Weekend runs

Hello winter, nice to finally meet you this year.  This will be my fist adventure into running in the winter.  In previous years I either hibernate, recover from some injury or hide in the gym and strength train.  This winter will be different.  I have four half marathons coming up in the spring, two in april, one in may and one in june.  So i don't get the luxury of taking the winter off this year and I am okay with that.  I don't want to loose what i have and have to start over.  Starting over is tough.  I like where I am at now and I don't want that to ever change.

Had my first really tough day saturday.  Let's just say feels like 16 with 20 mph winds.  The kind that cut you like a knife.  My running partner actually turned around and went back.  I was tempted but I wanted to be tough and get through it.  There will be worse days for sure.  I figured if i could master that day, I could make it through most anything.  The bad thing was, my watch wouldn't find satellites and I had my phone buried in layers so when my BRF peeled off to go back, I had to hurriedly dig my phone out and probably missed at least a mile.  The miles i got on my phone and watch were 5.68 miles in 57:28 or 5.85 in 59:18.  Both had me at about a 10:08 minute mile.  I know I at least ran a mile before I got anything turned on.  I am SO excited because that is so much quicker than my usual "easy" runs and that was with the wind and cold!!!!  I need to do a race to see where I am at.  Apparently cold weather makes me run faster!  When I got home and in the house, I was aware at how cold it really was.  I was numb all over.  I couldn't use my hands at all even though I had gloves on.  I couldn't get stella's harness off and had to have tony get it off because she was running through the house dragging me.  I am happy with my winter gear that i have purchased.  I did not feel cold at all even though the wind was howling. I ran in my new target tights, my new brook's headband, my mizuno thermal breath shirt and my brook's jacket that i got at the expo with my new target gloves.  Target has some good stuff so if you need new gear and want to save money, go to target.  I got my mizuno stuff on the sale rack before last spring so didn't pay full price.  The only thing I would like is maybe some mittens to put over my gloves when it is super cold and maybe something to cover my face on really windy runs.

Today it was a bit warmer.  I think it felt like 21.  I took stella and deuce.  I had four on the docket but since I ran a little bit more yesterday, i could run 3.37 and be good to go.  We just ran.  I looked at my watch when the first mile passed, 9:25.  Hmmm...felt easy.  Next mile 9:19.  Still felt easy.  9:35 last mile because deuce took a poop and I had to stop.  Wow.  PR on my five K.  WOW.  That didn't even feel hard.  Major runner's high.  Immediately entered a race in december when I got home.  I always run faster in a race than I do at home by myself and bonus, this run I can run with stella.  Stay tuned!  Hope I can PR in this race too!  3.43 miles in 32:08.  Let's do this and do it right!