This is the kind of day that I would have loved to still be going to the gym. Running on the treadmill this morning would have been soooo nice. When I left the house the thermometer claimed it was 21*F, which isn’t too bad for this time in December, but the winds of December greeted me when I got out to the road. 15-20 mph got my attention pretty quickly, especially once I got going – since it was directly in my face.

Single-digit wind chills just do not thrill me all that much and I have to admit that I fantasized a bit about what it would have been like to do this run on the treadmill inside at the gym.

Okay enough whining. Put on your big boy pants and deal with the weather, whatever it is, you ain’t going back to gym probably until next Fall, so quit the drivel and enjoy being outside during Winter in Maine.

I wanted to do 5.0 miles today, but I have been fighting a bit of a cold (no not anything serious) and with this kind of cold and wind, I wasn’t sure that was going to happen.

Since down back is now clear and very runnable (the road is quite frozen), I headed towards the crossroad where I would decide what to do next. I felt kind of crappy, so I headed towards Tiffany and figured that I would do an easy 4.0 miles. The wind was in my face most of the 2.0 miles to Wildwood and that did wear me down a little.

I wasn’t in a rush and didn’t look at the Garmin when it beeped that I had finished a mile split. I felt slow, I felt tired and really didn’t feel like running at all on the way back, even with the tailwind. It became one of those runs where you play head games with yourself to keep running.

Nothing serious, but despite really not being into finishing the run, I did make it all the way to the end. Which sometimes is more important than those runs where you just don’t even notice the time going by. It was the mental discipline that I usually don’t have that got me to finish this run and not stop at the bottom of Stevens Hill to walk it home.

Would I want all of my runs to be like this one – hell no, but every so often, when you have to dig deep in order to keep running slowly can be something that you will look back on and say if I can muddle through on that kind of run, I can finish this one too.

Although as I got back on the tar and did a nose rocket, I felt a wet creeping down the side of my face – damn bloody nose. Luckily it wasn’t a gusher, probably because it was too damn cold and froze, but I was able finish without getting the mittens too bloody. Gotta hate it when you get a bloody nose on a run, it makes you look like you have been mugged or gotten into scrape with some bad critter and everyone gets all worried when they see you all bloodied and out of sorts because you are leaking a little red stuff.

Oh well, better days are ahead and the running will get colder before it gets warmer. At least I have done this stuff before and know how I have to dress to be semi comfortable out in this kind of weather. Who knows maybe I will get brownie points and a little tougher mentally when it comes to my running this winter. Not likely, I am too old and set in my ways — I still am fantasizing about running on that treadmill though. Hehehehe

Have a great day and I hope your run was better than mine today. 🙂