Winter is here

I forgot about winter. Until today. It's not that I did not talk about winter, or snow, or sledding and snowshoeing - I did. What I forgot was what winter and snow and ice actually mean: slow, slow, dangerous, dangerous runs. Until today.

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I headed out for my typical 7 mile tempo run. I usually go for an 8-8:30 pace when not training. I made it past my house's stairs - almost falling twice! Next, going sloooow, down the slight hill on my street, and down a huge steep hill on next street, then 2 slight hills and down to Mass Ave and onto the Minute Man Bike Path. My run was a jog, no, it was a walk, then a sled, then a walk. I made it to the bike path where I was overwhelmed by slush turned into ice. (Warning: Here is where I get very spoiled!). What happened to deicing the path? I mean, doesn't the town of Arlington care about the bottoms of runners, or bicyclers, or parents with strollers? I know that other towns did not have electricity for days, but lets get our priorities straight. My tempo run, my tempo run, oh, no. It's about .5 mile to the bath. My GPS registered 9:45min/mile, so now you understand my thoughts (censored for this blog) when I saw the state of the path. I was about to turn around, but then I remembered what my friend Jenny always says, a short run is better than no run, and also realized this is a great opportunity to work on my cognitive flexibility - I tend to be a bit all or nothing when it comes to running - who cares about the pace? I am not in training...



SO off I go, embracing the icey bike path. It was a beautiful afternoon, not too cold. I had NPR's "Wait, wait, don't tell me" on my i-pod. After a couple of milers, I became more confident about my stride, less worried about falling, and my pace improved. I went from 9:00min/miles to 8:30 and eventually ended the 7 miler with an average on 8:17min/miles. Not bad at all. More importantly, my mood was much much better. I am giving the town of Arlington one more day to clear the path (how generous of me...:)



On a more serious note, I still think that the weather can be a bit of an issue when it comes to speed sessions and speedy tempo runs in prep for the marathon, but I'll have to get creative, maybe do a few treadmill runs (hrrr!!!), and be OK with having to go slower than the set pace at times. I want to make training for this marathon as stress -less as possible. It's going to be my first, it's going to be Boston, it's going to be a blast!