Oh my gosh I never saw your reply
@ZellyB ! I'm sorry. And thank you! I appreciate the support so much. I'm very thankful for the people on this board keeping me going and positive. I know this is silly but I don't really feel like I'm at a level for a running group. I'm doing the distance but I'm still pretty slow. Not to mention I'd just get frustrated and give up if I was the slowest. I do stop into my local running store and get some supplies and chat about once a week though so that's always good. It's at the point where they ask how everything is going and know what races I'm looking at. So I'm working on my real life support base!
Today's Run
Firstly yes, it has been since Wednesday since I ran. Some of that was weather and ice, and some was just me falling off the wagon. Was that the best choice? Not so much.
This was the weirdest run I've ever had. Training called for 7 miles and I went out early to avoid snow (I mostly did). I was pretty determined, but it was obvious by the half mile point that things were going really really wrong. My legs weren't moving and my shin splints were to the point of being horrific. It was at that point that I was debating cutting it down to a half hour easy run and calling it a day. I couldn't shake it no matter how much I reminded myself that the shin splints would go away it was just going to take some time, and distance. At the mile point I decided to pause my garmin and walk it off. I went for about a half mile, and decided that I'd take it mile by mile and just kind of accept that this was going to be a horrible slow run, but that the miles mattered more than the speed. At mile 3 I had to pee like emergency levels had to pee haha. I decided to run home, pee, fuel, and hydrate. I stopped my watch and recorded that part of the run at 3.72 miles.
I was in my apartment for about 10 min total and then back out on the road. I was finally feeling warmed up and good. Let me say the next 3.5 miles were not the fastest I've ever done, but I felt so good and strong the whole way through. I am so happy I battled out that first mile, and made the choice to just walk it off rather than stop and head back home. I did the last half mile with it snowing, and the last 2 miles with strong and very cold winds.
I think that first mile was a little bit my legs being like ahhh it's been four days what do you want from us, and a lot the cold. Once I got going and warmed up everything was fine. I feel pretty confident pointing a finger at the temperature because it was around 18 degrees (F) for the majority of this run. It wasn't exactly ideal conditions, but I have a half at the end of the month and it could realistically be that cold. I'm going to have to figure out a few ways to combat the negative effects of the cold on my body. Yes, I am dressing and layering properly. Honestly if I didn't have my buff on I would have been in trouble. It did an amazing job protecting me from that wind.