New Year's Weary

I was due to run 6 today.

Its been a long year and we are now creeping to the end. The year has been challenging professionally and given me more growth in the last 6 months than in the last 6 years. While I embrace the opportunity, it still takes its toll. Privately, I have seen family relocations, job changes, job role changes, disease, and even death. I have also had the opportunity to mentor a beginning runner through her first marathon. This last experience is my happiest for the year.

I was due to run 6 today, but I'm weary. I have the next 4 days off and tomorrow is another day.

Slush

We had a light snow last night. The streets are snowy and slush; its 17F, no wind. I didn't bother with hi-tech fabrics, other than a synthetic base layer, prefering to run in sweats. Fridays are my tempo run days, but not today. Fast running on potentially icey roads is just not safe. I left my watch home.

I did a zen-like shuffle through the snow in the pre-dawn light.

Mission accomplised.

Resistance

As the winter begins, I find my mind resists going out for those 18 F windchill runs. My mind's reluctance meets up against the absolute imperative to go run those 6 miles. I go, despite my yearning for a soft warm bed.

3 miles to warm up, then 3 miles of hill repeats. Despite feeling a little residual heaviness from Sunday's 21-miler, I can keep my stride crisp and quick. It is an empowering feeling to glide up the side of Mt. Tendinitis and down the other over and over. On the fourth ascent, the sun crested the ridge to the east and pierced through the barren trees. I was bathed in golden light: an iconic running moment.

Mental will is like muscle. Unused, it atrophies; used, it grows.

Rewards

I perform my long runs as a set of 3 mile loops in my neighborhood. The route is a mix of running along the road and on trails through wooded commons areas, including sections along  a small pond and a brook. I do one loop clockwise and reverse direction for the second. At each return to home, I have a bottle of Gatorade to sip before starting off again. The result is that I think of an 18 mile run not as 6 consecutive loops, but 3 long out-and-backs.

In winter, I run on memory of where I am in the looping pattern, not based on split number on my watch. The cold wind keeps my eyes too watery to read my watch and I also have no desire to bare skin peeling back layers of clothing to get to my watch.

Today, I ran....and ran. When I finished and came inside, Denise remarked that I'd taken a long time for 18 miles. Starting at 6:30 AM, I was astonished to realize it was 10 AM. Upon scrutinizing my spit times on my watch I realized that I had done 7 loops, not 6. I accidentally did 21 miles vice my planned December long runs of only 18.

The brought me substantial gratification. The weather was fairly tough this morning: 31 F with blustery winds bringing the wind chill down to 20 F. In my 6th year of running, at the age of 55, I ran 21 miles accidentally. This is reward.

Cold

It was 21 F this morning, my first run in the twenties this season. My perceived level of exertion was quite high. I couldn't tell if it was from the cold or from the consequtive days of running and lifting.

It doesn't matter. The body, and mind, adapt.