Merry Christmas

Been pretty busy with Christmas and all, but most everything is logged in my journal. I will have to transfer it to here when I get a chance to.

Sunday December 23
Had Christmas this morning. It was different because we usually have it Christmas day. Stayed up late last night and got up early to open gifts. We went to church afterwards. It was really nice. After that we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel. Food was less than impressive. Had a salad, baked potato, and an 8 oz. "steak".

When we got home we were all tired. A combination of waiting for our food for an hour and lack of sleep. Took a nap at 2:30, didn't get up till after dark. No long run today. It was extremely windy today with about 30 mph winds. Tomorrow is Christmas at the Schneider grandparents. We are going later so I will run in the morning or around noon.
Windy, cold with light snow.

Monday, December 24 Christmas Eve

Headed out the door around noon. It has been cold here and I haven't ran for the past two days, but no complaints. Legs were extremely cold heading out the door. April went out with me. She made it to the end of the road and then headed back. I knew this was going to be a long day. Winds were pounding from the East and my eyes were watering. A turtleneck, undershirt, longsleeve, headband, and gloves were keeping everything warm except for my arms. The wind just whipped right through the sleeves and it was cold. I thought about people who had to live out in the cold and how they didn't have a choice. It is a lot different when it's happening to you. The cold feels like someone taking a frozen icepick and poking you with it. Legs were turning over, but quads were completely numb. It was 24 degrees, but 16 with the wind. It was a cold wind.

Miles after miles. At 6 I was warmed up as much as I was going to be and considered just quitting. This is the idea of the long run. I CAN run that far, but WILL I still do it despite my psychology. I pushed on. At least I could match my last long, that would be acceptable. All the while I'm running on new, but familiar roads. These are the roads of my high school glory. I remember doing the old out and back 1 road out and back, another out and back and I was done. Unfortunately I'd have to do that more than 8 times today. I didn't see any dogs that could cause any harm. All of them were chained up or maybe too cold to come out of hiding.

Heading into the wind was killer, so I tried to stay on North/South roads. I dont' mind running into the wind, but on a day like today when your face is frozen and you don't have a mask, I thought it might be frostbit when I got home. I didn't need to be having Christmas with a bright red wind burn on my face. The mile kept slowly dragging by. Legs were feeling fine and although you can't really get used to that sort of cold, I began to be numb to it. I saw three guys who looked like they were on a training hike for the army. They had their full gear on and I'm running around in shorts. I said hey to them, and one guy said "I think this was a bad idea". I said "Ah, it's not too bad out here, but I don't remember running in any colder windier conditions. It wasn't till a mile later that I thought he could have been referring to joining the army, but by then it didn't matter. A few more out and backs.

I was finally getting somewhere at 16 miles. I envisioned the loop back home around the neighborhood. If I were home I'd be running by this house, or I'd have this much left to go. That helped. Ipod man told me the run was over, but I still had some road left to go to my house. Breathing wise I wasn't winded, but I certainly felt like I was done for the day. Kept a strong stride and finished up. Got inside to do my cooldown on the elliptical. My mom got one this morning and it's pretty nice. I wasn't about to do it in that cold air.

I was mentally and physically prepared for this run. It was certainly not hard from a physical standpoint, but mentally it was a great challenge. I'm glad I stuck it out the whole 2 hours and 15 minutes.

16(18.12)miles. 16 degrees with 20 mph winds. GM 78

Tuesday, December 25 Christmas

A lot warmer today. It was no nice to not be running in cold wind. Just a few out and backs, nothing incredibly special. Saw one dog and I turned around. He seemed friendly, but I didn't want to chance it. Legs were a little tight today, obviously from the long run yesterday, but also from not getting a good stretch in last night. This run felt good since it was warmer. It's also nice knowing you don't have to run forever.

5(6.3)miles. 30 degrees 7mph wind. GM 83