Monday, April 21, 2008

Running Blind

For anyone who doesn't live in Alberta, just to let you know we got hit with a huge snow storm....AGAIN! On Friday morning it started to snow with nice, big, pretty snow flakes. I was trying to be optimistic and thought that my run would be kind of nice with the "pretty" snow. As the day continued the nice, pretty snow turned into sideways, blowing, hard snow. All day I went back and forth; I'm going to suck it up and run outside....no I better wait until later and go to the gym to run on the treadmill.

By the end of the day the snow had worsened considerably. On my way home I probably changed my mind about running outside vs the treadmill another 10 times. See I hate the treadmill, so I will brave the crappiest weather in order to run outside. That is what I did. On my way out the snow wasn't so bad, I was running along happily. Then I got hit with a cross wind and realised it didn't seem too bad because I was running with the wind! I went around the corner and any idea of having a not so bad run was gone. That hard blowing snow I mentioned earlier was flying at me no matter where I went. Add in some stomach cramps and I was not a happy camper! On a positive note my legs felt really good, cheers to ice baths! It wasn't too cold, but I ran with my eyes closed most of the time because it hurts when you get snow flakes in the eye! I got home, happy to be done, and thought that it was worth the pain and suffering....I'd do it all again to avoid the treadmill!

I didn't go to the gym to do weights on Friday. I talked to Chad and he said the roads were getting pretty bad. I opted to stay home and have a nap before I went to the pool! I had a wickedly awesome swim on Friday night. I have been trying to work on pulling all of the way through my stoke ( I think I get lazy sometimes and just put my arms through the swimming motion instead of actively PULLING:). I was able to sustain this through out most of the workout, a few times my mind drifted off to la la land!

After being tired all week I went to bed fairly early for a Friday night and slept for a good 10 - 11 hours! That felt sooooo good. I love sleep. Anyway, on Saturday I hopped onto the trainer for a 2 hour ride. Not too much to report there....turns out not a lot happens when you are on the trainer! Felt good, heart rate good, cadence good!

On Sunday I got up early to get my bike in before work. An easy 75 minutes and I was good to go. I headed to the Tech Shop and after being there for about 15 minutes or so I got to go home since it was going to be such a slow day! I was a-okay with that. I went home and relaxed for awhile and then Chad and I headed out to do our favorite past time of late....bike shopping! We went to The Bike Shop first because Chad wanted to visit his bike. He tried on about 20 pairs of cycling shoes and finally found a pair! Yeah! After that we went up to Speed Theory and both got a pair of tri shorts...now we match :)

We got home just after the game started. I still had a run to get in, so I braved the cold yet again! Only this time it was actually cold outside, but with no snow falling. The wind was wickedly cold...I froze, but I got it done! I got home to see Chad wearing his new shoes with his new shorts and lying on the couch watching the game. Not exactly what they were designed for, but hey who I am to judge??? I think we need to get him his bike soon!

We decided to move around our bedroom last night and I think that made up for the weights I missed on Friday. Chad had me lifting and pushing and pulling! It was tough work. Worth it though; now I can sleep and Chad can watch TV, everybody's happy!

I was supposed to run this morning but they shut off the water in our apartment building for some reason today at 9am. I decided not to come to work stinky so I'll get my run in later! I've got an easy training week coming up because I race on Saturday. We are going to Medicine Hat for a 10 km run ( I think Chad's doing the 5km). The race is at a weird time...11am on a Saturday morning? I thought that was strange.

Anywho, I'll let you know how the week goes. I have a 1000m timed swim tonight! First one of the year...it will give me something to compare to in a few months...in theory I will get faster :)

1 comment:

Lisa Ulrich said...

Good job on being tough and running in the snow and crappy conditions! I much prefer to use the treadmill, and especially after the race yesterday! Why do we live in Alberta again? It sucks that we can't even bike outside right now, and probably not for awhile until the snow melts (at this rate it could be 2 weeks!). Hope you have an awesome 1000m timed swim, and 10km race this weekend!