For those of you in Minnesota and the rest of the upper midwest, you know what an interesting week for living it has been here. Having the coldest temps in 5 years (-20s with wind chills into the -40s!) made it a tough week just to step outside, let alone run outside. The one positive that came out of it for me was that school was closed yesterday and we had a 2 hour late start today! With every intention of heading to Lifetime yesterday on my day off to get a good indoor workout in, my car managed to not work and I was stranded at my apartment all day!
With the warmth slowly coming back I got in a good run after school today. Fortunately I had a great workout on Tuesday in the snow that the week hasn't been a total waste. I ran at AT in 2 feet of snow for 30 minutes on Tuesday afternoon. My AT is currently at 185, the highest it has ever been for me. I was tested about two weeks ago for it to start my new training, just so I knew where to base my training off of.
Tomorrow I will be heading back to River Falls for our annual Alumni track meet. I don't know if I'll run any races yet. The longest race they have is 2000 meters, which isn't even a warm-up for me but getting in something quicker would be good for me to do. If nothing else, I'll get in a good run around River Falls with a change of scenery. With nearly 4 months until my next marathon, I'm not worrying too much about racing at this point and if the weather is forcing me to take a day off or at least run inside, now is the time to do it. I hate missing a day, even this early in my training program but I know that it's better I miss a day than to be frostbitten and miss a week or two.
So goes the life of a runner in a Minnesota winter. Happy running all through the rest of January and stay warm!!
- Brandon
