Cold Squared

This weekend has been spent watching Owen play in his second ever basketball tournament and driving a fair distance to the games, and catching things that are not desirable under any circumstances. After we got home on Saturday afternoon I went out for what ended up being a decent 5km recovery run that felt better than a recovery run ever should as I was able to maintain a much faster pace than I thought I could. Things were looking up, or so I thought.

Later, while thick snow was blanketing the City yet again, I came down with a serious case of the cold virus that kept me up half the night and left my nose looking not unlike Rocky Balboa's face at the end of Rocky II. In a word: tenderized.

Sunday morning was spent watching more basketball while trying to stay awake and keep the snot to a minimum. I succeeded on the first, failed miserably on the second. By the time we were driving home I thought that there would be no chance in Hell that I would get my long run in.

However, I decided to start getting ready anyway in a "just see how things go" kind of mentality. It was really cold out (heir go the squaring of the cold in the title of this post). -15C without the windchill factor, and I don't even want to know what it was when the wind was blowing. At least it was really Sunny out.

I decided to carry my cell phone and run close to the Subway line, just in case. As I started off I was really surprised to find the running was rather easier than anticipated. In fact, it was not until the second half of the run, when I was starting to fatigue a bit and was running directly into the wind that seemed to always be in my face no matter what direction I chose. Anyway, I managed to run the same distance as last weekend and did it even faster! 22km in 1:50:32 for an average pace of 5:01/km, and really the bulk of the run was under the 5:00/km barrier since my first split was the slowest of the day at 5:33/km (4:59.4/km by my calculations). I took note at the HM mark that I managed that distance in a fairly speedy (for me) 1:46:10, especially for a training run.

After the run I quickly got into a hot bath and tried to keep my body as warm as possible. It was the hottest water that I could stand, but even so I was not able to get really warm. By the time I got out I was already chilled to the core and have been sneezing like crazy ever since. I'm just hoping that this virus runs its course quickly. Next week, mercifully, is a recovery week and I guess it couldn't have come at a better time.

My weekly mileage broke the 60km mark for the first time since last September, and that is a very good thing. Also a good thing, my calf did not bother me one bit on the entire run.

On to the last week of January...