Run In The Snow
Today was one of those days that it was a serious mental battle as to whether or not I would get up and run. Between not getting as much sleep as I normally do and catching sight of the temperature approaching freezing, I was not too keen on going out for what I had planned to be a 5 or 6 mile day. The impending precipitation in the forecast was another mitigating factor affecting my decision making process. I finally did get out of bed and was still grumbling around deciding what to do when I looked out the window and I thought I could see white flakes wafting by. Sure enough, it was flurrying up pretty good by the time I got up and figured out what was happening. I had never run in snow before so that sealed the deal for me.
You can't see it very clearly, but there's definitely snow!
You can see a little better in this one, but I took these after my run so the snow was tapering off.
My initial plan was to hit a 5 miler and see how extending my distance a little felt on my hamstring since I hadn't pushed much past 3 miles in several weeks. I was feeling good though so I thought, what's another mile to make it a nice round 6? The snow was fairly pleasant to run in; it never even came close to accumulating and there wasn't enough to make puddles to get my shoes wet, so really it was just a pretty addition to my mid-distance route. It did get in my eyes a little bit which was a little annoying, but if that's the worst thing that happens on a run, I figure I'm doing quite well.
At about the 2 mile mark, I saw someone else running coming towards me and as they approached, it looked like one of the coaches from my high school. He stuck his hand out for a high five and asked how I was as he ran by so I assume it was who I suspected. It was a nice human contact moment though. As silly as it may sound, getting an unexpected high five from someone else out running gave me a good boost for the next couple miles, enough to get through the worst of the hills on my route at least.
I ended up finishing my 6 miles in under an hour which is nothing spectacular, but that's about where I was before I had to take time off, so I'm encouraged that maybe I didn't lose as much progress as I feared. It definitely made me feel physically and mentally more ready to start cracking on half marathon training around the first of the year.