A Little Windy Run

The change in weather has been amazing.  Yesterday I ran in shorts and toyed with the idea of doing a ride outside as it was so warm but by the time I got home at 4 pm, the winds had picked up and was getting worse.  I was supposed to ride Friday morning but I changed to running so I still need to get a ride in.  I set a meeting for Friday afternoon with the intention of getting home early to get the ride in.  The meeting was a disaster as I was very unprepared and had the wrong documents.  The lack of sleep is really catching up and by the time I got home, the chances of riding were going down hill very rapidly.  It ended with the sound of Pffftttt.  The first beer and then the second and the third and that was the end of any chance of a workout.  Exhausted I took a nap on the couch (I haven't done that in a long time) and then headed up for a nice hot bath.  My hamstrings have been aching the last couple of days and the warm bath loosened them up and after I stretched and rolled with the foam roller.  It felt like I was getting knifed but that's just the scar tissue breaking up.  Short term pain for long term gain.  Best $25 I've spent as its way cheaper than getting a massage.

Last night's sleep was one of the better ones other than getting woken up at 11:30 pm by the alarm going off.  It was so windy that it pushed on the front door enough to set off the alarm.  After dealing with the alarm company I went back to bed and didn't wake up until 5:50 am.  That is very late for me.  The winds continued as I was not looking forward to this 90 minute run.  I headed outside and ran about 200 meters and then turned around and headed back inside.  It was so windy and the temperature had dropped that I went back to put Vaseline on my face to cut down on getting a painful wind burn.  The wind was blowing around 43 km\hr and had wind gusts up to 54 km\hr.  As a "veteran runner" I opted to run in to the wind first and have a nice tailwind on the way home.  As I ran, I checked my Polar and saw at some points I was running at a whopping 8 min per km (note that's per kilometer, not per mile) which is just a little faster than walking.  One time, a wind gust almost blew me off the sidewalk.  I ran by a couple of farms and the blowing snow cut the visibility down to less than 500 meters.  By the end of the run, I was beginning to tire and was very thankful it was only a 90 minute run.  I wasn't too worried about pacing or distance or heart rate.  Oddly enough, I did get weird stares from many drivers and didn't see any other runners...wimps.

The weight has been good as I'm down to 171, just three pounds above race weight and hopefully I can get the missing ride in this afternoon.  I have a massage scheduled for Monday