Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Winter is not my favorite.

Since moving to the East Coast over 5 years ago, I'd just like to make it clear that winter is not my favorite. It's butt cold, it's always dark, and yes, I'm being whiny. But when you grow up somewhere with an average low of 48*F in the winter... well, I'll always be a California girl at heart!



So how has this winter gone?
  • After getting sick twice in a two-month span (just after Thanksgiving and just after Christmas), I've been chomping on gummy "immunity boost" vitamins every day. (OD'ing on the kids' variety, of course.)

  • Since November I've changed my "2016 race schedule" and what my big focus should be at least 10x. I wanted to focus on 70.3's at first. Then...maybe a serious attempt at an Ironman before I turn 35! Wait, it costs how much now?! Back in my day (when I was 18 and seriously about to sign up for my first one), it was $325 for an official M-dot FULL ironman... So perhaps not... Then... how about marathons?


  • I'm pretty sure every year I've been here on the East Coast, I've put the Icicle 10-miler on my race schedule. But it's always one of the first weekends in January, and who actually trains through winter? Since I was sick the week prior, I played the Smarty Pants Card and opted out. No need to be a hero this early in the year.
Oh yeah, I watched The Force Awakens twice. And would go again!

  • Actually, I'm probably training the most consistently this time of year than I have in the past 4 years (post pro retirement). Barring random sickness and a weird neck injury (I woke up last Wednesday with a stiff neck from sleeping funny and it hurt to run 3 miles at 13-minute pace), I've been semi-consistently running 5 days per week, 40-ish miles a week since mid-December. Ok, this is a stretch (I did say "barring random sickness and weird injuries" didn't I?) as The Strava doesn't lie and tells me I only hit the 40's about every other week. Still, this is much more promising than the typical hibernate all winter until oh-crap-what-did-I-sign-up-for panic training sets in.
First attempt at a training plan. Mileage has been downgraded since.

  • Signed up for the gym up the street (Fusion Fitness) which I had been a member of previously before moving away. It's pretty awesome and was cheaper than buying my own treadmill. (For now, anyway!) You figure out what your limit is as far as how cold is too cold to run outside. I'm definitely a before-work morning runner, and sometimes it's a high of 45* but in the morning it's half that with the windchill. I think my cut-off is like 35* for running outside. So if it's colder than that, it's treadmill time at Fusion. Unless of course the gyms are closed because of an epic snowstorm.
  • Geeking out on runner blogs and got into The Strava. This kind of started with a set of Oiselle underoos (runderoos?) from Carolina "The Brownie" at the bachelorette weekend. I've always been a huge Lauren Fleshman fan (she dominated as a high school runner in California and we were both class of '99...plus, those abs), so I had heard of Oiselle before. But these runderoos were amazing! So I started to follow the Oiselle blog and got enamored with the athlete stories. The Olympic Marathon Trials are this weekend!! And they will be broadcast live on NBC!!!
go Kara Goucher!
  • The Strava...I got this sweet, sweet new GPS watch at the Philly marathon expo. It's a Timex Ironman watch. With live tracking (so Kevin can stalk me if I'm out for a while or lost) and a bluetooth music player. So of course I had to get wireless headphones too. Which gets me all excited to track my miles...except only when it's warm enough (maybe not 35. more 38-ish?) to go outside!

  • Unfollowed some runner blogs shortly after following them. I'm trying to kick up my weekly running miles to 60 this marathon cycle but it's been a challenge with the winter-ness of winter, so I modified that target to 40-50/week. At first it was motivating and inspiring to read blogs where runners (amateurs, not elites) are posting their weekly training logs. But when I caught myself playing the comparison game, it made me feel inadequate like I wasn't doing enough. Especially when you have someone also living an East Coast winter who is consistently hitting 70-mile weeks, and blogs every freakin' day. Do you not have a job?! I'm happy to update this blog once a month! Of course I realize that is somewhat hypocritical, because I used to be that girl, but now I have a normal big girl job. And instead of feeling bad for my lack of winter awesomeness, I started to selectively unfollow people. I'm confident I can hit 60-70mpw, building up to that over the summer. Just not now. Because I'm realistic.

  • We got our first major snowstorm (and really first snow all winter). Over 20 inches! I snow shoveled my very first driveway. Homeowners! And I didn't do bad for a Cali girl, according to the husband!




  • Did my own mini 3-day "running camp" in Atlantic City during the annual indoor race car trip that Kevin and his buddies go to. Snow free in AC! The boardwalk was not snowy or icy at all, which was a nice break from the piles of snow that hadn't melted yet in Delaware. My long run went by Lucy the Elephant and I made Kevin go back with me so we could do the tour that went inside. She's a six-story building! Shaped like an elephant!




  • And OMG did you see the Team RWB #eaglebomb that dropped during the Super Bowl halftime show?! It was so epic! How ballsy!!

  • Speaking of Team RWB, figured out a new development angle for getting Team RWB into our local Wilmington/Newark community--joined forces with the Dover chapter! Duh! Of course I decided one of our first local events should be the Hearts to Heroes 5k this Saturday. Which has a high of 19* and a low of 0*. UGH. Which brings us back to...

  • Until next month, when it is over 50*!