What’s a little Nor’easter

 Well here in the Northeast we went from mild January temperatures to freezing cold to Nor’easter in a flash!  The forecast from the “experts” I use that phrase lightly, was 8-12 inches of snow, frigid temperatures and wind gusts of 20mph or higher.  

I’ve been in a great rhythm with my workouts lately, feeling stronger and stronger each day.  I was excited to do my first hill workout this past Thursday, but frigid temperatures at 5AM put that on hold.  After a brief conversation with my coach he decided to replace the hill run with a hard-ish bike workout and a progression run(faster each few minutes).  This was my first “speed work” of any kind of this training cycle.  Given my restrictions with my heart rate I really didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out GREAT!  All of my low intensity workouts definitely started to pay dividends when I pushed a little bit.

So this morning we had our weekly Zoom and Zwift with my team.  Miles and minutes definitely fly by when we are together.  My training plan called for a 15 minute run off the bike.  Treadmill is broken, not that I would’ve used it anyway so what is one to do?  Throw on my screw shoes(old sneakers with hex screws in the bottom) and head outside of course.  Wind was howling, snow was blowing, but there was a certain peacefulness about it.  As a kid I hated the snow, not a big fan as an adult either, but something about being outside and running in it…..seeing my footprints and no one else’s is definitely a badge of honor.

Look, circumstances aren’t always going to be ideal. Race day can bring all kinds of unexpected things, weather, equipment issues are just a few, but if you’ve trained in all different conditions without excuses then you will definitely be mentally prepared to tackle whatever comes your way.

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