Track Luxury in the Cold

It is crazy cold in Dallas right now.  Yesterday morning was 32, but wind chill of 20.  In November.  In a typical year, it will that cold about 5-10 mornings ever. 

But I managed to get myself out for a run anyway because the absolute best part about the track is being there in the winter.  You can wear 5,000 layers of clothes to get you out the door and onto the track, and then you can shed your layers as necessary and they're all right there when you're done.

I decided to wear my warmest pair of running pants/tights.  On top, I went with a bra (obvs), a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeved shirt, and an Adidas (Boston) jacket.  Plus gloves and an earband.  I figured I'd ditch the jacket during the workout.

As with the first few cold weather runs every season, I feel like I have to relearn what to wear. 

I think yesterday's outfit was too much.  It was cold and windy enough that I couldn't ditch the jacket, so instead, I should have just done long sleeves and the jacket, and skipped the bottom layer.

Live and learn.

Maybe I couldn't ditch the jacket because I was running so slowly.  We had a ladder -- 200 (200), 400 (200), 600 (200), 800 (200), 800 (200), 600 (200), 400 (200), 200 (200), and about 1.5 warm up and the same cool-down.  My paces were pathetic, but actually, I was just happy I did it. 

Between March and November, there will usually be about 5 mornings where I consider staying in bed and skipping a workout (note, I'm not counting the weeks after a marathon or anything, I just mean days when I have a scheduled workout and consider not doing it at all).  And maybe 1 morning when I do it.  I seriously just don't.  It's too much of a slippery slope when I start skipping, and I run with friends so showing up is part of the deal.  But when it's cold, it's like it's an internal battle to get out there EVERY SINGLE DAY. 

And lately, feeling out of shape, dreading my next marathon (even though it's totally for fun), I just have no desire to complete the scheduled workout.  When we last went to the track, I totally just did my own thing, which was much easier than the plan. 

Yesterday, I ran the plan in terms of distance.  I'm still out of shape and so my paces weren't even close to where they should be, but I've run long enough to know that you get a lot from the workout, even if the paces are wrong.  Doing the workouts consistently is what helps the paces eventually get where they need to be.  So if I give in to my inner sloth as I've been doing the last couple weeks (well, technically more than a month, but I planned to run very little while on vacation), it's never going to get any better.  And since I'm not hitting the paces, it means I'm basically running behind my friends and it's way too easy to say, well, I'll just skip the 600 and go straight to the 400.  But I didn't.  And that was enough to make me feel pretty good about yesterday's workout.

Baby steps.

And while the weather people are talking about SNOW (well, now they're conceding flurries at most, they just use the S-word to get ratings), they're saying it will be back in the 60s (which is normal in November) by the end of next week, instead of our current highs in the 30s and 40s.  Then perhaps it won't be such a battle to get out there, and I can focus the battle effort on pushing harder.