Monday 1/25
If you are tired of hearing me talk about how magical the running the running is in Casper, this is the day for you. Today was anything but magical. My phone said it was 7 degrees but feels like 1 degree. Okay, I suit up and head out. Miserable, right from the get go. While running in the snow is amazing, running in snow that has been driven on and melted then refrozen is the exact opposite of amazing. I was struggling to find places I could run and not be in danger of slip sliding to my death. My hands were so cold. Since the temps have dipped into the single digits I have been using handwarmers in my gloves. They were doing absolutely nothing for me this morning. My hands were hurting so bad. I didn’t run 8 miles, but I toughed it out for 5 miles. It was taking so long that I was running out of time. On top of that, when I got home my fingers hurt so much, I wanted to cry. I had to skip a shower because I knew a hot shower would make my hands hurt worse. Instead, I stripped out of my cold clothes to put on something warm and then just sat on my hands waiting for them to warm up and stop hurting. Terrible pace but something is better than nothing I guess.
Tuesday 1/26
With the exception of yesterday I have been fine winter running. I haven’t been cold and running has gone fine. I am not always running as fast as I want due to wind or because the surface is a little tricky or because it seems to take me a lot more miles to warm up body to do any fast running. But after how terrible yesterday was, I felt a lot of apprehension about running this morning. But I knew if I waited until the afternoon, I would regret it. I would have to deal with ice and snow with the added pain of dealing with traffic.
It was actually a pretty nice morning. I ended up running 13 miles before needing to get home to get ready for work.
Wednesday 1/28
The wind is back. These 20 to 30 mph winds are pretty normal and not so bad to run in, but the gusts were 60 to 70 mph. What I have learned about that is that is that it’s dangerous. One because I have trouble controlling where my body goes and two because things can fly at me. Things like tree branches. It’s not good. My gym membership is still on hold until February, so I didn’t have access to a treadmill. I decided to take a rest day and just tried to let it go.
Thursday 1/29
Those 60 to 70 mph gusts are still blowing strong. They have taken down some big tree branches and even a whole tree at the park close to my apartment. There was no way I was running outside. I thought about paying the day fee at YMCA because it literally across the street from my work. In the end I decided to run up and down the stairs in my apartment building. I would run up and down for 5 minutes and then do 3 minutes or so of weights. I did that for an hour. I am pretty sure I used muscles I never use. I am going to pay for this. Not a run but for an hour my heart was beating a lot harder than it does when I am running.
Friday 1/30
I woke up and I couldn’t face the idea of dealing with wind and dodging ice in the dark. Campus clears out by noon on Friday so I figured I could get in an afternoon run. I rationalized it by telling myself that it would be better to wait until I had picked my resupply of handwarmers in my work mailbox. What I forgot at 4:30am when I woke up was that I had a nail appointment at 1:30pm. By the time I left for my nail appointment I knew I wasn’t going to be running. The wind had picked up and the traffic downtown was a nightmare, it always is on Friday afternoon. Some guy decided he just HAD to beat me through the light. He was turning right, and his car slipped and skidded. This idiot could have taken me out as well as other cars on the street. I had already almost been taken out just trying to walk less than a block to the bank. While I was getting my nails done, I saw a woman run past the nail salon and thought for a minute that I might talk myself into running, but that was a lie. My total mileage for the week was never going to be what I wanted if I ran today or I didn’t.
Saturday 1/31
I drank my coffee as slow as possible to avoid running in the dark as much as possible. Dressed and ready to head out I grabbed the new handwarmers. They were not what I thought. Before I was using a pack that when opened had 2 small handwarmers. This large packet had one large handwarmer. This is bad because it means the box I bought is not going to last anywhere near as long as I planned. I was worried about them fitting it my gloves, but it worked out okay with my cotton gloves. I’m not sure they will be such a great fit in my Gore-tex gloves.
There is a route I have run once before that I have been wanting to run again but involves get to the other side of town, a whole three miles from my apartment. But it requires crossing quite a few big intersections with stop lights and I worry about being seen in the dark. It’s a great neighborhood for running. As evidenced by all the runners I saw. This was the most runners I have ever seen out at one time since I got here.
This was the kind of run where I started out thinking I would just be happy with whatever I got but the turned into the kind of run where you start thinking you can run tons of miles until it all falls apart. I told myself to not worry about mileage and just run until I didn’t want to run. But I was in my heart hoping for 20 miles. It was the perfect weather for running. Unfortunately, when I got to about 16 miles or so my hamstring and IT band on my right side started act cranky. The hamstring is probably a holdover from aggravating it running in the snow. I think the cranky IT Band might be related to my super tight and sore calves from all the stair running. They had been bugging me a bit the whole run. But I did it. I got 20 miles done.
In the afternoon I causally glance out the window and see it’s snowing again. I don’t mind the snow, what I don’t like is the after math of the snow. I keep telling myself to just get through February and the weather will improve. I have no idea if that is the truth or not, but I refuse t try and find out. I want to hold on to that dream. Luckily it was a very light and brief snow.
Sunday 1/31
I have a favorite flat route that I don’t get to run often because I am running in the dark usually. I have run this route in the dark and it felt pretty safe except that one time I saw something. What that something was I couldn’t be certain. A dog? A coyote? A wolf? I mean probably not a wolf, but I did see one once and there are reports their populations are on the rise in the area. Once I see a dog just wondering around, I never like to run that route again. It’s rare for me to feel worried about being attacked by a person. I worry a lot about being attacked by a dog.
Once I got myself warmed up, I decided to try to push the pace a bit. I figured I could just keep trying to lower the pace and see what happened. My legs were tired so it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be good practice for late in a race. It was tough but going okay. The path I was running is dirt/gravel and in the later miles it was hard to get traction. Fine but it was making my hamstring very upset. It’s an out back route. On the way back I was running into the wind and the wind was picking up. The wind wasn’t terrible but trying to push the pace into the wind was not great for my hamstring. And the route is a false flat. It’s actually a bit of a climb on the way back to my apartment. It was the hardest workout of my life but after not doing in fast running in a while it was better than nothing.
If you are tired of hearing me talk about how magical the running the running is in Casper, this is the day for you. Today was anything but magical. My phone said it was 7 degrees but feels like 1 degree. Okay, I suit up and head out. Miserable, right from the get go. While running in the snow is amazing, running in snow that has been driven on and melted then refrozen is the exact opposite of amazing. I was struggling to find places I could run and not be in danger of slip sliding to my death. My hands were so cold. Since the temps have dipped into the single digits I have been using handwarmers in my gloves. They were doing absolutely nothing for me this morning. My hands were hurting so bad. I didn’t run 8 miles, but I toughed it out for 5 miles. It was taking so long that I was running out of time. On top of that, when I got home my fingers hurt so much, I wanted to cry. I had to skip a shower because I knew a hot shower would make my hands hurt worse. Instead, I stripped out of my cold clothes to put on something warm and then just sat on my hands waiting for them to warm up and stop hurting. Terrible pace but something is better than nothing I guess.
Tuesday 1/26
With the exception of yesterday I have been fine winter running. I haven’t been cold and running has gone fine. I am not always running as fast as I want due to wind or because the surface is a little tricky or because it seems to take me a lot more miles to warm up body to do any fast running. But after how terrible yesterday was, I felt a lot of apprehension about running this morning. But I knew if I waited until the afternoon, I would regret it. I would have to deal with ice and snow with the added pain of dealing with traffic.
It was actually a pretty nice morning. I ended up running 13 miles before needing to get home to get ready for work.
Wednesday 1/28
The wind is back. These 20 to 30 mph winds are pretty normal and not so bad to run in, but the gusts were 60 to 70 mph. What I have learned about that is that is that it’s dangerous. One because I have trouble controlling where my body goes and two because things can fly at me. Things like tree branches. It’s not good. My gym membership is still on hold until February, so I didn’t have access to a treadmill. I decided to take a rest day and just tried to let it go.
Thursday 1/29
Those 60 to 70 mph gusts are still blowing strong. They have taken down some big tree branches and even a whole tree at the park close to my apartment. There was no way I was running outside. I thought about paying the day fee at YMCA because it literally across the street from my work. In the end I decided to run up and down the stairs in my apartment building. I would run up and down for 5 minutes and then do 3 minutes or so of weights. I did that for an hour. I am pretty sure I used muscles I never use. I am going to pay for this. Not a run but for an hour my heart was beating a lot harder than it does when I am running.
Friday 1/30
I woke up and I couldn’t face the idea of dealing with wind and dodging ice in the dark. Campus clears out by noon on Friday so I figured I could get in an afternoon run. I rationalized it by telling myself that it would be better to wait until I had picked my resupply of handwarmers in my work mailbox. What I forgot at 4:30am when I woke up was that I had a nail appointment at 1:30pm. By the time I left for my nail appointment I knew I wasn’t going to be running. The wind had picked up and the traffic downtown was a nightmare, it always is on Friday afternoon. Some guy decided he just HAD to beat me through the light. He was turning right, and his car slipped and skidded. This idiot could have taken me out as well as other cars on the street. I had already almost been taken out just trying to walk less than a block to the bank. While I was getting my nails done, I saw a woman run past the nail salon and thought for a minute that I might talk myself into running, but that was a lie. My total mileage for the week was never going to be what I wanted if I ran today or I didn’t.
Saturday 1/31
I drank my coffee as slow as possible to avoid running in the dark as much as possible. Dressed and ready to head out I grabbed the new handwarmers. They were not what I thought. Before I was using a pack that when opened had 2 small handwarmers. This large packet had one large handwarmer. This is bad because it means the box I bought is not going to last anywhere near as long as I planned. I was worried about them fitting it my gloves, but it worked out okay with my cotton gloves. I’m not sure they will be such a great fit in my Gore-tex gloves.
There is a route I have run once before that I have been wanting to run again but involves get to the other side of town, a whole three miles from my apartment. But it requires crossing quite a few big intersections with stop lights and I worry about being seen in the dark. It’s a great neighborhood for running. As evidenced by all the runners I saw. This was the most runners I have ever seen out at one time since I got here.
This was the kind of run where I started out thinking I would just be happy with whatever I got but the turned into the kind of run where you start thinking you can run tons of miles until it all falls apart. I told myself to not worry about mileage and just run until I didn’t want to run. But I was in my heart hoping for 20 miles. It was the perfect weather for running. Unfortunately, when I got to about 16 miles or so my hamstring and IT band on my right side started act cranky. The hamstring is probably a holdover from aggravating it running in the snow. I think the cranky IT Band might be related to my super tight and sore calves from all the stair running. They had been bugging me a bit the whole run. But I did it. I got 20 miles done.
In the afternoon I causally glance out the window and see it’s snowing again. I don’t mind the snow, what I don’t like is the after math of the snow. I keep telling myself to just get through February and the weather will improve. I have no idea if that is the truth or not, but I refuse t try and find out. I want to hold on to that dream. Luckily it was a very light and brief snow.
Sunday 1/31
I have a favorite flat route that I don’t get to run often because I am running in the dark usually. I have run this route in the dark and it felt pretty safe except that one time I saw something. What that something was I couldn’t be certain. A dog? A coyote? A wolf? I mean probably not a wolf, but I did see one once and there are reports their populations are on the rise in the area. Once I see a dog just wondering around, I never like to run that route again. It’s rare for me to feel worried about being attacked by a person. I worry a lot about being attacked by a dog.
Once I got myself warmed up, I decided to try to push the pace a bit. I figured I could just keep trying to lower the pace and see what happened. My legs were tired so it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be good practice for late in a race. It was tough but going okay. The path I was running is dirt/gravel and in the later miles it was hard to get traction. Fine but it was making my hamstring very upset. It’s an out back route. On the way back I was running into the wind and the wind was picking up. The wind wasn’t terrible but trying to push the pace into the wind was not great for my hamstring. And the route is a false flat. It’s actually a bit of a climb on the way back to my apartment. It was the hardest workout of my life but after not doing in fast running in a while it was better than nothing.
