As I was riding into work the other day, mulling over my morning run, Istarted wondering when there would be meaningful results posted on USAT's website. That was when I realized I'd been incredibly stupid, I had gone ahead as if just putting up 400 miles would win the competition. Triathletes are a competitive bunch though, they'll be watching the standings and competing and anticipating just as much as I will. Doing a flat 100 miles a week would tip my hand.
This was friday morning so I cut out my lunch run while I figured out how I would tweak my running schedule and goals. Now I have a plan laid out that hopefully makes a little more strategic sense than my previous one.
As for the running thus far, things have gone very well. The only hitch has been that Mother Nature seems determined to make things as absolutely difficult as possible. Every day thus far has been either amazingly frigid or snowing. Sometimes both. Even the days when the temps hit the 40's during the day, by the time my evening run came around it was freezing or snowing again. At first I admit to taking a sick sort of pleasure from it, but as of this morning it stopped being fun and started to really tick me off. I did the longest three miles of my life through fresh snow on unplowed and unshoveled sidewalks. The snow of course had accumulated on top of the now frozen slush from a few days ago, which meant that in several places it was like running atop a rock field that was coated in ice and then hidden under a serene blanket of fluffy powder. It's a good thing I have strong ankles, but even still I was cursing up a storm for several stretches.
