Winter Running

IS IT SPRING YET??

I am starting to lose my patience here. Don't get me wrong, I do love winter and snow, but when it messes up with my training and my longing for the outdoors, I am going cuckoo. We had enough of this already!

So far I've only been able to go outdoors for my long runs and while they have not been too miserable per se, I just wish I could spend more time breathing the fresh air. The treadmill is nice and predictable, convenient too, I can hop on it without wasting too much time at lunch, but constantly staring at the outside while I do my runs, it wears off my little fuzzy brain faster than my soles.

Ok, I know, I know, I am full of it, I COULD go outside if I REALLY wanted to. Coach has been giving me some specific workouts such as hill repeats and tempo runs, but finding the right places outside my office to do those looked pretty impossible to me, and I just didn't want to leave them for the evenings, it's dark and cold and all that meh.

The trail outside my office was in this shape until very recently, I guess, so without YakTrax it's useless. The time I went out for a walk and took the pictures below I almost broke my neck thrice.

However, it did the job and brought back my sanity, at least for a little while. I have the smile to prove it:

I tried though, now look at this messy sidewalk. This particular run was constant jumping over slushy puddles and tip toeing on ice patches, as well as on and off the road because the sidewalk itself had 5 inches of frozen snow on it, harder than a block of concrete (I don't have proof, but you gotta believe me, I almost sent a letter to the city).

We had nicer ones too, thank goodness, but far too few. And the sidewalks were FINALLY cleaned. See the difference with the one below and look at my hubbs go up the hill!

There is hope though, it seems to be thawing little by little and soon there will be no more. Right, RIGHT?? Some people even took their toys outside, for good juju. Look how the snow melted all around it. I think it's getting the message, slowly but surely.

As for me, I am trying to keep a positive attitude, what else can I do? Have you seen this bright sunshine? At least it's not always grey and gloomy. I even got to wear a sweater instead of my fleece and replaced my wool hat with a buff. Can I say hip hip hooray?

Last  but not least, the snow seems to have its advantages too. Instant ice bath, half the soaking! I swear I laid there motionless for about 10 minutes and I could not get enough of it. It's only when my butt froze completely and I could no longer feel my belly button that I decided to go inside and stretch.

The morale of this story? Some days, winter is great, some days, it's a real bitch, but in the end, it shall all pass. When it comes to biking, I am still in the honeymoon phase with my trainer, when I run I am thankful for at least being able to look outside, the pool is warm, most of the times, so triathloning in winter is doable. It's only the times when you want to break the monotony that get to you.

So, Mother Nature, please, please, with a cherry on top, hurry the fuck already and put on your bikini and stop all the crying before I lose it again.

Enough with this, even if it's pretty:

And definitely no more of this!

Mmmkay? Peace out!