Wednesday Night Run

My Wednesday night routine has evolved into a run/swim workout.  Drive to the pool, run in the city, then swim.  I have to say it's one of my favorite workouts of the week.  It keeps me from having to run on the outskirts of town, and there is something about getting in the pool 1/2 frozen but fully warmed up.

So with a temperature hovering around 8 degrees and snow covered streets I headed to the pool on a Wednesday night for the first time in 3-weeks (the last two the school had closed due to weather).  I like running in snow, not on ice, and not in the wet slushy soak your feet crap, but plain old snow is fine.  It seems a lot softer on my joints, the irregularities of footing don't really bother me much, and I'm slow enough that I don't worry much about falling.

About a month ago I planned this 3-mile route through the city as flat as possible, a route with two mentionable hills, one about 2-miles in (southbound Johnson after Wilson), then the final trek back to the high school parking lot off of Jackson.  My ultimate plan with this route was to keep running it until I could do the entire thing with no walk breaks.  I wasn't concerned about the last hill, figuring I could run up anything if I knew the end was less than a quarter mile away.  But the hill on Johnson has been my nemesis.  I have tended to shut down at the mere sight of it, and it's not a big hill by any stretch.  If I was on my bike I might not have to shift gears, it's that small.

Back to last night, I'm coming down Johnson, actually feeling pretty good, and starting to think if I can make it up the hill I know I can run it in.

There it is, focus. 

Don't think about it, just keep going.

Think about baseball, no, that's never worked, but we're drifting off topic now.

Just keep going.

And just like that it was over, I was up the hill.

Checked the HRM, all good, let's bring it home. 

The first 1/3 was easy, as I was pretty excited about being able to continue running after the hill, the middle 1/3 was harder, as I started to realize how tired I was, then I turned up towards school and it was easy again.

And there you have it, my first run with no walk breaks.  And I actually felt like I could have gone at least another 1 or 2 (tenths).  I didn't break any land speed records, but I finished it, and I feel pretty good about it.  I'm sure one day I'll look back at this and laugh, but not today, today I happy boy.

Then it was on to the swim, which really deserves a post of it's own, but it may or may not happen.