Winter Running is Tough

Good news: I hit 45 miles for the week.

Bad news: My legs still don’t feel great after taking a few days off.

I don’t know what’s going on with my legs. My hamstrings constantly feel sore, and they aren’t a smooth rubber band when running.

It has been extremely icy, which my hip does not like. (The same hip that caused me 10 months of injury last summer/fall/winter.) My hip hasn’t hurt me while running–only after running, and not after every single run either. I did 6 miles on Saturday, and later that afternoon (after doing some sitting), it wasn’t feeling great. However, then I ran 13 miles on Sunday, and it didn’t hurt me at all.

studded running shoes | socks | tights

Frankly, winter running is just plain tough! The mornings are dark, the evenings are dark, it’s cold, the roads are constantly covered in either snow or ice for 6 months, motivation is low because there aren’t any upcoming races, so it is hard to get out and train every morning–especially when your body doesn’t always feel that great doing it.

Workouts for December 4 – 10, 2017

Monday

5 miles, easy run | 8:44 average pace

Yeah for temps around 30*F–it makes things so much more enjoyable. Although, I thought my legs would feel a little better after 5 days off, but they still felt rusty on this run.

Tuesday

6 miles, easy run | 8:42

A nice easy (relatively slow) run to the airport and back. My hip hurt a little later on in the day but nothing terrible.

Wednesday

7 miles –> treadmill workout

2 mile warm-up

3 miles @ 7:30 pace

2 miles @ 7:13 pace

I did this workout on the treadmill because I knew I wouldn’t be able to hit these paces outside (way too icy!). This pace definitely felt manageable, at this point in time, which is what I have to look at instead of comparing my times to two years ago or where (in theory) I should be.

Thursday

Off

Nice to have a day off–too bad Cullen woke up at 5 a.m. this morning!

Friday

8 miles, progressively faster workout

Last 2 miles:

0.5 mile @ 7:30 pace

0.5 mile @ 7:00 pace

1 mile @ 6:35 with 4 x 25 second surges down to 6:13 pace

I pushed Cullen 6.5 miles in the stroller to a friend’s house. He fell asleep after a couple of miles, which was good because he definitely needed it. Once we got to my friend’s house, she let me run the last 1.5 miles on her treadmill, which I did at a faster pace.

Saturday

6 miles, easy run | 8:56 average pace

This was a quick workout before work, and I felt okay. I was still sore from lifting on Wednesday.

Sunday

13 miles, long run | 8:47 average pace

I wasn’t sure if this was going to happen because my hip wasn’t feeling great the night before, but it felt fine in the morning, and I told myself I could always turn around if it didn’t feel right. It took some extra motivation to get out the door, but when I finally got running my hip felt fine. My motivation wasn’t great throughout this entire run.

Total: 45 miles

I know I should probably dial back a bit, but I realized I have only about 100 miles to run until I hit 2000 miles for the year, so now I want to keep piling on the miles to get there. AND it would be even better if I ran 2017 miles for the year!

I don’t think I’m at risk for an injury, but if I do feel my hip flare up more often, then I would have to cut back. For the meantime . . . . I’ve got some miles to run!