Last night I really didn’t feel like running 11 miles. It was cold, windy and I was feeling tired. I had put my kids to bed and dozed off for a few minutes myself. I got up and looked at the clock: 9:40 PM. I rationalized skipping the workout or cutting it short, then concluded that would only mess up my schedule even more. I flipped to the Weather Channel: 26 degrees F (-3 C), wind chill of 17 degrees F (-8 C). My wife watched incredulously as I began to get dressed. I put on my running underwear and tights, then strapped on my heart rate monitor, Under Armour compression top, long sleeve tech shirt, and finally another long sleeve top. Then I put on ankle length socks to be sure that the inch of exposed skin between the bottom of my tights and the top of my shoe was covered. Finally I pulled on the gloves, hat, watch and reflective vest and set out.
The cold wind was like a slap to the face. I started very slowly to give my muscles a chance to warm up. The schedule called for 11 steady miles, but since I hadn’t done much speedwork lately, I wanted to run the last three miles at around 7:25 per mile. I didn’t feel great, but I wasn’t suffering, either. I did feel a bit of a twinge in my left Achilles tendon, which I hoped would not prevent me from doing the speedwork. As my Garmin registered eight miles, I pushed the pace. As it happened, I was running straight into the wind. I’m certainly no speedster, but normally 7:25 should not be difficult for me to maintain. I’ve run longer races at faster paces. I ran the first hard mile in 7:22. The course shifted so that the wind was again at my back and I still felt lousy. I could no longer blame the wind, only my poor fitness. I briefly thought about slowing down. I ran the second mile in 7:21, at which point the course went back into the wind. After about 2.4 miles, I began to feel a bit more comfortable and felt that I could sustain the effort for longer, if necessary. I did the last mile in 7:27.
It was a quarter to midnight when I got home.
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