Winter Running...

...is pretty awful.

And I know I have it good living in the south. Our winters are short and mild compared to many other places. But I'm over winter running.

It's been colder here than usual, dipping way below freezing. There's been no snow or ice so that's helpful, but these temperatures still aren't conducive to running outside. I did a long run Saturday with the running group. Because there are over hundred people, it's usually lively along the route. Lots of conversations and laughing, but not Saturday. It seemed everybody felt like I did. Drudging along in silence. No stopping to drink water. Silently cursing the wind. Constant inner dialogue about why it's important to get the miles in. Realizing around mile four that I still hadn't warmed up. Then again at the end at mile eight. I felt pretty awful all weekend. I was dehydrated and cold and draggy. Some things I learned about that experience:

1. Even though I had on winter gear layers, it wasn't enough. I needed another layer (top and bottom) on when the temperature is single digits.

2. Even though I'm cold and don't want to drink, I need to drink water before, during, and after the run.

3. All that to say, I probably won't run in temperatures (single digits with wind chill) again. It was too hard on my body.

Because winter running is pretty awful, it's good that New Year Resolutions are smack dab in the  middle of winter. My big goal for the year is to get faster. I want to be able to consistently run a sub-two-hour half marathon, but that's going to take weekly mileage goals and regular speed work. My fast friend recommended some speed work on the treadmill since it's so cold and windy outside. Treadmill speed work was surprisingly really helpful. I run faster and do more reps since the treadmill can be set on a speed inside a warmer environment on a flat surface. Last week, I ran twelve 200s with them separated into two groups. I'd sprint a 200 m distance, walk for maybe 20 seconds, then sprint again. After four sets of 200s, I walked for a couple of minutes or so and drank some water. Then repeated another set of 200s with little breaks in between each one. With a warm up run and cool down, it wasn't a bad work out. This week I did ten sets of 150s, sprinting faster than last week. I broke it up in a similar fashion, but I managed to jog on all the short recovery periods. Treadmill speed work can build confidence, too. I didn't know I could run so fast until I saw the speed on the machine. It pushed me more than when I'm running with my Garmin by myself.

Sabbatical running is counterbalancing this awful winter running. My schedule is more flexible so I'm managing to run with people more often during the week. I'm more motivated and faster if I can run with somebody.

Hopefully, there's only a few more weeks of this winter running.

Sabbatical

When I was in eighth grade, I was at a family Christmas reunion when I first heard the word, sabbatical. My cousins' uncle (do you have family that you're not technically related to?) is a professor, and I heard during the break that he was going to be on sabbatical. I asked somebody what that meant, but that person didn't know. I was too shy to ask Uncle Tom, and it wasn't until graduate school that I learned what a sabbatical was. The concept of a sabbatical still seemed far removed though, and if someone had asked me ten years ago what I would do for my sabbatical, I would have looked at them blankly. So I get it when I've heard similar things the last couple of months when I try to explain what a sabbatical is...

"...so you're off a semester?"

"...but you still get paid?!"

"So you'll be watching a lot of Netflix."

I heard a colleague describe a sabbatical as the time to focus full-time on one of the three roles I play as a professor. Professors typically have three areas they work: teaching, service, and research. Depending on the type of institution, the percentage of time spent on each area will range. A sabbatical gives release time from the teaching and service so all the work time can be spent on research. My sabbatical proposal included getting some of the papers I've worked on over the last couple years out the door for publication. While yesterday was the official start of my sabbatical, I got started last week. I am excited that one article has been sent off for review, and I'm working on reviewer comments for another paper this week and next. I made a weekly objectives schedule as well as a daily schedule to help me stay on task the next several months.

Sabbatical means rest or a break. And I'm definitely looking forward not only to the writing part of the sabbatical, but the reading and thinking I'll have time to do, too. I'm anticipating that the rest I'll get from teaching and service will be refreshing and get me ready for next fall when I return to the normal gig.

I pulled up my blog today and was surprised to see that the last time I wrote was six months ago. I had thought a few times last semester about writing a blog entry, but it never made it to the top of the list of things to do. Maybe that's a sign that it really is time for a sabbatical. Slow down a bit. Write some. Read a little. And think.

Looking forward to the next several months.