Running Through A Winter Wonderland

I know that Austin isn't exactly in the Snow Belt or anything, but it's been chilly here the last couple of days, with even snappier cold projected for Christmas morning, and it has been a challenge to dredge through the memory to remember how to dress for cold weather runs. Once you figure that out, it's actually really nice to run in the cold weather. If your hands and head are warm, the rest of you kind of follows along happily.

This morning, we had a large group meet at RunTex for a 14-16 mile "optional" run, including Mt. Bonnell. Alex and Gretchen were there, refugees from the faster groups, as well as Frank, Patrick, and my friend Mike, who was "sitting in" with us. Mike is a triathlete, and normally doesn't run this far, but it sounded fun to him last night as we ate Mexican food with our families. We were all dressed in our warm stuff, and set out right on time at 8:00am. A group of about 6 of the really fast Gazelles finished up right when we were leaving, and we all had a good laugh about being in the Lunatic Fringe of runners, to be out in the overcast cold on Christmas Eve day.

Temperature was 28-30 degrees during the run, breezy, and overcast. No possibility of the sun warming us up even a little. We went out in a group of 3 sets of 2 runners, with occasional movement back and forth as folks took turns leading in the wind. I hung out near the back with Alex for most of the early miles. Turns out Alex had stayed up way too late last night playing video games, and he was hurting a little. The early pace was much quicker than I usually go on long runs, but I felt okay, if a little pressed. I knew that as they sped up, I'd be in some difficulty, so I was trying to figure out how to ask them to ease back the throttle a little. Nature intervened when Frank needed a port-o-stop at mile 4. The others kept going at that point, figuring that we'd catch up. Fortunately, once Frank and I started again, the pace was slightly more sane, easing up from the 8:54 mile on mile 4 to 9:05-9:10 miles for 5 and 6. We didn't see the other guys for quite a while, but happily rolled along, swapping stories and having some fun on the run. The overall pace through 6 miles was 9:13/mile, quick for me, but just about right for early in a run for Frank.

After that, we headed up Mt. Bonnell, and took a GU/Accelerade stop at the top of the mountain. We pushed hard up the steep slopes of Bonnell, and only slowed to 9:38/mile for that last vertical mile to the mile 7 mark. Overall pace at the 7 mile mark was 9:16/mile. After an efficient replenishment stop, we moved on. We thought we'd see the other guys, but they must have taken the longer option for the day, going to the other side of Bonnell. Frank and I turned and went down Bonnell via Balcones Woods road, which isn't quite so steep of a downhill run and is easier on the knees. After some good downhill miles, we decided to go back via Pecos Drive instead of going over to Exposition, which are both about the same in terms of rolling hills.

We took an "extra credit" course option at Enfield, going back west to Lake Austin Blvd, to add some miles to the day. By the time we were nearing the hike and bike trail again, we were moving along pretty well. I still felt pretty good and only huffed and puffed a bit on a few steeper uphill bits. Coming back on Lake Austin, we hit the 11 mile mark at an average of 9:11/mile, dropping that average slightly as we were heading away from Bonnell and back to the finish.

From there, we continued to slowly pick up the pace each mile, clicking off paces of 8:50 for mile 11, then 8:48, 8:19, and 8:07 as we hit the finish at the Zero mile marker. Our average pace then, for just over 14 miles, was 9:01/mile, again way faster than I usually go for these runs, but I felt pretty comfortable, and my HR wasn't totally crazy, although it was a little elevated for a long run effort. Mike and Gretchen passed us with about 2 miles to go, and finished about a minute or so ahead of us, having done 16 miles. Right after we finished, Patrick finished, and Alex as just behind him. They were very fast. Frank and I kept going, and did a nice warmdown lap of Auditorium Shores after our higher speed push to the finish, a relaxed 9:30 pace for just under a mile. That gave us a total day of 15 miles at 9:03/mile pace, which was a very strong run, indeed.

We were all pretty happy with our day, and laughed about how we just do what Gilbert says, no matter how crazy it might sound when you have good options available, like a good long nap. After the run was over and we strolled back to RunTex, we were getting chilled down almost immediately, so the conversation was short there. I quickly pulled on all sorts of dry clothes from the car, and started feeling better immediately. Taking off my gloves for just a few minutes was a bad mistake, and my hands didn't really warm up until I got home.

It was a great day at the running office, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow's Christmas festivities and a full day off of running. Going back to back with the long 400m workout yesterday and the very hilly 15 miler today takes a toll on you. Some stretching today has helped, and the super easy run on Sunday with the Galloway people will hopefully be another gentle help to further my recovery. Next week promises some tough running, with mile repeats, a marathon pace run, 1000m repeats, and a 22 miler. Gilbert has told us to take a more casual approach to the pace run on Monday, so I'll go with a 20/50/20 pace workout with 20 minute warmup/cooldown segments, and 50 minutes in the middle of "run as you feel" pace running without watching the clock every mile.

Merry Christmas!