You Gotta Love Chicago!

You know, yesterday, it was a little chilly out, but nice, dry and sunny. I wanted to get in a bike ride in the afternoon, but I had dinner plans with some friends that I had to cancel already once, so I thought, "OK, well, I'll just do a ride outside tomorrow." The weather forecast was calling for lower temperatures and maybe some rain, but you know how weathermen can be wrong.

Well, I wake up this morning and look out the window to find this. Ridiculous! I have to remind myself not to plan any spring triathlons because this is the kind of weather I have to deal with. It is MID-APRIL! We've had only about a handful of outside-bike-riding temperatures so far. Today makes me even more sure I want to move out of the midwest. Guess I won't be riding outside today! In fact, the way it looks, I don't even want to plan a run outside this afternoon. Talk about ruining my whole day!

Easter Ride

For the past 3 years, it has been my tradition to get out for an early morning bike ride on Easter Sunday. I figure if I can get up and go early enough, I can get my workout in and still be back in time to still make it to the family celebrations. This Easter should be no different!

However, as all of you here in Chicago already know, Mother Nature hasn't been to kind to us in terms of spring-like temperatures lately. We were "teased" a little bit a few weeks ago with some extremely warm temperatures for this time of year, but since then, we've dipped right back down to the well-below normal range. After Saturday morning's run (last long one before Boston!), I headed right back here to the computer to see what the weather predictions were going to be like for Easter Sunday morning. It was supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer than Saturday morning.
That's not saying much - it was only 22 when we ran on Saturday! BRRRR!

I was planning on riding with the Salt Creek Triathlon Club that morning. But they've always had this "unwritten" rule...we do not ride if it's below 40 or if it's raining, we don't go below 50. Or so, at least I thought that's what the rule was! I waited patiently to see messages roll in about canceling the ride due to weather. Then late afternoon, a message came out that some of the members were out on a ride that Saturday morning (in 22 degrees) and said "Oh, we were fine!" This meant the ride would go on. YIKES!

Riding in cold weather is a lot different than running in it. The wind is a much bigger factor and my extremities get colder much more quickly....and they take longer to warm up once I get going. Saturday night before I went to bed, I started tossing out all the warmest pieces of clothing I had. Also packed up my last package of toe warmers as I was quite sure I would need them for the ride in the morning. By the time I was finished, I had quite the little mountain of clothes tossed onto the middle of the closet floor. Nothing matched, but who cares? I just wanted to be warm!

In the morning, I woke up and quickly ran to the computer to check again to see if, by some miracle, they would be canceling this ride. No such luck. And, sure I could just blow it off, but then it would bother me all day that others got out there and ride and I wimped out. So I put the first 2 layers of my clothes on and stuffed the rest into a bag with my shoes, drinks, helmet and gloves and tossed the bag onto the front seat of the car. I grabbed the bike to put it in the trunk and the frame was ice cold against my bare hand. And this was IN THE GARAGE! I thought to myself, "This is absolutely ridiculous."

I pulled up to the usual meeting spot about 10 minutes early and, to my surprise, I wasn't the first one there! Gee, I'm not the only psycho that's going through with this ride! We are one sick group of people! All in all, we ended having 8 people ride this frigid Easter morning. My fingers were completely uncomfortable for the first 20 minutes of the ride and then again when we started heading back into the wind. My toe warmers, though I could feel them wearing off toward the end of the ride, did the job. Other than that, I can't really complain that it was all that cold out there.

So chalk it up as another Easter Sunday with another long bike ride! Now, on to the festivities!

First of 3

Saturdays have been reserved for my "long run" for as long as I've started doing long runs! Yesterday, I needed to get in one of my longest runs in preparation for the Boston Marathon: the big 20-miler. According to the schedule, this is just the first of three 20-milers on my training schedule. Now, most people think 20 miles is just an absurd amount of miles to run. But yesterday, it wasn't the mileage that I was dreading. It was the weather.

It can be quite challenging to get in long runs outside during these months when you live in Chicago. We still have snow accumulation on all the regular running paths. This snow has been trampled, melted and then frozen back into a severly uneven surface making it unsafe to run on. It's these times that we die-hard runners take to the streets. The streets were clean for yesterday's run, however, the longer the run, the more traffic there is to face. Most drivers do not like sharing the roads with the runners and they're all too happy to let you know it!

I fell asleep on Friday night before catching the morning's weather forecast, so I flipped on the television when I woke up. 22 degrees. Yeah, uh huh, what about that piercing windchill? So I stepped out on my balcony and quickly jumped back into the house and slammed the door. Yep, definitely a windchill factor! A further look at the news showed the windchill was about 12 degrees. This can make a big difference in how to dress properly for a run.

I rustled through the closet to find all the much-needed set of hand warmers and all the necessary layers then proceeded to the kitchen to fill up bottles for my fuel belt. This poses another problem. It's difficult to get to your drinks because of all the extra clothes. Additionally, I need to wear two pairs of gloves (with hand warmers tucked nicely inside!) to keep my fingers from freezing off, thus making it difficult to handle the bottles during the run. How DO I manage?

Next problem is that NO ONE wants to run 20 miles in this weather. I have some pretty crazy, gung-ho, die hard endurance athlete friends, yet they all seem to turn into wimps when it comes to keeping me company on such a long run (well, BC, you are excused since you ran the 17 with me last week!). Now I know that if I can't get some other sucker to come out and run with me the entire time, I won't get the required mileage in. Sure, I'll tell myself I'll "finish up" on a treadmill later in the afternoon. But that never happens.

What is my solution? Shifts. I need an early morning shift...someone to start with me at 6:30am. This is BC. This is because he can't stand to sleep in a little if he knows someone is out there running. He needs to join in. Cool, he's great company. Then we swing back for shift #2. These people refuse to get up early enough to meet us for the 6:30 start, so they show up at 7am. This group runs a regular loop (of which I STILL can't figure out myself) of around 8 miles. After 8 miles in 12 degree windchill, these people are all too happy to jump in their cars and wish me luck for the second half of my run.

Enter shift #3...Joe M. Now, Joe cherishes his sleep-in days. Do not ask him to get up early to run. If you do this, be prepared to be showered with a bunch of f-bombs and be told how crazy and ridiculous your idea is. And like perfect clockwork, shift #2 ended at 8:30am...exactly the time I told Joe to meet me. However, for the last 4 miles, I was silently hoping that Joe looked at the weather for that morning and decided to bag the run. I was cold and another 10 miles in the brutal wind was not something I was looking forward to. I started toward my car to check my cell phone praying to find a voice mail from Joe telling me he had opted for the treadmill that day.

I was just about 4 feet from my car when a happy little tap-tap of someone's horn caught my attention. DAMMIT! It was Joe! Jeez, there was no way I could get out of this run now! Alright, fine. I knew that if I didn't do this now, I wouldn't do it at all. And that certainly wouldn't be good for an upcoming marathon! We now had just 9 miles left and, though I didn't know a route that would get us that mileage, we just took off and made up the route as we went along.

Joe and I trained for the Flying Pig Marathon together a few years ago. I remember some pretty crappy runs in the DARK and cold...so at least on this day, we had daylight in our favor! The miles went quickly as we chatted about everything under the sun. I almost didn't believe we were going to be finished so quickly...but knowing what pace we run on average and the time it took us to do the additional miles, it seemed to work out.

Thanks to all the "shift" runners for helping me complete this 20 miler in such tough running conditions. I'm sure you'll all let me know when I can return the favor!