There, I fixed it

I was in a bit of a conundrum with the running/gym/cold weather situation. I don't like running int he frigid cold and my running wardrobe reflects that (i.e., one pair of tights, one running jacket--not enough to sustain a full training schedule). I've always had a gym to retreat to during cold weather, but since I did away with my membership this past June I've been fearing the onset of winter. Now, here we are in the throes of an Arctic onslaught and I'm still gymless.

Since I was in job limbo for a couple months I completely ignored the situation until after Thanksgiving when someone turned the dial from crisp New England autumn to bleak Alaskan ice box.

With the cold temps I finally started trying out the gyms near my new office, but realized that while I can easily fit a three mile run during lunch, I would have a hell of a time fitting an eight mile tempo run during lunch. That meant that I would have to run before or after work. After work is unreliable because my hours can get erratic. And before work would be tricky because I'd have to pack up everything and come into the city at 5:00am--and Wifey is none to happy about the prospect of me leaving her home alone four days a week.

Of course, I could go back to my old gym, the one five minutes from our apartment. But even that's tricky. First, I told them that I moved to Florida (in order to cancel my membership without penalty). So going back would be suspicious. And even if I came up with a story for them they would force me to sign an annual contract. I don't want an annual contract because I don't intend on using the gym once it warms up in April/May, but also because we are looking to move this February and there's a good chance we'll move out of our neighborhood then.

Continuing on the moving bit: there is the possibility of us moving into a building with a gym in it. In this case there would be no need for a gym membership at all.

I was fine putting this off until New Year's, but now I have a training plan and I have races that I'm working toward--I need to get running. Moreover, I can feel all the effects of not running on my body: I don't sleep as well, my clothes are tighter, stress compounds easier, my metabolism doesn't know what to do.

Such is my situation.

Somewhere in the middle of this discussion with Wifey, it dawned upon us that the money I would spend on a gym I could just use to buy winter running clothes. I'm already used to running during dark mornings thanks to NYCM training. And even though I don't like running in the cold I know I can do it (remember this?). And this would completely solve all the problems and whatifs above.

So I'm off today to buy a pair of tights and a jacket. Sometimes the simplest solution is the hardest to think of.

A whole lot of nothing

Basically, I have been sitting on my ass for the past three weeks.

I was doing pretty well after the NYCM: I took one week off and then started running again and noticed some marked improvement (I always see the most improvement after a race). I was going out for runs twice during the week and then a long run on Sundays. But then the week of Thanksgiving I took off because of all the traveling. And then last week it finally got too cold to go out in the mornings (hello pre-dawn freezing temps!).

The decision last summer to cancel my gym membership has come back to haunt me. It made sense when it was 70 degrees and sunny when I woke up for a run, but now it's dark and below 30 degrees at 6am--and homey don't play that. Now I have to join a gym, but I can't go back to my old gym. I told them I "moved" so that I could cancel my membership without a penalty--and it would be mighty suspicious to unmove.

I could always find a gym near my office (there are a few), but Wifey and I are thinking of moving come January--and there is a 50/50 chance we'll end up moving into a building with a gym in it. I really don't want to enroll in a gym to only have to cancel in a couple of months.

And so I perpetuate this cycle of gym or no gym, all the while I just end up running less and less (and lose the fitness I gained from training). At least I still manage to get out on the weekends and muster up a very respectable 8:00 pace on 6-8 mile runs without too much huffing and puffing.

Meanwhile I'm still trying to figure out the 2010 race calendar. I really want to round out New England in 2010 and finally get Maine off my list, so I'm forgoing big races like Chicago and Marine Corp in order to do one of the Maine Marathons in October. Also, the Delaware Marathon is pretty well timed right at the start of spring in mid-May. The good news is that both of these races are within driving distance, so they'll be affordable AND easy to schedule into work. Besides those races I'm eyeing the National Half-Marathon in March and the Virginia Beach Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon in September.

If all goes according to plan I'll get three states and one District of Columbia off my list. The bad news is that after that I'll basically have to fly to get any other state off my list. Anyone have extra airlines miles they can throw my way?

Meandering

So I'm not volunteering today at the Half-Marathon Grand Prix race in Manhattan today. Honestly, it is way too freaking cold. I don't know how they got any volunteers for this race. Actually, I'm wondering how they got people to sign up for the race. Sure I'm one of the crazy ones who will (apparently) go running no matter how cold it is, but yesterday I was at a local sporting goods store. While standing in line to buy a box of Clif Shots I overheard a couple of runners saying how it is insane to go running the frigid weather we've been having lately. From this survey of three, it looks like only 33% of runners would even consider running outside in below freezing temps.

Anywho, I will volunteer at races later this year, but when the temps aren't in the teens. I've been using this time to take advantage of my neighbor's wi-fi (which hasn't shut down all morning...yet) and writing a couple of posts for the week.

In other news, I've now had a couple of runs with my Forerunner 405--Fenny. It's been great not having to worry about mapping out long runs, it's made getting out there on the weekends easier and quicker (especially now that I've been without Internet for two months, damn you Time Warner!).

I thought knowing my pace would be a help, but Fenny is kinda sketch about it. Like yesterday, for one example, I started my run by going over the Queensboro Bridge. The bridge rises 100+ feet, so it's not an easy climb, but I know I wasn't doing 14:00+ min/mile like Fenny said I was doing. Then, I looked at my run today and while the pace and speed are pretty consistent for most of the run, there are places where the speed spikes to 20 or 30 mph--which I'm pretty sure is impossible.

Also, there's the issue with elevation. Once again with yesterday's run there was one point that the first time I ran through it was logged as 200ft, the second time I ran through there? 100ft. I guess that's just the margin of error on the GPS?

Any one else have experience with these two anomolies?

BTW, Flyers26: thanks for the heads up on locking the bezel. When I started the run I thought I had locked the bezel. However, at one point I looked at Fenny saw a screen I had never seen before. I spent a good couple of minutes figuring out how to get back to the right screen and then locked the bezel immediately afterward.

10 in sub-10

I need a medal after Saturday’s run. Not only was it the first double digit run of the year, but it was also under 10 degrees during the whole run. Officially, it is the coldest I’ve ever run in, and doesn’t that count for a CPR (Coldest Personal Record)?

In the past I would have just done the run on the treadmill, but my weekday runs have all been on the treadmill and the weekend long run is my only chance to break out of the gym’s confines. Also, part of it was masochistic: I wanted to experience what running in sub 10-degree weather felt like.

I bundled up wearing: a long-sleeve base layer, cotton t-shirt (just for insulation), technical sweater, a running jacket, running pants, long socks, gloves, skully, and neck warmer. The only skin that peeked out from the all black garb was my nose and the tops of my cheeks—so I basically looked like a running ninja.

I rode the subway into Central Park instead of running the neighborhood (it’s difficult to run anything more than 5 miles in my hood). I guess sitting on the subway for 15-20 minutes will do a lot to lower your body temp because when I got out at Central Park it felt like the friggin Arctic. I quickly rushed through stretches and entered the park, but in the time it took me to stretch and walk to my normal starting place my hands and feet had lost any semblance of warmth they had.

The first two miles were rough. The neck warmer was actually a big help and kept my face warm so that I could use my exhales to warm up my hands. My feet, however, were not so lucky. Within a few minutes they were completely numb—damn these shoes built for warm weather! I tried pounding the floor harder, that didn’t do anything. So I tried scrunching up my toes every time I kicked up my feet, it order to rub some warmth into the shoes. I just needed something to warm up my feet until my internal furnace started cranking.

By Mile three I was good. All my extremities were warm and non-frost bitten and I was finally getting into a decent long run pace (~9:00 min/mile).

There was one funny thing about NYC runners that I learned on this run: no matter how cold it is, someone will be wearing shorts. I didn’t think it was even possible to run in the weather in shorts, but half way through Saturday’s run I saw the lone runner in shorts. His legs were bright red and it just looked painful. I was too flabbergasted to even throw some witty comment his way.

Toward the end of the run I passed by the CNN LED screen that you can see from Tavern on the Green. It was 10:33am and a desolate nine degrees. When I passed by again two miles later it was still nine degrees. So. Freaking. Cold.

Actually, it was so cold that icicles formed on my head! Yes, icicles--as in the plural. At first it was just a little chunk of ice that I thought fell from a tree and melted onto my hat. But when it grew back I realized that sweat was dripping down from my hat onto my glasses and the icicles would form in the little space between my glasses and my face. I thought that there was just the one icicle that I could see out of the corner of my eye. But when I snapped a picture later, apparently I had a whole colony of icicles hanging out on my head, plus a clump of ice covering my headphone. This must have been why that woman was staring at me so oddly at the end of my run:

Coldness

The weather report for Astoria for this morning:




Even at 12 noon today it will feel like seven degrees out there. Seven. And then, if you add the fact that I'll be running and I'll be wearing paper thin layers, it should feel like -38 out there. My South Florida roots are telling me this is a bad idea. A very bad idea.

Normally, I would skip today and just go out tomorrow. But tomorrow it will be snowing--and snow in the city usually turns into rain, so it'll be freezing rain. Great. So today actually turns out to be the better option because there will be sunlight and no snow.

Sigh. Time to suck it up and just get out there.