Yelling Ouch at the Sky

Well I've never run in hail before. That was painful. On my face. But also beautiful. See, here's a picture:



I did a loop around Lake Union, a little shy of 6.5 miles. Nothing too earth-shaking, but I actually dressed right for the weather, so the run wasn't unpleasant despite the stinging hail.

But seriously, Nicholas, it's time to get down to business here. I am resolved to run at least two times a week, and really I need to go three times. I signed up for a marathon training program through Fleet Feet, a local running store I have a fondness for. I've been attending their group runs off and on since this summer and I figured they'd be a big help with structure and motivation. The program starts March 9 with sessions on Wednesday and Saturdays, which makes it a little hard for me to squeeze in a 3rd run, since Mondays are terrible and any other day has me going twice in a row, which is fine but not ideal. We'll see how the program shakes out. I'm going to need to tweak it a little bit, anyway, since it's timed for the Rock and Roll Marathon, which is 3 weeks after the North Olympic Discovery that we're running.

I put together a training calendar based on a 3x weekly schedule. I can't use that exactly, but I'm going to try to post it soon to give you an idea what it looks like.

The Clothes Make the Runner

At some point I'll post the whole story of the last half marathon I ran, but suffice to say that my one and only concern when it came to that race was clothing. The race was in late November and it it had been snowing the whole week, so all I thought about was how to dress. It turned out I should have been concerned with a lot more than that, but nevertheless one would think that after spending one race focusing on all matters sartorial, I would have this "dressing myself for a run" business down.

Not so.

On Saturday I went out, determined to go for a long run, and I completely biffed my clothing choice. It was one of those deceptively sunny February days in Seattle, a day that suggests that spring is just around the corner. This is a lie: after some dazzling days in February, we almost inevitably go back to unrelenting drizzle through May. But you learn to take advantage of those lovely, clear winter days when there's a hint of warmth on the wind.

Unfortunately, this Saturday there certainly was a wind, but there was no warmth to it. Quite the opposite, actually. I went out in shorts, a technical tee, and a long-sleeved windbreaker. I was a little chilly, but figured I would warm up once I started moving.

Not so.

There was a sharp cold wind from the East that made it impossible for me to warm up. I had planned a 10-11 miles run along the Burke Gilman trail, looping through Sandpoint-Magnuson park into my run. However, if I ran the route counter-clockwise, I'd have to go up some of the most killer hills in Seattle at about the 7 point mark, and I wasn't feeling up for that. So I reversed the route and ran mostly uphill for the first 4 miles, fighting the wind. Miserable. I had vaguely plotted my route, but I don't know the through streets in that part of the city very well, and I wasn't able to find the more northerly entrance to the park. By the time you hit the 65th street entrance, you're just tacking a loop onto your run, rather than including a run-through of the park. I'd gone nearly 5 miles, and was at least 4 miles from home, so I decided to cut it short and just head back.

The rest of the run was pretty crummy. I was slow, and cold, and at mile 7 I ran out of energy. I ended up walking over a mile home. Fortunately, even though I was in a crummy mood right after the run, later that evening I felt a lot better for the exercise.

So what I (re)learned about dressing in the cold is that I should wear:

1) Gloves. My hands have extremely poor circulation.
2) Long leggings unless it's actually warm. You can always roll them up.
3) Layers. They are your friend. I bought this expensive windbreaker with zip-up pockets and zip-off sleeves so I have no excuse not to layer.