I thought it was fall

Winter running... I'm not thrilled.

After finishing the marathon and taking off the following month from running, I'm ready to get back into it. I just don't think I've reached that **!rUnNer~!* status yet where my body is craving serotonin enough to trust myself to run regularly - my body much more craves the bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk I brought back from Australia. Now eating those - that's something I'll do regularly. Running 6 miles? No thanks.

Not even half of it.

So I've convinced myself that my next race is a half marathon, but since I did about twelve of those during normal marathon training, I'm going to step up my training game, to - wait for it - *InTerMedIATe~*! (don't ask me why I'm using the mixed case, *~! style of my sixth grade years - I just feel like it's necessary).  Basically what that means is I'm running one more day a week and adding in speedwork. My goal this time around is not finish, but to finish faster. I already know I'm at a level higher than where I started last May and now I want to keep going. Only one thing stands in my way:

This is in Iceland, but it may as well be Chicago.

Winters in Chicago. Brutal. Because of my job, I'm not going to waste money on a gym membership (especially for a treadmill), so that leaves the great outdoors (at least on the weekends. During the week, you can bet I'm not packing up all my winter gear to run around Princeton in the dark).

Now, training for the marathon during the summer is one thing - you have to get up early on the weekends for your long runs, or you have to wait till later at night for the heat to cool off. You'll have the occasional rainy day, but the air is still so warm that it actually feels nice. And the lake front path has more traffic on a weekend morning than the Edens at rush hour. 

But none of that compares to the chill that winter brings to Chicago running. It's cold, yes. That's a given. You can tell by the temperature - it's 30 degrees outside. You dress for 30 degrees outside: tights, a pull over, hat, gloves, maybe some wool socks. You get outside, and you're chilled, but you know in a mile you'll be warm. You jog your warm up, but you're not getting warmer. The wind is biting at your face, and your eyes are watering, and your quads are tighter than... they're tight.

The discomfort eventually goes away, though, and you finish up your run. You get back into your house and you quickly find out that the reason you got over the cold was because your skin is numb. And while you may have dressed warm enough for 30 degrees, you didn't dress for the 12 degrees that it actually feels like outside (thanks, windchill! Also thanks weather.com app for giving me the RealFeel).

This is what happened to me today. Also, Tuesday. And last Saturday. I'm not good at gauging outfits for running outside, especially when it's a toasty 82 degrees inside our apartment (free heat FTW). I don't like running in heavy gear, because I like to be aerodynamic (because you know that extra jacket on top will really slow me down). So I put on one layer worth of clothes, fitting close to the skin, because women's workout gear comes in one size: tight. Ain't no way I'm fitting another layer under lululemon running tights. These things are as painted on as they come (but they tell me it's because they're ~compressive~). 

I have a long winter ahead of me. It's only November and we've been in the single digits; I'm complaining of cold today and it was only 28 degrees outside. I guess we'll find out what kind of winter runner I really am when it reaches the teens, single digits...and most likely the negative temps of yesteryear (that's last year. When Chicago earned the nickname 'Chiberia').  It's Chicago. So it's only a matter of time.

Training Myself

When I started training for the Chicago Marathon last year, it was May (I started early).  I had 6 long months of training ahead me, and what I didn't realize at the time was that that training would take place all across America.  I did my long runs in some pretty incredible places - on the streetcar tracks of New Orleans, across the Brooklyn Bridge, around the lakes of inland Michigan - although majority of them took place right here, at home, on the lake front path. After every Saturday run long, I told myself, 'you know, I should be documenting this.' I didn't (because, isn't running 16 miles enough?).

This time around, I'm sticking with it. I have proven to myself that I can be dedicated enough to stick to a training plan, so now, I'm just adding one more level of intensity - writing about it!