another snowy sunday

Thanks everyone for the comments about my gym/trainer experience... a lot of the comments confirmed what I thought, and sadly, what seems to be a common enough experience.

Seems like the last 3 or 4 weeks, Sunday mornings have meant waking up to at least a few inches of snow on the ground, and cold temperatures.  Snow-wise, today was no different, but after the freezing cold and ridiculous temperatures this past week, I decided that I've had enough of the treadmill.  I noticed as I was shoveling this morning... again, that it was pretty mild, so at that moment, I got a little excited for an outdoor run again.

Roads were still pretty covered but plows were out, so I was hopeful it would ok. Sidewalks, forget it.  All still covered and deep.  Tried a new route today -- one that had less traffic allowing me to stay on the street, but enough traffic that it would have been plowed by the time I set out.

Well, I was not 3 minutes from my house, and some jackass driving way too fast on the street aimed for a puddle, splashing and completely soaking me.  

I soon realized that it was going to be a tough run to stay in my heart rate zones.  My feet were going in every different direction,  slipping and sliding, so I decided to keep my focus on staying upright first and foremost, my breathing, my perceived effort, and lastly my HR.  At my turn around point I was feeling great, so I decided to loop rather than just an out 'n back. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Most of my way back would have been on a sidewalk, which, if you remember, were not yet plowed. So I took some side streets back to hit the street I had been running on originally. Back to within a few minutes of my house... decided to add another loop, I was feeling that good!! Kinda surprising considering the snow had started once again, and I was now on another snow covered road but I was having a blast!  

Managed to stretch out the run to 12k, i think the longest run since my stress fractures, which I was happy because I ran most of it, except for very deep sections of the sidewalk, where my HR was going very high (188 bpm), so I slowed to a walk to regain control, but felt great the whole time!

Now time to grab a bite to eat, and pick up my son, who has been sick all weekend, from his dad's :(