Wednesday, December 19, 2007

An different kind of track run

This has been a really cold week with temperatures from 10 below to 10 above. The high today was supposed to be minus 5. Finally we have a cold streak to get some ice in the Anchorage area. Tomorrow I'm going to head back down to the highway climbs at lunch to check them out. They've gotta be in by now!

Last night Brian and I decided to go check out the next Frigid Bits course that was set up on Goose Lake. Carlos, the organizer of the winter bike races in Anchorage, shoveled about a 1 mile track that curves and twists around the frozen surface of Goose Lake, which is right around the corner from our house.

I needed to do a 45 minute run and Brian wanted to bike the course. So he biked, I ran and Niko ran back and forth across the lake trying to find his owners in the dark. It was just what I needed to spice up some of my weekly runs. It was so clear out that I even could see the skyline of mountains in the darkness. It was really peaceful running out there on the lake, away from the roads, away people passing by, away from the same old trail I've been running on. The middle of the lake was a little piece of solitude right in the middle of the city.

I'm trying to change it up a bit though. If I run on Goose Lake every day, I'll most likely get bored of that too. So I'm going to try to do a different run every day of the week. And that means I may be even hitting the treadmill once a week to get out of the cold! This has definitely been the most difficult training I have done because of the conditions (dark, below zero temperatures, and boredom). The running is easy, but getting out the door is the hardest part. Sometimes, drinking hot chocolate or baking cookies sounds much more appealing.

But I know I can get through it. I've been feeling really good on my runs and that is giving me the momentum I need to keep up with my running every day. I have gotten to a certain fitness level and do not want to lose it now.

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