Training Tuesday: An ODE To Winter Running

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An Ode To Winter Running

Dear Winter Running,

In honor of the First Day of Spring tomorrow, I thought it would be good to give you a nice final farewell before you’re gone for another 9 months.

It’s been super fun to watch the snow fall on the ground. In the beginning, the snow was beautiful. It looked like furry white clouds forming around me. So light and easy to blow off of the roads.

As you progressed, you started to get real cold. Winter Running began to get real challenging. Some days I felt like I was a burglar with the amount of clothes I had to pile on just to survive for an hour outside.

It was not so fun to have my water bottles or gels freeze on me. The amount of time it took me to layer-up was also not very enjoyable. I also really disliked wearing cleats on almost every.single.run. While they gave my feet a bit of extra weight (thanks for the additional cross-training!) and prevented me from slipping on any surfaces, they also were one extra thing I had to put on.

When you snowed so hard that I had to wear sunglasses to protect my eyes from snow build-up was also less than enjoyable. Good thing I at least had something acting like a windshield to my poor, poor face.

Don’t let that smile fool you folks. Conditions this winter were pretty miserable.

You really tested me. You tried to make me sleep in with your very short days, but I was resilient. I had goals to capture and I wasn’t going to let something silly like “winter” get in my way. You pushed on for far far too long, but now it’s Spring and I want to see some GRASS and FLOWERS and be able to RUN OUTSIDE in the LIGHT at 5AM.

So, goodbye to you and your endless amounts of snow (something like 100”+ and still going). You’re free to move on any day now.

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What would you say to Winter Running if you had the chance?