Winter hit Ottawa yet again yesterday in the form of a snowstorm. At any other time I would have used the prediction of 15cm of snow as an excuse to stay in bed and delay my run for a day. Instead though, I found myself up at 6:30 in an attempt to beat the incoming storm. Unfortunately, for what I believe was the first time all winter, the weatherman was actually correct in predicting that the heavy snow would start falling in the early morning. But this didn’t stop me because, quite frankly I wanted this run done so I could say I was officially into my taper.
I did a slow warm up down our long driveway, followed immediately by a complete wipeout on the snow covered ice at the road. While laying on the ground I made a mental note to make sure I kept to a very slow pace and off I went. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wasn’t going to have an option about my speed anyways. When you are running in a snowstorm on an unplowed road it is safe to assume you will not be doing a speed workout.
In short, what should have been a miserable run really wasn’t all that bad. When blocked from the horizontal snow and wind it was actually quite peaceful. Running in ankle deep snow for 15.5km also provides one heck of a muscle workout with minimal joint stress – and you can actually have the centre of the road to yourself for the entire run (no one else, pedestrians or drivers, is stupid enough to be out there with you). The two wild turkeys I passed looked a little pissed off fighting through the snow and wind, but then again, wild turkeys just look pissed off at the best of times. In the end it was a perfect final run to finish a week where I had done a little bit of everything: race last Saturday, speed work on Monday, yoga on Wednesday, steady 10k on Thursday, hills on Friday. Why not finish it up with a workout in the snow?
So now my taper week begins. Next Sunday is the Around the Bay 30k Road Race. I am trying to tell myself that if I can run just over 15km in snow, I should be able to run 30km on dry roads…assuming the weather doesn’t throw yet another storm our way. And hopefully when I finish the race it won’t look like this:
Snowstorm run done!
First – a disclaimer – actually two: 1. Kristi is my wife. 2. I’m extremely proud of what she has accomplished with running so I may be biased. Now to business: There is something she has only hinted at in this entry – she is not a morning person! I don’t mean she just does not like mornings, I mean she will hit the snooze button 12 times and still argue about getting up. In most cases she ignores the alarm because she assumes she is still just dreaming. If she absolutely needs to be up at a certain time she will set the alarm 45 minutes earlier so that she can hit the snooze button 12 times (this is a technique I cannot understand as I would just like to have the extra 45 minutes of sleep and get up when the alarm goes off).
Anyway, this Saturday morning is when Kristi truly demonstrated that, although she is still not a morning person, her love of running can override her desire to sleep in on the weekend. The day before most of her Saturday Morning Running group had been whittled down to just one person because of the impending storm and the two of them agreed to set out at 8am. Prior to going to bed she texted her running partner to suggest they head out earlier to beat the storm. Even though the new time had not been confirmed she set her alarm for 6:15. Much to my surprise, when the alarm went off Kristi jumped out of bed with no snooze button and disappeared out of the bedroom. It was not until I got up two hours later that I found her note saying everyone had backed out but she had headed out anyway – despite the blowing snow and gusting winds. I must admit that I never would have expected to see the day when Kristi would select an early morning run in a snow storm over sleeping in on a Saturday. I think she is crazy but I am impressed!
Way to go Kristi! Any chance Michael will be starting a blog?
Mike spends all his writing time on a small cabin forum – his cabin is his passion right now 🙂
I ran 12K on the Sunday morning and boy it was a chilly morning…pretty sure it was around -25 with the windchill. Always ask myself ‘why’ as I start the run in painfully cold weather, but never regret it as I’m heading home.
Oh my goodness, your husband’s message is so sweet. Loved it!
It was a pretty sweet message, wasn’t it?
Good for you getting out on a cold morning. It is always so hard to get out there in that weather, but so worth it in the end.
What is your next race?