Winter running in mid April

Thick frost on the lawn this morning

Today's run (street): 6.25 miles

Yesterday's schedule was rough and it involved an early morning drive to a client north of the city. This meeting and other obligations disrupted my training schedule and they caused me to miss my weekly speed work. I considered doing those repeats today and moving my long run to Thursday, but I didn't want to space my base training runs too close together.

I was surprised to see that the temperature was only 32° when I got up. At least yesterday's driving rains were gone, so it was just a matter of bundling up. I've gotten used to running in 40 degree weather so I was concerned about a possible recurrence of cold-related breathing issues, but they didn't materialize. I dressed for the frigid temperature and set out to cover 6 miles or so.

Complex route

Longer runs in my contained neighborhood are hard to do unless you don't mind covering the same streets multiple times. I mentally mapped out a route that would minimize these redundancies and took off running at an easy pace. I knew that it would be cold, but I didn't count on the stiff breezes that accompanied it. According to my Garmin data, the winds were at 14 MPH, making it feel like 24° outside. Nothing like pushing your way up a long sloping road with freezing wind buffeting you the entire way.

The run itself was fairly easy. I have no doubt that the Brooklyn Half training is contributing to my endurance. I picked up the pace on the last mile and ran it almost a minute faster than the previous 5. That told me two things: I can run faster when I need to do it and I can find speed at the end of a middle-long distance run. Speed is a relative term of course. My "fast" pace today did not match race target. But it is progress and I'm all for that.