Finn & Reba Chronicles (formerly Adventures of Swirl's Serfs): Back Outside

Saturday, January 11, 2014

After the Polar Vortex came through we got some surprisingly nice weather. It was 30 degrees today and the forecast is 38 tomorrow! Break out the shorts and T-shirts! Since it was such a warm day, I decided I had to take my long run outside. I’m so glad I did. The time goes by so much faster (even if it means I’m so much slower!) The sidewalks were fairly clean but the blacktop surface was very slippery but the pack snow was easier to run on. I have to figure out a good place to run in the winter since my normal run along the river is a snowmobile route now. I did basically two laps of my local loop. That was kind of boring but anything is better than running 56 laps inside on the track…well at least when it is warm outside. As soon as it gets below 20, I’m going back inside unless it is a race of course. I’m a wimp.

My training lately has been focusing on the running. I have a lot of running races so that is ok. Swimming was put on hold because the pool was closed for Christmas break and now I have a cold. I don’t want to drown so I’ll wait until I can breathe out my nose. I went running on Wednesday instead. And biking…well I have discovered that that one is currently my least favorite of the three. But maybe that is because it is winter and I can’t go out for a ride on my bike. Road bike doesn’t work on snow. And I hate stationary bikes. We will see what my attitude is towards the bike when spring arrives.

Here are my splits from today. I’m not too happy with the time since I was averaging a 13:30 pace prior to this but that was mostly inside where it is flat with no ice or snow and I’m constantly checking my pace after each lap so I can speed up if I’m going too slow. Outside I just go enjoy myself and barely look at my watch. But on a positive note, my first mile was fast and my overall pace was faster than the last time I ran a long run outside. So I’m making progress.