Advantages of Running North of the 42nd Parallel - from guest blogger Sara

The below is a guest post from a very dear friend of mine, Sara at Skartshop (check out her blog, it's great!) I usually see Sara when I'm visiting her in Sunny CA - we've run together and she's awesome. Enjoy!

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I live in Southern California but on a recent visit back up North to my hometown of Toronto I decided to balance all of the holiday food intake with an invigorating run around the old neighborhood.   The time of day: 4:30pm.  The approximate temperature: 30 degrees Fahrenheit (+some sort of windshield factor) It was F***#@n’ COLD.  While running, to keep my brain from frostbite, I composed a list of positive reasons to running in these conditions.

In no particular order – 10 advantages to running North of the 42nd Parallel.

1. No sweat and Instant Make up – I got home, had a healthy glow  but wasn’t all sticky gross like I usually am after a run in Los Angeles.  Plus my cheeks stayed a healthy rosy color for hours.
2. Cool Running Clothes –  I want to wear short shorts when I run but I’m not that body confident so instead I suffer and sweat in California in my long pants.  In the cold you have to cover up and they make so many cute outfits to help you do so.   I love layers : )
3. Plyometrics – Additional training in every run just by hurdling piles of leaves, balancing over icy patches and dodging around puddles.
4. Calorie Burning - They say you burn more calories in the cold because your body is working hard to stay warm.  I must have burned A lot of extra calories because did I mention it was F***#@n’ COLD!
5. Faster Time – It might have been the fastest 3 miles I’ve ever ran.  There is no dawdling when the temperature is below freezing.
6. Easy Hydration – Snow, rain – you just stick out your tongue and get a little water.
7. Fresh Air – Something about the cold just makes it feel fresher and cleaner.
8. Always something new to see – In LA the run is the same no matter if you go in June or December.  But in Toronto the scenery is constantly changing.  Flowers in the summer, bare trees in the winter.  It feels like a new route each season.
9. Twilight – There is something magical about the sky in the evening up North.  It turns a gorgeous cerulean color and the world seems to get a little quieter.  It lasts for about half an hour, the perfect time to get a 3 mile run in.
10. Hardcore -Of course the real advantage is knowing that no matter what you are way more hardcore than the softies in California!

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Thank you so much Sara - you rock and you are hardcore.  For the record - I am a NJ softie. I've been running on a treadmill all winter. I've got no love for icy snow-covered paths, layers or easier hydration when it's F***#@n’ COLD!  :)

XO

Jen

Long Run Friday report - 12 miles and lots of smiles

Eh, I'm tired. Kind of fits this post - no?

12 miles and I'm happy to report, I'm still standing, well kind of, I've actually decided to throw on some flannel pj's and write from the comfort of bed.  I will probably remain here until about 20 mins before my hubby comes home from work, at which time, I will power clean everything up, throw food on the stove and act as if long run day hadn't completely rendered me useless.

Oh well. That's how it goes. I look forward to the day where 12 miles is just my "usual" morning run but for me, it's still pretty hard core. In fact. it's very hard core. It's the first time I've ever actually run for 12 miles straight. The goal of my last two 1/2 marathons was to finish. So I pretty much ran/walked/crawled those 13.1 miles... there was no inkling that I'd ever run for 13 miles straight... I mean who does that? Well, I do. Now. :D

Anyhoo. It was cold today. Like really cold. But it wasn't awful because there wasn't any wind (THANK YOU LORD!) I'll take the cold over the wind any day. A few thing of note on the cold. It made me have to pee. While I was thinking of my hardcore athlete buddies Jason and Leslie - I thought it wouldn't be a good move on my part at only mile 2...  frozen pee? Likely to be gross and uncomfortable - I'll pass. But LOVING my park, I knew around 3 miles in there were some porta potties - and lucky me, they were open. So I took my first potty break in the middle of a run. Pretty uneventful.

Back to the road. So now, the biggest problem with the cold is how frozen the segment of my legs from my knees - up got. I mean, numb frozen. I had compression socks to my knees so calves were good - I had 40 layers on top - so good there but my knees to butt was a block of ice that made it feel like I was running with 50 pounds of ice cream taped around my legs.  I wonder if fat freezes quicker than muscle? If I could've shed that part of my body, I would've.

So my fat strong thighs never thawed out or warmed up. That made things challenging. I'm pretty sure you could've shot me in the ass with an arrow and I wouldn't have felt it. But what I did start to feel was my lower back ache around mile 9 (reminding me to work on my posture) and around mile 7 my achilles tendon (or something in that area) started to really bother me. The whole time I tried to keep myself "slow and steady" Long run day isn't about speed for me, it's about endurance for the miles... "slow and steady" I just wanted to finish strong. And I did. I did it in 2:22 - an 11:53 pace - not too bad. I'm happy with that.

And I finally ran out of park. The park I run in is great because it feels like it goes on forever. Well it doesn't go on forever, finally, I've learned - at mile 5.5 the park is over - so I had to run around a quaint, unfamiliar NJ town for a mile or so before heading back.

When I got home, I peeled off my shoes to find my toes a bloody mess (I didn't mean that in the cute "British" way - they were literally bloody. I have issues with toes rubbing and what not. Awesome.) So with bloody toes, aches and pains and frozen thighs I raise my arms in victory.  No one ever said that being an athlete was easy... ;)

XO
Jen

NOTE TO SANTA: PLEASE BRING THE UNDER ARMOUR winter pants on my list. Thank you. And the shirt too. I'm sorry for using the word "ass" in this blog - aside from that, I've been a pretty good girl.

PS: If you are interested - this was a very exhaustive article about the Biggest Loser marathon from Runners World. It was an interesting read and since we were talking about it the other day, thought I'd share.

Running cold

I'm not sure I'm quite this motivated but...

So after 5 1/2 excruciating weeks of waiting, finally, at long last, my NIKE+ arrived in the mail on Monday night. I was so excited I could barely wait to use it. I read the directions and spoke to a few NIKE+ friends and was told I'd have to calibrate the thing at a running track outside. (It doesn't calibrate properly on a treadmill.)  OK. No problem, I picked out my favorite running outfit and laid it out for the morning.

Morning came, I jumped out of bed, put on the coffee and threw on the news - let's get ready to run!

And then, floating in from another room, the ominous voice of Al Roker, "here's what's happening in your neck of the woods... 'Thank you Al, currently, it's a chilly 37 degrees..."

WHAT!? 37 degrees? And then I peeked at my car and it was covered in FROST!

I don't dig cold. Not at all. In fact I'm always in a fight with my husband about what temperature to keep the house and I overdo blankets on the bed. Cold sucks in my opinion.

But, suck as it might - I was dying to use my new toy so I dressed the best I could and headed to the track. At first, I was freezing, my breath was visible and my hands were ice but soon, I started to feel good. Then really good.

I got nice and warmed up and by the time I was ready to wrap it up, I was sweating. I enjoyed it so much yesterday, that I did it again today.

I found running in the cold to be actually quite awesome. It's a million times better than running when it's too hot out. I felt comfortable and refreshed the whole time I ran and not until I got back into my house and the sweat started to pour, did I realize how hard I had been pushing.

On another note - I'm still working out kinks with the NIKE+ it's giving me some growing pains I hope to remedy. One of which is that I think it's judging my pace too fast. I'm pretty slow. I'm trying to get faster. I would assume my pace is around 11:30 - 12:00 regularly.  This thing is telling me I'm running a 9:32 pace! I find that nearly impossible - though would be nice :) I am going to call the good people at NIKE and find out what I'm doing wrong...

XO
Jen