45 mile week

Finished a 45 mile week today. It was a tough one. I don't think the temp. was above -30 for the entire week. It's been extremely cold for 2 weeks now and I had enough. I really need a little break. Hopefully next week is better.

Sunrise this morning.

I did 12 miles today but I divided it in a morning and an afternoon run. I just can't run that long in this cold. It's too hard on my body.

Polar vortex dog. Allie loves running outside in this weather

I also have to find a way to keep my butt and thighs warmer, they just get too cold no matter the layers. Anybody with suggestions feel free to let me know. 

Ok enough with the whining. I am still going and part of the success is for sure  you people reading this blog. This week I was seriously contemplating the treadmill but I made a deal with myself to run through winter so I'm going to keep at it. 

Thanks for reading. :)

Cool off!

This is my Allie after a run in 7C/44F. She got so hot that when we came home she threw herself in a snow bank to cool off. So funny! She did not want to come in knowing that would be way too hot.

I guess it's a warm spell here, just a few days but so much fun to run in. Yesterday I ran 5 easy miles. Today 20 minutes warm up/cool down and 2 X 9 minutes @ tempo effort. I took my watch and actually ran a good tempo for the 9 minutes. Ran about 8.50 which would be about right for a tempo run. I am pretty happy with that because it means that when it's warmer I do run a bit faster even though there is still a lot of snow on the ground which is slushy.

I was very warm myself and had to take off my ear warmers and gloves. I bet I could have been running in just a long sleeve! Crazy for this time of year here.

I better get used to it since I will be traveling to Nicaragua coming Sunday for 17 days. Hope you guys don't mind tagging along and see some colorful pictures instead of these blue and grey winter ones.

800 meters

Yes 800 meters are my nemesis. It's mentally one of the hardest workouts for me. I am usually procrastinating on that day of training.

I had 800 meters on my schedule this morning but it's a going by feel schedule. However it was not too cold so I thought it would be a great idea to measure out half a mile and do some repeats.

Ouch! Hello wake up call. I even took my gps watch with me and I really tried hard but gave up on the watch pretty quick. No matter how much I tried to pump my arms fast my legs just did not want to follow. I did the 800 meters in about 4 minute and 15 seconds while usually with good weather on the track I do my repeats at about 3.45-3.50.

What am I trying to proof and what was I thinking? I read everywhere that cold weather running is harder on the muscles and joints and there is no way you can get to your normal speed. Also there was quite a bit of snow on the ground so it's not that the surface is like a nice smooth athletic track. But somehow I thought that I might be the exception to the rule. NOT!

Sigh, oh well. I did 6 repeats and it was really hard. Physically I would say it was just as hard as when I do them in summer on the track. It felt hard and now, half a day later I can still feel it so I definitely had a good training. Oh and I am super hungry.


Today is a good day to remind myself why I am running through winter outside. It's not to break any personal record but to stay healthy and happy during the winter and be curious about my potential and what it will result to comes spring.

Unbelievable!!!

It's true. I'm doing my recovery run and another runner passed me. Seriously there are hardly any runners here. In summer there are lots of bikers and hikers but never runners. Getting passed by another runner in winter is truly traumatic. Of course I tried to speed up but this lady was fast too! Not cool!

This is not her. I was even too slow to get my phone out from under all my layers. 

Did 4 miles, 2 with my favorite puppy and 2 by myself.

Then some weight training. Squats and Turkish Get Ups. At the same time watching netflix at home. 

2 thoughts that get me through the long run

Temperature: -8C/17F windchill -13C/8Fb

Long run of 2 hours. 11 miles.

One of those days that the temperature felt colder than it should. Went back because my face was cold in the wind but I didn't want to put my balaclava on because I knew it would be too warm. Lathered a lot of vaseline on my face and went back out. Sure enough that did the trick. Can't do without vaseline in a cold climate!

One other pair of footsteps on the trail. Somebody's been brave!!

One of the things that keeps me going on a long run is thinking about the treats I am going to enjoy when back. Hot chocolate is one of them, the other is a hot bath with scented epsom salts. That's about it, I'm a simple woman.

Trees grow through roofs

Everybody knows that!

5 miles today at an easy pace. Beautiful sunny day. Nice and crisp. 

Temperature -10C -17C with windchill (13F/8F)

The wind came strong over the lake and that made one stretch pretty cold. The rest felt really nice. 

All the snow on the trails has been cleared now so that makes it easier.

I'm also doing Turkish Get Ups with kettlebells for strength daily (well I try). I definitely need to work on strength! It's the perfect strength exercise for runners, more about that another time.

Heat wave

Just kidding of course. But -5C/20F feels mighty warm after crazy cold temperatures.

I only had a 40 minute run on my schedule but I wanted to take advantage of these warmer temperatures so I ran 1.15 minutes with some fartlek in the middle.
Felt great! Days like these are awesome!

A colleague at work brought her puppies. OMG YES PLEASE!!

Failed attempt...............

This is not me but if could have been. I tried to go for a run but stopped at 1.5 mile, a very hard 1.5 mile. 

My inside runner person feels like freaking out but I know it will be ok. Just rationalize those crazy OCD thoughts away. I worked the kettlebells instead. 

Temps around -22C/-4F don't know the wind chill but it was cold.

There's always tomorrow....

Creepy me!

This is me after my 40 minute easy run with frozen eye lashes. It looks bad but actually doesn't feel bad at all. 

These were the temps on my run:

-20C/-3F temp,
-26C/-15F with wind chill

I will probably be ok this winter because it felt not that bad. I must say my new balaclava is super awesome. It really makes a big difference compared to others, especially the wind mouth protection.

Go outside!!

The wolf of Bonnyville

Not my pic, but looked like this.

I am sure I saw a wolf on my run today. Tom says it was probably a coyote but this was a big ole animal bigger than a german shepherd. Maybe it was a coyote but if it was then it was ginormous. It ran too fast for me to take a picture so you have to believe me at my word. 

Headed out early because the forecast was a big blizzard today, it was already snowing pretty hard.  Got myself a new balaclava so I was excited to try it out today.

I'm very impressed with it. Although you can't really see the mouth piece that it has in this picture. It works well in the cold and keeps the balaclava from getting wet because of the heavy breathing. 

This is a better picture. It's a sonic outdoor research balaclava. Recommended for the arctic so I guess it will work well for me.

6 miles today, temperature around -17C/0F. I actually got very hot with this balaclava. 

First the trail looked like this ^

Then the plow came by and it looked like this ^

The plow lady looked at me in awe and admiration. At least that's what I like to think, she might also think I'm nuts. Unfortunately you can't see from this pictures that it's snowing pretty hard. 

Yesterday I had my first fall so I wore my Kahtoola's today. Best purchase ever for winter running. You can seriously run down hill on a sheet of ice with these things. 

Have a great day all! Go outdoors, it will make you feel happier!!

Long Shadows

            

Long shadows on a sunny afternoon. It's the middle of the day but the sun stays quite low on the horizon. Temp was -11C/12F but it felt a lot warmer than yesterday. Lots of sunshine and practically no wind.

Did 1.5 hour run plodding through lots of snow. Snow in the weekend in a small town means no plows. So I had to run on the road dodging cars. I actually only ran about 5.5 miles so that tells you how slow it went. Kinda feels like running on a sandy beach. 

Just for fun, this is what my neighbor wears when he goes for a smoke outside when it's 12F.  He's a nice guy though :)

wind chill

I have not officially started my training yet, I am just keeping up with my mileage and doing easy runs. Total mileage around 30 now but adding a little every week.

Easy 6 miles today. Lots of snow in the forecast for today so I didn't want to go too late in the day knowing that it would be harder with all the fresh snow on the ground. Temp was -8C/19F but the wind chill forecast was -17C/1F. 

You can't really see it but the snow was blowing horizontal because of the crazy wind. Still I enjoyed it and started sweating quite a bit. However because of the wind chill I didn't take any layers off.  

According to wikipedia wind chill is the "perceived decrease in air temperature felt by the body on exposed skin due to the flow of air." If you stand still in air that is 20 degrees F and there is no wind, your skint will be warmer than 20 degrees. Wind carries some of that heat away and the faster the wind the faster the heat loss. Once the wind surpasses 25 mph or so, it whisks away heat more quickly than your body can emit it. 

That is important information. First of all I hate to feel cold so I rather overdress, do a warm up, come home and adjust my layers. Second if the wind chill is bad it means ones you cool off you really don't warm up anymore, at least not outside. So if the wind chill gets real bad like -20F or below than I don't go too far from home. That way I can go home if I start to feel cold. No need to take unnecessary risks. 

It's decided. I am going to run outside in the Northern Alberta winter. No excuses just do it.

I know there will be many challenges but hopefully just as many solutions. Anything is possible.

Please follow me and help me to keep going!!!!

Today was 4 miles easy. There was freezing rain so it was very slick. I ran on the snow to avoid falling. Not too cold around 32F/0C. The above picture is from last year.

Still running easy, recovering after the NYC marathon.