6:09am... That's when my alarm went off this morning. I lied there for a few minutes beginning to justify staying in bed. At the top of the list was; you only got about five and a half hours of sleep, and you had one to many glasses of red wine last night. Before thinking to much, I dragged myself out of bed, splashed some cold water on my face, brushed my teeth, put in my contacts, pulled on some shorts, and lethargically made my way downstairs to the coffee machine. As the machine heated up, I checked out my inbox. Ken left a note saying he was running five minutes behind - no going back to bed now. I went to weather.com which showed the current temperature at 12 degrees, feeling like 6 degrees. I rethunk the shorts and put on some running tights (even though my eight year old son wore shorts in his soccer game yesterday - Lisa went to NYC for the day or she would have killed me for allowing him to wear shorts. I overheard a few soccer moms saying "look, they let that kid wear shorts today!" to which I wanted to reply "that's my son and he's fine so f' off", but instead I just kept my mouth shut.) A double shot of espresso, and I stepped out into the exceptionally cold November morning. Ken was there at 7:04am and we didn't say much as we headed out. Five minutes in, I took him up a long, steep trail climb, partly to warm-up, mostly to wake-up. Ten minutes in, I felt alive and clear. It was a beautiful morning and we clipped off a solid 1 hr 40 min run before heading over to The Last Drop to get some more coffee and shoot the shit some more.
As I showered this morning after my run, I thought about how my morning and day may have been different had I stayed in bed. I know that personally, I would have felt off all day, functioning in third gear instead of fifth. It's easy to justify skipping these morning runs in the winter, yet, if you dress right, there's no excuses. And as much as they pay off physically, they do so ten fold mentally. Even if you have to run with Ken. Plus, I know that the Patriots would have lost today had I slept in.
Cheers,
EH
2 comments:
First off, your Pats are going down big time next Sunday to my Steelers - it's your destiny young Skywalker.
Since moving up to the Tundra, there are more days like the one you describe (extreme weather of some sort). In a way it's kind of fun to train in extreme conditions: it makes you feel even more like you accomplished something while others may have it a little better or easier conditionwise.
Clothes make all the difference for sure.. I ran in 18 degree/windy yesterday and was absolutely fine. I found that two base layers with a wind shell over that keeps you mega comfy for lower, upper half and hands. The under armour balaclava(sp?) is a great product too, I highly recommend it.
Now the trick is to translate this comfort to winter cycling. I'd gladly welcome any feedback from outdoor winter cycling folks.
Straz
Straz, you have electricty up there?! Nice.
Winter cycling is all about keeping the head, toes, hands and chest warm. Use those disposable heating pads that last 4 to 6 hrs that you can purchase just about anywhere now. Wear a pair of wool socks with a heating pad on top of the toes then shoes, then booties. I have a huge pair of wool socks that I'll wear over my shoes and under the booties if it's really cold - cut a hole for the cleat. Wear a windproof layer on the chest and lots of layers and ski gloves work really well. Use a fleece face mask and cover the exposed skin with vaseline. If really cold, use an old hlmet and tape over the vents.
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