The weather this morning is very unsettled. We heard the first claps of thunder and the power went out around 2:00am. By 5:30 when I got up, the thunder was gone (I won't run in thunder/lightning!), but it was still raining and extremely windy with sustained winds. I worked pretty hard trying to make a good excuse not to run; failing at that, I decided to start out. My weather app described the weather as "soggy as a morning diaper." For all of you parents out there, just imagining those first morning diapers should give you a good picture of how wet it felt outdoors. I planned to do a 10 minute warmup run which got me a whole mile plus a few steps into the 30mph wind, then 4x6 minutes at a 5K-10K pace with a 2 minute recovery between and then a cooldown. Fortunately, I got the windy part over with in the warmup plus the first 6 minute effort. In fact, my hat blew right off and I had to carry it. That kind of ticked me off because now the rain was right on my face. However, I was reasonable enough to realize that I could put my hat back on once I could make the corner around 1.75 miles into the run. After the second 6 minute effort, I began to feel pretty good about my tenacity to get out in the rain and try to run hard. Around 3 miles, I was able to turn to have the wind on my back. I was surprised to find I kind of missed the wind on my face, but did not miss it blowing my hat off! When I'd finished all four 6 minute stretches and began my cooldown I even went a couple extra blocks to be sure my run would total an even 5 miles...so much better than 4.77 :-) I always try to finish my runs at the corner near my home and walk to the house. On the way to my door, I was wringing out my shirt thinking about how tough that makes me...run in the wind, rain and probably uphill the whole way in wet shoes. If the run itself didn't make me feel refreshed enough, the attitude would definitely do it. This photo does not do my level of soakedness justice, but I do look happy: The next time you feel less than gazelle-like heading out for your run, try to see how tough you are. For extra motivation, you can even notice how many of your neighbors opted to stay inside for an extra cup of coffee rather than test their limits. Measure your success on the effort rather than your Garmin stats...even if you MUST finish the next mile, no judgements there. Happy running! Missee
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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