Today I have a tempo run. 1 mile warmup, then 4 miles at a 7:29 pace, followed by a 1 mile cooldown. The dilemma is – do I wear the YakTrax and try to run in slushy snow, that I won’t be able to see unless there are streetlights, while I’m trying to keep up a respectable pace – or do I forge a route that is mainly clear so I can run on dry footing? I opt for the latter. On the way back from my monthly massage last night, I drove through a neighborhood about 2 miles south of me. It seems like their streets are clear. Bonus- there are some good-sized hills!
The temp is about 21 F, with no breeze, clear sky. Of course, the street directly in front of my house is still a mess with slushy snow, but once I get to the corner, I know I have a clear path in one part of the street or the other, for at least 1.5 miles. I head out at about 5:20 am, and sure enough about 1.5 miles in there is a street that still has snow on it for about 100 yards. After that, I am able to wind into this enclave of half million dollar homes (at least before the mortgage meltdown) called Old Castle Woods. I love running through here. The homes are varied styles, with lots of trees. The street connects through a neighborhood with the running trail with a pedestrian bridge over Route 30 – so you could get to a 30 mile bike trail without crossing a busy street. It’s walking distance to the train. The only downside is that there are no sidewalks, which we always wanted our kids to have (not that these houses were ever in our price range).
I am keeping up the pace, seeing a few cars along the way, and two other runners, one that I know. When I get to a part of the street that looks snowy, I turn around, and go down another street. I am more than halfway through the meat of the run, and I head toward the main road east of this neighborhood (Wolf). The hill is so steep, I can’t see the cross street below me. It goes past the estate of a local family that founded a well-known potato-chip/snack food company (Hint ‘Can’t Stop Eating Them). They had a factory in my childhood neighborhood in Chicago, and I some of my friend’s parents/brothers, etc. worked there. I turn around at the busy street, and chug back up the hill. This would be good training for my son the football lineman to build up his leg strength. There is also a hill on the road perpendicular to this one, that joins up with this neighborhood. Wolf road has a good shoulder, so if is not full of plowed snow, you could have a nice hilly loop. I know my route back will put me over my 4 mile tempo run, so I opt not to take Wolf Road, plus if I don’t have to run on a shoulder of a busy road in the dark, in winter on a weekday morning at 6 am – I won’t.
I hit my goal 4 miles at 29:52. That means I was I was exactly 1 second per mile ahead of my 7:29 pace. Nice! The only downside is that my cooldown is more than a mile – but that’s okay because my warmup was probably 0.75 miles. And, it frees me up to take it slow going across an intersection with railroad tracks and a three-way stop sign, and a little bit of a hill/blind spot. In the cool weather, the rubber separators they have between the railroad tracks get frosty and slick, so it’s smart to pay attention on them.
In get back to the house, and take of the soaking wet outer layers, and I have some Gatorade Endurance formula. My eyebrows and eyelashes have “icicles” on them . I think I have run in weather colder than this, and I have not noticed that happening this winter. I wonder if I was breathing up into my own face somehow. It wasn’t bone-chilling cold, and I wore a warmer middle layer than I usually do. I do a good set of stretches, and get ready for work.
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