Thursday, November 15, 2012

Frosty Morning jaunt

My Dad thought he was being funny yesterday and said truly dedicated runners get up early and run BEFORE work. I was trying to finagle a way to run AFTER work by leaving earlier and not taking a lunch hour. Well, that didn't work. So he tried to get a rise out of me with the dedicated dig.

(Random Google picture, by the way. Trying to make this post a little more interesting)


Fine.
I went home late last night from work. Cleaned my room and organized stuff. Got my leggings and winter running gear all ready to go and was asleep by 10 p.m. the latest.

Cut scene to this morning.

My iPhone went off at a mere 6:30 a.m. I saw the sun peeking up over the ridge of hills across the lake. So I grumbled and threw my covers off and trudged to the bathroom. Spent more time than was necessary putting my contacts in with the brief hope that MAYBE the sun would work at hyper speed and warm up the pavement so I wouldn't look like a human icicle after 5 minutes outside. Brushed my teeth. NOTE: TERRIBLE AWFUL STUPID thing to do.

I looked outside again. I'll admit tying my shoes on almost made me cry. Now I LOVE the cold. But I love the cold because I'm usually running between 2 and 4 p.m. and I sweat like I'm 400 pounds. I sweat A LOT and normally HATE HATE HATE sunlight because of this reason. So the cold is my friend, normally. But at 6:45 a.m., when I've just gotten out of bed and it's 28 degrees outside, and the sun is BARELY covering a third of the pavement, I am not even close to partially thrilled.

But I tried to make the best of it. I opened the door and plodded down the driveway. The sunrise was pretty so for a moment I felt a surge of, "Wow, I'm pretty awesome and feel pretty awesome for being motivated and getting up early." It made me feel like those rock climbers or runners that you see in the Granola bar commercials. They drive a Subaru and go hiking with their dogs no matter what the weather. They eat all vegan, healthy food and wear burlap sacks for clothes. All their gear and accessories are made from recycled materials. Yeah. Felt like one of them for about...5 seconds. Then my lungs started to freeze over. And my ear cartilage started to crunch if I pressed it in against my head. My eyes were watering so bad that I nearly plowed over one of our neighbors in her hot pink velour bathrobe. GOOD MORNING WATERBURY! What a splendid day it is starting out to be.

About 2 miles in, I realized my toothpaste mistake. The world can deal with my morning breathe for a few miles next time. This was like my mouth was frozen in the open position. Yeah. Awful. I was pretty much gagging on my own spit while I ran.

By the time I shuffled through the front door, completely unimpressed with the fact I finished a super early morning run for once, I just wanted a shower and someone to complain to. Mom was still asleep and when I woke her up, she pretty much told me to deal with it, I have to work, so running early is my only choice right now. Then she went back to bed. Thanks, Mom. Those were some real helpful words.

But yeah...I'm gonna try and find a new headband that actually covers my ears and doesn't flap in the breeze. I'll admit that my ears and chest were 95% of the problem. Mostly my ears. I have a hat for next time, but I don't like to use it because of my ponytail. Just too much hair and not enough hat. So, maybe tonight I'll find a good headband when I go to the Mall for a few returns.

The plus of this whole adventure - I really enjoy the fact that all I have to do later are my core exercises and my run is done. Also, I realize I only have to do these runs 2-3 days during the week, then weekends I can run when it's a little sunnier, and if it rains or snows, treadmill and bike. So really it's not that bad. I just felt the need to write about it and now I feel better.

and how awesome is this?!?!



http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/superracing/cool-runnings-as-hooves-hit-the-ice/story-fn67tkww-1226270133346

They attach sulkies or saddles or skiis and hold on while the horses race around the ice. I'm assuming the horses have studded shoes too.

No comments:

Post a Comment