Cold Doesn't Begin To Explain It!

The week began with a deep freeze that closely followed a period of precipitation and thaw, all of which is to say that the sidewalks were a distaster even if one wanted to brave the -22C (-7.6F) temperatures and, with the wind, -40C (-40F). I guess now I really know where the two scales meet...

As it was, I ended up doing all my weekday runs on the ole treadmill at the gym down the street. It pains me to say that I drove to the gym, but that's simply what ended up happening. The sidewalks were such a mess that I felt it dangerous even to try and walk the 1.2km. At 5 a.m., which I managed Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, I didn't feel too guilty. But on Monday and Wednesday (evening second run) I felt it was probably a waste of gas and polution. Oh well.

The running continued to be decent, though I started up on a new pair of shoes as the arch and bottom of my left foot started hurting me a bit after I slipped on the sidwalk a bit while walking a few days before the week started (more reason to drive to the gym, right?!) and I recognized that the shoes I'd been running in were at the 800km (500 mile) mark, so time to go anyway. The new shoes, though I'd worn the model before, have been rubbing the left side of my left ankle in an uncomfortable way and I think it's simply that the material is not very soft there or something. I've been working at it with my hands to soften it up, but the ankle is still quite irritated. Not fun, but I guess it comes with the territory.

The runs themselves were good, though I think I started the week off a bit aggresively and paid for it in the form of sore legs and generally being tired. Not used to waking up at ungodly hours likely contributed to the effect. Weekend long run in particular was tough, but it's always good to get through those. That being said, I am happy to push myself a little bit into the upper aerobic heart rate ranges, though I have to be cautious when I start to feel worn out. Thinking next week should be a "down" week as a result, but it's very hard for me to take a step back so I'm not really trusting myself to take what is a well deserved break, active though it may be.

In the end I managed to cover 112.91km (70.16 miles) on 9hr54m51s of running.

• Monday: 18km (treadmill), 1:30:09, 5:00/km, 137bpm (ice rink sidewalks and friggin cold so treadmill in the evening it was; great HR average for that pace!)
• Tuesday: 12km (treadmill), 1:01:03, 5:03/km, 147bpm (-22C, -36C with wind, so 5am wake up and treadmill at the gym. Feeling the effects I guess as HR was elevated for this pace.)
• Wednesday AM: 10.8km (treadmill), 1:00:01, 5:33/km, 129bpm (Took it easy on the treadmill, yet another cold morning. Sidewalks still a mess for running.)
• Wednesday PM: 10.8km (treadmill), 1:00:01, 5:33/km, 142bpm (Hills setting, from 1.5% to 7.8% incline on one minute intervals, ran the last ten minutes as cooldown on steady 1.5% incline. Definitely stressed the lower leg muscles!)
• Thursday: 12.25km (treadmill), 1:00:26, 4:58/km, 143bpm (Varying pace interval type thing, 10 min warmup, then two sets of 4 times: 3min@4:54/km, 1min@4:09/km, 1min@4:30/km with 5 min easy running in between sets and 5 minutes cool down at the end.)
• Friday: 16.1km (treadmill), 1:29:40, 5:33/km, 133bpm (Tough mental early morning slog on the treadmill. Got through it though so I guess that's good.)
• Saturday: 8.8km, 49:50, 5:39/km, 132bpm (Nasty sidewalks, feet totally soaked, and slipped a bunch of times. Got it done at least, nice and easy.)
• Sunday: 24.1km (treadmill), 2:03:41, 5:08/km, 145bpm (Early evening run after eating out and a pint of beer. HR elevated and hot at the gym. Sidewalks still crap.)