I have well and truly hit a wall with my winter training. Last winter I ran through the polar vortex. I felt totally badass. But I was only training for 10K last winter. The longest run of the clinic was only 13K.
Marathon training isn’t like that. Our long runs were at 13K way back in November. The climbed up, adding a kilometre here, two there, until we were (and are) routinely doing between 19K and 26K on Sundays. Wednesday nights we do a short course but the bulk of it is hill repeats. Thursdays is always a 6K, and that sounds manageable, right?
That’s what I thought. But then two things happened. First, I was humbled by knee and hip pain, brought on by a tight IT band. That’s why I’ve renewed my commitment to Chi Running. I say “humbled” because everyone says it’s when you jump from half marathon to marathon training that the injuries set in. Some people even think you can’t possibly do marathons regularly without experiencing pain and injury. I balked at that.
I’m not one to stick with something that’s going to hurt me. So I’m focusing on technique and form to see if I can address some of the alignment issues that are at the root of this pain.
But the second thing that happened was this relentless winter. I went from feeling badass at the beginning for running in snow. Footing can be tricky, and that’s not a great thing for me when I’m trying to maintain proper alignment, but I was doing it. We’re not in Boston like Catherine and Rachel. We’ve had snow, but nothing out of the ordinary. But the COLD.
For weeks now it’s been super cold, at least -10C most days, and often with a windchill of between -25 and -35C. Today it’s -37C with the windchill. I know some people are skeptical about what the whole wind chill thing actually means. But I can tell you this much: when you’re out there running and there’s a frigid wind, your thighs burn, your face hurts, and it’s nearly impossible to keep your hands warm.
In regular winter weather, I almost always end up removing my gloves before the half way point of my run. But this year, I keep them on, I pull the sleeve of my thickest winter running top over my hands and then tuck them up into my windproof jacket. And it’s still brutal.
I had a week of respite in Miami and then the Bahamas. I had a beautiful 5K, no knee pain, along the boardwalk in South Beach.
When we got home on the weekend I was stoked to go running with Anita on Sunday. We had a one-day reprieve with temperatures climbing up to -5C in the afternoon. But I had to stay home and wait for our delayed luggage to get delivered (they gave me a SIX HOUR window!) and by the time it arrived so had my friends who were coming over to watch the Oscars.
And then the temperatures plummeted over night. Back to -37C with the windchill and an extreme cold weather warning.
I’ve made a commitment to myself to do all of the clinic runs this week: Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday. But I’m not excited about that. Between the worry about the knee pain and the worry about freezing, it’s just not as fun as I like it to be.
I could take it inside, but those long runs especially are a tough slog on the treadmill at the gym.
So that’s the wall. Very much looking forward to spring!