Real Talk: Winter Running

I have been s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g through winter running so far this year. Right off the bat, I won't hit my 100 mile running goal for January. Uff. I feel like we've had a handful of nice running days, and about 27 days in which there was scary significantly below zero temps and/or terrible running conditions. I have been somewhat torn between being fine with less miles, as I gifted myself an "offseason" of sorts, and panicking about my fitness disappearing.

My plan going into this offseason the tail end of December and January was to take advantage of the nice days by running 8-10 miles, and not feeling bad about resting on terrible days. Well I've mostly held true to this (minus the night I was so excited to run 8 miles only to discover I forgot to pack a sports bra. UGH), but there have been so many atrocious days! I am hopeful that once I'm back on "the plan" I'll suck it up and not skip runs due to weather. I will also have the added benefit of likely nicer weather once February 4th rolls around (you hear that winter???). At the very least, it's easier to switch around a schedule when you have a handful of terrible winter that throws a wrench in the plan. It is significantly harder to deal with that wrench when it's a month long.

So February is just around the corner, and minus this upcoming week, (LOLZ -60, are you forking nuts?!) the few week forecast looks decent!

Anxiety Over Goals

Did anyone else have a rough start to 2019 and already has anxiety over your mileage goal for the year? Or is it just me?! I had planned to kick off the year with 9 miles, and then the conditions were atrocious. I managed 6.73 at about a minute per mile slower than I typically run. Wednesday I got in 4.15 miles on the iciest, slickest, scariest conditions I've ever run on. And then I didn't run the rest of the week because I was over the ice and didn't want to fall.

AND I'M SO FAR BEHIND WHERE I SHOULD BE ALREADY.

Ugh.

I know it'll even out once real training kicks off, and one week doesn't make or break a goal, but I really wanted to shoot for ~30 miles per week when I'm not training for races to keep up some quality training. I guess that goal should be modified during weeks of extreme weather. Why do I live in the midwest again??

At least this week is a new week, and so far so good!

F^3 Lake Half Marathon Training Week 3

Week of December 4-10

Monday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 8 miles 6x12 sec uphill, 6x100 strides
Monday Actual: SNOW DAY. As in, I almost died driving home in the blizzard, so zero miles were run. So much blowing snow. So scary.

Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic 5 miles
Tuesday Actual: Two miles. I couldn't get myself to go any further. Brr.

Wednesday Planned: VO2 Max 9 miles 6x1k @ 3k-5k
Wednesday Actual: We opted to flip flop Wednesday and Monday's workouts as it was a windchill of -5 on Wednesday night and I thought that would make for less than optimal speedwork conditions. We did the 8 GA miles with some strides and hill strides.

Thursday Planned: Rest
Thursday Actual: We attempted do the our speed work for the week. Meaning we got to the track and it was still covered in snow, and I did 1 mile and said EFF IT. And we went home.

But not before we spelled out #jeroni on the track in the snow with our footprints.

Friday Planned: General Aerobic 4 miles 
Friday Actual: Recovery 4 miles. Coffee run!!

Saturday Planned: Endurance 12 miles
Saturday Actual: Rest. I had to work, so I'm not sure why I didn't adjust my training plan to reflect that.

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: Endurance 12 miles. Luckily my BRF was okay with running at 5:15 when I was off of work because I was not feeling it before work. And it was one of the best long runs ever. Two hours flew by.

Total Mileage Planned: 38 Miles
Total Mileage Actual: 27.2 miles,  cutback week came early!

Base Building Week 5 and 6

Week of January 23-29

Monday Planned: General Aerobic 5 miles
Monday Actual: I went home sick from work at lunch, so I did zero miles.

Tuesday Planned: Rest/Cycling/Power
Tuesday Actual: Rest. Skipped power because I still wasn't feeling well.

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 3 Miles
Wednesday Actual: I skipped the run for dinner with Emily. It was super cold and tons of snow and I regret nothing!

Thursday Planned: General Aerobic 3 Miles
Thursday Actual: I recruited a treadmill accountability buddy for after work and hung on for 5 general aerobic miles.

Friday Planned: Rest
Friday Actual: Travel day, didn't feel like rest, but zero miles.

Saturday Planned: General Aerobic 3 Miles
Saturday Actual: Super early morning shakeout run with Dominique around her neighborhood. She took me on all the hills and my legs felt like death, so we did 2 miles. I think we walked 6-7 miles sightseeing so I was just fine cutting it short.

Sunday Planned: Too Cold to Hold Half Marathon Race 13.1 miles
Sunday Actual: Half Marathon with a long course 13.4 miles.

Total Mileage:  20.4 miles.

Week of January 30-February 5
Recovery Week

Monday Planned: Rest
Monday Actual: Rest. Tons of Walking. All the delicious food in Ft. Worth.

Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest and travel home. :(

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 5 Miles
Wednesday Actual:I had planned to run 2-3 at group run, but I didn't pack nearly warm enough stuff. So I spent the 30 minutes foam rolling and sticking before an hour of yin yoga.

Thursday Planned: Rest/Cycling
Thursday Actual: Rest.

Friday Planned: Rest/Cycling
Friday Actual: Beautiful three miles. No pain no brokenness. Seven whole minutes of running in the sunlight!

Saturday Planned: General Aerobic 5 Miles
Saturday Actual: I sat on the couch and watched Sherlock with the pug.

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: I attempted my long run again and ended up with 3.76 miles. I was exhausted, cut it short, and took walk breaks. Oh well, that's what recovery week is for! 60 minutes of yin yoga. 

Total Mileage: 6.76 miles

Base Building Week 4

Week of January16-22

Monday Planned: General Aerobic 5 miles
Monday Actual: 5 General Aerobic Miles. This was the run I did where I was shocked how much quicker my pace is at my GA heart rate zone. Wahoo! After the run I id a 45 minute hot power yoga class.

Tuesday Planned: Rest/Cycling
Tuesday Actual: 70 Minutes of Sanford POWER.

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 4 Miles
Wednesday Actual: 3 General Aerobic Miles. The bike trails were very slick so we were pretty pokey. I had wanted 3.5, but the trail was so slick that I turned around at 1.5 miles. I taught vinyasa yoga after so I got some good stretching in with the crew.

Thursday Planned: General Aerobic 6 Miles with 6x100 meter strides
Thursday Actual: Rest. Still SO SORE from Power. Uff.

Friday Planned: Rest/Cycling
Friday Actual: Rest. Insanely foggy after work. Realized it'd be pretty dangerous to run in zero visibility as drivers don't typically see runners when the visibility is great. Bought an AWESOME reflective vest with a blinking light so I won't have this excuse in the future!

Saturday Planned: Endurance 8 Miles
Saturday Actual: Taught 2 back to back yoga classes. Planned to go out for 5-6 after yoga but it didn't happen.

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: Toni and I met up to do our long run. I was planning 8-9 with the last 3rd turned up to half marathon race pace. The bike trail was so slick we both decided it wasn't worth it to hurt ourselves before our upcoming halfs (she's racing next weekend too!). Got in 4.25 miles of ice skating.

Planned Mileage: 25 miles
Total Mileage: 12.4 miles. Uff. Taper? Sure.

Base Building Week 3

Week of January 9-15

Monday Planned: General Aerobic 5 miles
Monday Actual: Rest. My stomach was pretty upset, so I just went home and got ready for the National Championship.

Tuesday Planned: Rest/Cycling
Tuesday Actual: I got up with every intention of doing my five mile run. The wind chill was above zero! What a treat! In the 20 minutes it took me to pry myself away from the pug and her sweet snuggles, the temp had dropped 20 degrees, with 36 mph winds, blowing snow. I watched reality TV before work instead.

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 4 Miles
Wednesday Actual: General Aerobic 3.53 Miles. I didn't have quite enough time for 4 miles before I had to teach yoga, so I had to make due with 3.53. This is making me realize that 5-7 mile runs that I have on my training program on Wednesdays down the road will not happen. Hmmmm....

Thursday Planned: Lactate Threshold 6 miles, 16 minutes at tempo
Thursday Actual: General Aerobic 5 miles
Toni and I set out with this as the plan. It was -8 with wind chill, and the sidewalks were still covered in ice and snow covered ice. I decided around mile 2 that I'd be dropping the LT portion of the run because I knew we wouldn't get 1.5 miles without ice and both of us have the teeniest of left hamstring annoyances. When we turned into the wind, I thought I was going to die, so I asked Toni if we could cut it to 5 miles. She had gorgeous snowflake lashes. I had a gash on my neck from my gaiter freezing to me and then getting tore off. Also chafing in unmentionable places.

Friday Planned: Rest/Cycling
Friday Actual: Rest

Saturday Planned: Endurance 10 Miles
Saturday Actual: Endurance 10 Miles. Finally a run above 0 degrees! It was a beautiful day for a run, snowy bike path and icy in spots, bt I could feel my fac, feet, and fingers so that's a win. Since I didn't do the LT portion of my run earlier in the week, I did 3 minute pickups every 20 minutes. One of the best runs I've had in a long time. Reminded me why I love ten mile runs!

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: Rest+recovery. I foam rolled, sticked, and did corework.

Planned mileage: 25 miles

Total Mileage: 18.3 miles

Winter Long Run Options

I've trained through 2.5 winter seasons for marathons in the past--Green Bay in 2010, Fargo in 2011, and Brookings in 2012 (where I decided mid-March that I COULD NOT RUN ANOTHER G.D. LONG RUN IN SNOW AND FREEZING TEMPS, and let the following weekend's weather determine if I was dropping to the half or not. True story. Well that and the hardest semester of grad school smacking me in the face.

During those training cycles, the longest long run I did on the treadmill was 16 miles. I did several 2+ hour long runs. AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW I WAS CAPABLE OF DOING THAT. One 16 miler I ran through snow halfway to my knee, at a pace two minutes per mile slower than I was typically doing.

This year, we've been lucky in that our precipation levels have been really low. We haven't had a single massive dumping of snow. We've had a lot of snow, but nothing excessive. But this has been the coldest winter in like 40 years. The temps we were seeing in December are what we're used to seeing for about 10 days in the depths of December. There have been days were only 5 minutes outside would leave you with frost bitten extremeties. Uh, nope!

Since I'm training for a few halfs this spring, instead of a full, my mileage is lower, and my training schedule is a lot easier to flip flop around based on weather. Each week I take a look at the weekly forecast to see the nicest day of the week to get my long run in. This week is as follows:

Uh... Brr.

Friday might be ok, but if there's our regular 10-20 mph winds, that 17 will feel pretty frigid, and push our windchills sub-zero pretty darn fast.

Currently my options include:

1. Running my 13 miles outside. (yippee!)
2. Running part outside, and then move in to the treadmill when I'm freezing to death. This would require a wardrobe change prior to the treadmill portion of the run and it may be too convenient to not leave my apartment again....
3. Run 8-9 on the treadmill in the morning (90 minutes is probably my max sanity level on the TM) and then attempt the remaining 4-5 in the evening on the treadmill.
4. Forego the LR for this week, split the long run in to two runs, and turn one of them in to an additional speed work for the week. For now, I'm able to do two hard runs per week with (knock on wood!) injuring myself. Long run, and speed work. If I take out the long run, I could get in two speed sessions.

Last weekend's long run was awesome the first half when the wind was at my back. I had such a sweat worked up that by the time we flipped around to head for home, the wind cut right through my coat and layers and froze me to the bone. Wearing my face mask caused condensation to build up inside, and the wind and cold were so bad the last two miles that the inside fibers of the balaclava froze to my cheek. Ouch. 

Can someone just send my 2010/2011 motivation and speediness back to me? kthx

What option would you choose and why? Am I missing something? Will you just come and keep me company on Friday's outdoor long run so I have something to think of other than being freezing? Without Jenn this past Sunday I probably would've called it quits a few miles in!