Ice, Ice baby...

I'm sitting on my couch in flannel PJs, a long sleeved t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt, wool socks, fur (faux of course) lined slippers with a blanket wrapped around me, hot tea in my hand and a warm macbook pro on my lap. The sun is out, the heat is on and I'm freaking freezing!

Why you ask? Oh, no reason...just almost died from hypothermia on our 14 mile run this morning!

OK, maybe I am exaggerating just a tad, but it sure felt like it. The sad part is, next weekend, when we run our 16 miler it's going to be about 20 degrees colder. Who's idea was it to sign up for another marathon anyway?

It was supposed to snow here yesterday, but all we got was a light dusting and some rain, nothing too intense. This morning when we headed out, the sun was coming out so I knew it would warm up a bit. I got dressed in my normal cold weather running outfit: tights, long tank, long-sleeved tech shirt, gloves and hat. The run started out OK. It was cold (20's), but it didn't seem that bad. The first mile we ran over some wooden docks and had to really slow down because of the ice. It's normally icy there, so I didn't think to much about it.

Two miles into the run I went to take a drink from one of my water bottles and noticed it was almost empty. The water had been coming out of the bottle as I ran and soaked the whole right side of my lower back, rear end and leg. I was annoyed that I was running out of water so early in the run, but little did I know the damage being soaking wet was going to do to me later on.

As we headed up to Fairmount Park, I was surprised at how desolate it was. Normally, the path around the river is filled with runners, walkers and bikers. Not this morning. Soon I figured out why. The path was covered in ice for miles. Not the kind of ice that you see coming either, but the kind that is sort of melted, so it looks like it's just wet. Then, just as you get brave and start running fast again, you almost bust your ass. It was like running across an ice-skating rink!

I know most of you are reading this and cracking up right now. Most of you are used to these conditions since you deal with it every year. But for this Floridian girl, it's my first experience "running" in ice.

But even with the ice, it really wasn't too cold. That is, until we passed the Art Museum and headed back up Kelly Drive to Manayunk.

We got a nasty 20-30mph headwind the WHOLE. WAY. BACK. Not a slight breeze, but an awful, frigid blast of arctic air blowing off the frozen Schuylkill River into our faces and all over my wet clothes, almost halting us to a stop every 30 seconds.

YAY!

So basically the rest of the run was spent shuffling headfirst into the frozen winds with my legs tightened so I wouldn't do a face-plant. By mile 9 I was done. My hamstrings were burning, my glutes were screaming in agony and my whole body was stinging. I know I am going to be very sore for a few days.

When I got home I tried to stretch, but I couldn't get warm so I headed up to take a hot shower. Now, if this was the type of blog where we show nudie pics I would have loved to show you what my ass looked like when I stripped down. Not the whole thing, only the side that was soaking wet. It was a shade of red you don't normally see in nature. Like I had been beat with a wooden rod for about 2 hours, which is pretty much what my whole body felt like.

Can't wait till next Saturday!

But more than the cold, I am a little nervous about how difficult this distance seemed. I foolishly thought a 14 mile run was no big whoop considering we "just did" a marathon. I have been running 10-12 miles lately with no problem, but today the distance seemed really difficult. Needless to say, I choked down my humble pie and tried to get my head back into the game for this new marathon training. No more 2 days a week running. I need to get the milage back up to where it was. I think this run is what I needed to wake me up and get me respecting the distance again.

Other than that, week's been good. Super busy at work with a huge new project (they even upped me to 30 hrs a week for the next two months, yay!).I got in some ab work and a day of lifting (still sore from that). I took down the Christmas decorations (except the naked tree, it's still sitting there). And now we're watching the Eagles, lounging in our PJs and I'm going to make a huge pot of chili.

Maybe the Chili will finally warm my ass up. Literally.

Here are my stats since I got back from Florida.

Sunday, 1/11 - 10/1:33:11 - 9:09 pace + Abs
Monday, 1/5 - off
Tuesday, 1/6 - off
Wednesday, 1/7 - off
Thursday, 1/8 - 6.5/58:45 - 9:02 pace
Friday, 1/9 - 45 minutes elliptical + lifting + abs
Saturday, 1/10 - 7/1:01:14 - 8:44 pace
Sunday, 1/11 - 13.72/2:08 - 9:19 pace

Total Weekly Mileage (8 days): 30.4 (RUN)