Chicopee

Chicopee

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Cold but calm and clear

Today was my first real winter run of the year. I busted out the winter running clothes and even brought my face mask, just in case (it ended up just staying loose around my neck. I wore my fleece lined gloves instead of my regular gloved (but still ended up with cold fingers, even numb & painful twice during the run.. should’ve had mitts), and my colder weather running toque instead of the thin one. Yep. I was ready for winter.

I headed to Runners’ Choice for the group long run, but left the house a little later than I had meant to. I managed to arrive at the store just as the rest of the runners were heading out the door. I ran and chatted with other runners (while constantly tapping my numb fingers with my thumbs to get the blood flow going) up to our first water stop, where I attempted to pop open the top of my fuel belt bottle, but it was frozen shut. I did, however, however, manage to screw off the top and have a drink. On our way again, I ran with a few people who were planning on running 16km then when they turned, I went straight to add a bit of extra distance. I still had 2 people to run with for a short while longer, but ran the last 10 km of my run by myself.

Aside from the occasional bouts of numb fingers, I had a very good run this morning: the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the roads were clear of snow and ice, and free coffee and treats were at the store after the run. You can’t complain about a morning like that!

Today’s Run
Distance: 19.31 km
Time: 1:58
Weather: –14 C, wind N 6km/h

Saturday, January 07, 2012

First week of the new year

The first week of January has come and gone and it was a pretty good week. I’m not one for New Years’ resolutions, but I did register for the New York City Marathon, I finally made it back to BodyFlow at the GoodLife yesterday (for the first time in over 6 months), and the new session of the Marathon Group at Runners’ Choice started on Thursday. It just so happened that these things started up during the first week of the year. 

The new running group had quite the turnout for our first Quality session on Thursday. I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but the store was quite full before we headed out to the park for our workout. Last year the first day had around 70 people. The group did decrease in size over time last year, but I hope most of the participants from Thursday will stick it out. It’s a great group to be a part of!

My total mileage for this week wasn’t very high as I did not do a long run on Sunday, but it was still a good week of running.

Cheers to the new year, everyone!