wheezing or limping. All I need to do is run two minutes per mile faster, twice as far and on a regular basis and I'll be back. Piece of cake, right?


4 comments:

Robyn said...

This winter is driving me crazy, and I say that as someone who LIKES winter and winter running! Want to meet up at Lebanon Hills some time for a trail run? I might be able to keep up with you in your current state, and the change of scenery could be nice.

PiccolaPineCone said...

too tired and, i'll be honest, drank too much wine to say anything very insightful but I wanted to mention that I loved the title of your post.

wildknits said...

This last dip below zero, especially with the crazy winds, has forced many of us winter lovers to start whining.

On the plus side - it stays light to 6:00 pm now. Daylight is good. And with the cold comes more sunshine. And the trails should firm up nicely (yeah, I know, weak attempt to turn this into something positive).

Maybe they should have a second Winter Carnival to go along with our second winter?

Londell said...

I miss the Ice Palace days... What an amazing display of ... ICE.