Winter running

Start of my hometown Turkey Trot.  Cold and some residual snow on the ground.  Winter came early this year!  Credit: Hollidaysburg YMCA

Despite today being the first day of winter, the winter weather has hit full-force (with the exception of being in the 50s temporarily this morning).  We've seen the first major snows of the season, and we're already a foot ahead of the average.  Many people seem to dislike winter running, and people don't seem to even like knowing about it during the winter either. Although the weather makes running a little more of a challenge this time of year, there are some great things about winter running.  

1. I run "better".  Sure, the snow and ice make a mess of things.  But as the temperature cools down from the hot summer months into the fall and winter, most runners become more efficient.  Some can handle the heat of the summer well, but others, like myself, can not. During the summer, this either means I do my workouts and runs really early (even earlier than I usually do them) or at dusk/early evening (which I try to avoid). Even early morning races during the summer can be hot and humid, which means I'm riding the Struggle Bus for most races longer than 5K (and even some 5Ks).

2.  I slow down.  This sounds like a bad thing.  However, one of my goals every season is to make my running more "polarized": make the easy days easy and the hard days hard.  I usually keep to this goal well for a couple of weeks before my easy pace starts to creep down.  Before I know it, most of my runs are done at some "middle" pace with workouts only a little faster.  This works for a while, but it runs me down after some time since every run is done at "near workout" pace.  Winter running helps me with the polarization goal.  Unless I'm purposely looking for dry roads or clear sidewalks to do something fast on, many runs can end up going through snow and ice.  It's not worth pushing through that stuff out of risk of injury or being tired for when the effort really matters.

3.  Workouts become a lot more effort-based.  During the less-snowy months, I enjoy a good track workout or two a week.  I know exactly how far I'm running and how fast I run that distance.  However, this gets to me mentally after a while. It's a high to crush a workout, but missing times can be a downer.  With snow on the track during the winter, though, runs are mostly on the roads.  Workouts, when I can find clear roads or sidewalks, are fartlek-like; I don't run with a GPS, so I go hard for "x" minutes several times with breaks.  But most of the time running over the snow is enough of a workout. I might not get into PR shape quickly, but effort-based training helps delay the mental burnout that comes with training by splits all of the time.

Of course, there are downsides to each of these points, but I try to make the best of this tough running season.  For the most part, this week of training went well.  Up until this week, I had prided myself on not having a single treadmill (Dreadmill) run since before I moved to Rochester.  Unfortunately, my first two winters here were considered "mild"; this time last year, we had less than an inch of snow for the season.  I finally caved early this week and decided to try some treadmill runs.  I tried a short run on Sunday to get adjusted to it, and Monday was my long-run/workout on it. It wasn't terrible except for the fact that it tried to force me to cool down by slowing the pace after an hour. Then today was the Reindeer Run 5K.   I felt miserable, both due to physical and environmental conditions, but I probably wouldn't have been much faster under better conditions.  It was a solid effort.  Race report to come.

Sunday: AM: 9 miles 
               PM: 5 miles (Dreadmill)
Monday: 4 miles easy, 7 miles (6:00 pace), 1 mile (5:30 pace), 3 miles easy (Dreadmill)
Tuesday: 7 miles easy
Wednesday: 12 miles, with 4x(4:00 hard, 2:30 easy)
Thursday: 9 miles easy
Friday: 6 miles easy
Saturday: Reindeer Run 5K in 16:18.  13 miles total
Total: 76 miles