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.