Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Oxygen deprivation

Or perhaps a complete lack of common sense. I'm not sure what drives one to go out and run in this weather. Not only are the roads and sidewalks packed solid with ice and snow, it's damn cold. When I left the house at 6:00pm for a short hockey meeting before my run, the thermometer read a big fat zero. When I returned home after swimming at 8:45, -11F. Cold.

Amazingly, it wasn't that bad. There wasn't any wind to speak of, a full moon (and eventually an eclipse), and not much in the way of traffic. I did overdress and worked up a good sweat. Which made me realize walk breaks probably were not a very wise option. I'd have probably frozen solid in minutes.

So I ran, and I ran, and I ran. 46 minutes worth, 12 minutes longer than my previous long run.

Time for a swim. I hadn't really planned out my swim, but I wanted to try and swim 500 straight so we could register for the J-hawk early bird triathlon. It's a sprint with the swim in the pool. They start you in waves based on projected swim time. I've never swam 500 straight, so I had no idea.

My thought was to warm up, do some easy drills, then go for it. About 50 yards into the warm up I said screw it and swam the whole thing. 11:25. Not fast by any means, but I swam the entire thing without resting, and it was 200 yards further than my previous long, which I had only done once or twice.

Worst part of the night was getting in the truck for the ride home. It's now -13F. I'm not running again until Friday, it better warm up. The weather man said it's only 30 or so days until spring. Let's hope.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's great to read how you have been progressing! Without getting mushy, I am very proud--no,that sounds too mushy--happy for you!!