Hard Freeze

I'm told that there's a hard freeze coming tonight. This disturbs me.

One of the many things that I'm enjoying about southern living - in fact, perhaps the thing I like most at the moment - is that the winters are nothing like the ones I've dealt with my entire life. I've lived in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Montana in the winter, so I've seen some doozies.

A few weeks ago, there was snow in 49 of the 50 states. Texas did get some, but only in a little tiny portion of the northernmost part of the state. Nothing anywhere near us. In fact, it was in the 50s that day. And it's a good thing, too. Watching the chaos that was Atlanta for that week, I'd hate to have to live in that kind of disaster.

No, here we don't get things like snow and hard freezes. Except tonight, when we will.

So, I was thinking about which run to do this afternoon. The temperature was steadily declining, so I had to make the call. Since Friday is my run-with-dog day, I had to take that into account. If it's going to be that cold tomorrow, then the pup might not be up for a 5-miler in the morning. I thought about taking her this afternoon, but since she's still got some attention (deficit disorder) issues, I didn't really want to take her out around rush hour.

In the end, I decided to just stick with the schedule that I already had. Eight miles today, and five tomorrow with the pup.

It also helps that Thursday is a treadmill day, which means that I get to run fast. I love the accomplishment of a fast run, so it was a little added incentive for me to get out there.

At this point in the training schedule, my weekday runs will not be getting longer anymore. Assuming I can finally get into the habit of getting up early, my days will start as follows from now on: Mon - 3.1, Tues - 6, Wed - Rest (yoga?), Thurs - 8, and Fri - 5.

Now, since I'm not running farther (except Sundays), I've got to run faster. And so I did.

While treadmill running is boring and lifeless, it forces the speed. If you can commit to going faster than you think you can, you just might surprise yourself. Pushing myself today, I hit negative splits and, what shocked me most, my 10K split was 24 seconds faster than the time I put in on Tuesday. I was completely exhausted at the end, but I also felt great.

I've got a crazy few days coming up, and finding the time to work out is going to be difficult, to the say the least. The fact that it's going to be freezing (and that I'll be visiting some place colder) is going to make it all the more challenging. That's why it's imperative that I actually get up and go running on time tomorrow morning, so I should probably get to bed pretty soon.

I'll just turn up the heat before I go.

Today's Run:
Indoors / Treadmill
8 Miles
53 Minutes, 22 Seconds