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| I tried a few bundled-up outdoor runs. Too. Bloody. Cold. |
Anyhoo... the bright side of DST: it also signals the unofficial start of spring, and here in CLE that means we get our pale Vitamin D-deprived faces outside. As I write this, we're in the middle of what is a typical "March in Cleveland" wonky weather week - 50 degrees on Monday and Tuesday, blizzard today, high of 17 tomorrow, 50 again by Friday. I ran outside in shorts and a tank top two days ago and plan to again on Friday, slushy roads and soggy sneakers be damned, because this winter saw some serious hibernation around here. Are we all sick of hearing the words "Polar Vortex"? I have never seen so much excitement among friends and family over being able to see a patch of grass. And rain! You know it's a bad winter when folks who live in Cleveland - a city that averages 155 days of rain per year - can be heard cheering at the sight of rain only because it isn't snow. Funny how our perspective changes with seasons. Even me, the soulmate of Eeyore when it comes to cheery-ness of outlook - I admit to being totally stricken with Spring Fever. Time to clear out cobwebs and hit refresh on everything, beginning with my running routine. Time for Outdoor Recess.
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| First appropriately-attired outdoor recess run of the season. So much better than running in a parka. |
My Spring 2014 running goal: increase my distance. 5k seems to be my wall. A couple of the pieces of my wall:
Motivation: I'm not terribly competitive when it comes to running (but don't let me near a Scrabble board...), so I don't have the motivation of racing to improve my time or distance. I like 5k races - mostly because running with a crowd is fun, even if everyone passes me, and I generally choose races that raise funds for a charitable cause, so I can feed the do-good feel-good part of my soul while enjoying a good run - but I never enter a race to win (or even to finish with a respectable race time) and I'm not fussed about racking up finisher medals for longer distances. Rick is the competitive runner in our family. He really wants a marathon under his belt. He struggles with injury and training schedules to work up to the distance. But that's just not me. I dig my race t-shirt collection, but the medal? Meh. I'm never going to be the person with a collection of distance stickers on my car, though I kinda love this one:
My one motivating factor is wanting to do more of something I enjoy, which isn't nothing as far as motivation goes, but it's not race training and it adds no urgency. I had planned to work towards longer distances over the winter, but my gym days found me gravitating more towards the hot yoga studio and less to the treadmills (polar vortex, polar vortex... being warm trumped everything else).
Air: When I can run outside, my allergies quickly get the better of me. Ineffective airways make distance running a wee bit challenging. I can feel more energy in my muscles, but my lungs are all "bitch, please." I am committed to a more serious effort in finding a solution, starting with switching doctors. I'll see a new doctor next month, who will hopefully understand that traditional allergy drug treatments make me feel worse than the allergies themselves, and will hopefully not throw another unusable prescription at me. Fingers crossed.
If (when? when!) I can run farther, I'm looking forward to trying some trail running. Anyone have a favorite trail they like to run?
