2x2

Both yesterday and today I ran 2 miles. Yesterday's was slower and felt rather nasty, though the sun was out and felt pretty good. Today's run was faster and felt rather nasty, and the sun was not out, plus it was windy and cold.

On both runs I focused on taking smaller, for fluid turnovers without overstriding. My left hip feels a little tender but I'm not sure if it's because of the ab stuff I did prior to running, or that I didn't really warm up before running, though yoga will take care of it tomorrow.

Back to today, it was 49° and windy when I walked out the door. A brief glance of things to come, things that I'm not too happy about since I dislike running in frigid temperatures. Much of it is because I don't have a good winter running jacket nor gloves that block the wind out. SO MANY RUNS were disgusting last winter just because I couldn't feel my fingers afterward because the wind chill was terrible, and when your fingers start to regain feeling it's so damn nasty that all small children should leave your presence. I saw some cool jackets on Nike's site that I looked at awhile ago, though I'm still looking at what else is out there so if you have any recommendations let me know. Same for the gloves, too. I'm good on the hats and stuff because I knit, so my head stays warm (because apparently you lose a lot of heat from the brain area).

Another thing I find myself doing in colder temperatures is running with an iPod. I'm weird. Usually I get into a "song of the day" mode where I listen to the same song on repeat for the entire day, and this ultimately means running with just one song uploaded to the iPod. I actually like it because it gets me into a rhythm better than constantly being aware of song changes. As long as the tempo of the song is good, I'm good. And the reason why this helps me out in the cold is because the last thing I want to be doing is staying outside for longer than a moment. It's a necessary evil to stay in running shape during the winter in time for race training the next year. No, I don't have access to a treadmill. Even if I did I'd prefer to suffer outside, anyway.

So with Saturday's 4-miler i'll top out at 12 miles for the week. Good starting point, as this is still the second week of running, and I'll definitely keep those 4 miles slower.