According to my training plan, Saturdays are supposed to be my long run days. These are the days when I build up my endurance. I prefer to do long runs outside but this Saturday Mother Nature had other plans.
It started snowing on Friday and continued until approximately 4 PM on Saturday for a total of 8 inches of snow. Add that to the inch or so we got earlier this week and you've got 9 inches of snow coating the sidewalks and streets. While there are people who run in the snow, I'm not one of them. At least, not yet. So, instead, I got up, ate a bowl of cereal, and hopped on the treadmill for my long run of 6 miles at an 11:02 mile per minute pace.
It did not go very well. 11:02 felt very fast, I felt very tired and dehydrated, and, generally, I just didn't want to be on the treadmill. I knew that if I was outside I could run this distance at this pace but the treadmill was mentally beating me.
I ended up running just under 3.5 miles and walking another .25 before I ran out of time. I had places I needed to be on Saturday so I didn't have the luxury of just running the six miles at a more comfortable pace.
I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't make the whole distance on the treadmill. But, to be honest, I've NEVER run that distance on the treadmill at that pace.
I just want the snow to stop. I want to run on dry sidewalks. I don't want to worry about how to keep my feet warm and dry while running. Sadly, the weather isn't listening to me. This week is supposed to be another snowy cold snap.
I really want to do well at my first half-marathon. I just don't know if I can do this training in this weather.
To try and make myself feel better I just spent some time entering my previous race reports into this blog. I also need to figure out why my race countdown clock seems to think I only have 30 days left until my half-marathon on April 11th.
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4 comments:
Ugh, I cannot even imagine dealing with that. I don't know if I'd make it as a runner in those conditions. I cannot handle the treadmill, the longest I've ever gone on one is 2.5 miles. Props to you for doing it! I wonder if maybe there's an indoor track you could use somewhere? Still not as nice as outdoors, a bit boring and such, but maybe better than the treadmill? Some bloggers I've read have done crazy things like 18 mile TEMPO RUNS on their freaking treadmill. The girl is totally insane.
And I think your clock says "2 months 30 days", but it's kinda hard to see so maybe you missed the 2?
Don't worry, Erin, it'll happen. Treadmill training is definitely NOT fun. I think I went 9 miles once. YUCK. luckily we didn't get the snow down here and I was able to get in my long run outside. Even if it was a balmy 19 degrees.
Erin,
you are using a copyright protected picture on your blog. The snow picture above is copyright protected by Rolf Hicker Photography.
To avoid any questions I would put a link with the photo credit to their website.
I highly recommend that, otherwise you may get in trouble.
Holly- I ended up changing my countdown clock entirely. I think it had some kind of bug in it. Another blog that I read occasionally has the same clock and theirs also dropped the month from the clock.
Rob- I know I can run in cold. It's just all this snow that's driving me batty. I'm about to drive down there just to get long runs in. But thanks for the encouragement!
wildnis- I apologize for using the photo. I thought I had taken care of it by stating that it was from hickerphoto.com. I've gone ahead and changed it to a photo from a site that definitely lets you use photos as long as you post the website. Thanks for the concern, though.
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