This past week was a really good week of training. I’m the type who gets more done when I’m crunched for time because it makes me carefully plan ahead when I need to run, lift, etc. to assure that I fit it all into my busy schedule. When I have a more relaxed schedule, I tend to get loosey-goosey with my time management. On the busiest of days I plan everything down to the minute – a great plan as long as there are no unforeseen blips in my schedule…

I awoke to howling wind on Tuesday morning, and immediately remembered the tree that had blown over onto the trail right where we’d be running. The wind was blowing at around 16 MPH right across the tree line that runs parallel to the trail so instead of driving to meet friends for hill repeats, I chose to stay within the safer confines of my little neighborhood circle where there are very few large trees in front yards. I value the top of my head and prefer it stay dent free.

I had a pretty good run despite getting slightly warm on half of my run and then getting quite cool as I rounded the circle back into the wind (32° with a 21° windchill). Overall, I think I did pretty well on what I chose to wear – capris, long sleeved shirt, unlined nylon jacket, ear warmer/headband, gloves, and mittens.

Trash was blowing around the neighborhood so I picked up a few newspapers and tossed them back onto driveways (hopefully the right ones), and carried this Wendy’s bag back to our garbage can. Luckily, I didn’t see any neighbors who might have thought I’d run through the Wendy’s drive-through at 5:30 AM!

 

I planned to run 10 miles on Friday morning, so I chose to makeup my hill repeats on Wednesday afternoon instead of Thursday morning, giving myself extra rest before my long run. So much for avoiding the wind and the possibility of a tree blowing over on my head by skipping Tuesday morning’s run – the wind was gusting between 18 and 29 MPH. At times I felt like I must have looked like a cartoon character spinning my wheels without moving forward with the force of the wind in my face. Other times, it wasn’t too bad, especially with it at my back as I ran down the hill.

 

I opted for running longer hill repeats than I have in the past since my next race has a 1-mile long steep mountain peak to climb and I need to work on my running strength (shorter hill repeats help build speed). About half way up the hill I saw these chalk hash marks from my friend’s Tuesday morning repeats. Remember when I used to use mulch pieces to count my repeats? My friends are smarter and come prepared with chalk. 😉

I was pleasantly surprised to finish 6 repeats in the howling wind with a 10:45 average pace. That’s quite a bit slower than in the past, but considering I felt like the wind was keeping me from going nowhere fast at times, I’ll take it!

 

Friday morning I opted to head back out to my circle at zero dark thirty to run ten miles (why waste valuable time driving to and from the trail to run alone). If my neighbors were up, they’d think I was nuts! I’ve mentioned before that with a little creativity, I can run one mile in two laps, so that was twenty laps around my neighborhood – thank goodness for my Garmin (affiliate link) and not having to count laps.

I kept noticing two eyes reflecting back into my headlamp (affiliate link) light and assumed it was the neighbors’ cat I occasionally see out and about. He did not move for over an hour until I paused to take this picture and then he moved to the other side of the mailbox and continued to chill. Eventually, after another neighbor walked by with his dogs, the cat moved to another part of our neighborhood where he ran across the street in front of me twice. Hopefully, the second time undid the bad luck the first crossing brought my way. 😉

 

Over the course of my run, I noticed the temperature dropping and just as I finished up my run, Bill texted from the C&O Canal where he was about to start a long bike ride to say that he was in the middle of a blizzard. It had just started snowing at our house and by the time I grabbed my GoPro (affiliate link) and went back outside for a couple of pictures, the five-minute blizzard had hit at our home as well. The wind kicked up, the snow swirled, the path got white, but within ten minutes the sun came out for the rest of the day.

 

Back in February (when it was warm, LOL), I bought this cute tee at Target thinking it would be perfect for my Saturday morning run on St. Patrick’s Day. Not only did I not run on St. Paddy’s Day, but it would have been too cold for it yesterday morning. It’s sooo comfy, though, so I’ll just wear it around the house!

 

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

Looking ahead to this coming week, on Tuesday I’ll have tips for runners for staying safe while out on the trail; and I’m still working on my next Spotlight on Local Athletes post with a very interesting guest.

In addition to what I mentioned above, here’s a complete run-down of my workouts in my home gym from this past week…

 

  • Questions:
  • How’s the weather where you live? Are you ready for spring or has spring already hit?
  • Did you celebrate St. Paddy’s Day? If so how? Also, did you know that Patty is the Irish nickname for females and Paddy is the Irish nickname for males, so it’s St. Paddy’s Day, not St. Patty’s Day? I just learned that last year!
  • Did you race this weekend? 

 

Have a great week!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

 

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I’m linking up with Holly at HoHo Runs and Wendy from Taking The Long Way Home for their Weekly Wrap. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!