Snow is a 4-Letter Word

It's only the middle of October, yet I'm posting about snow. That's because we've been having snow flurries the past two days. The ground is too warm for it to stick, but it did create some icy conditions. And it killed my nice annuals that were growing so large and giving my house "curb appeal". My house is still for sale and we're having an open house on Sunday, so I hate to lose the pretty flowers.

This November-like weather is not keeping me from training, however. Oh, no. I planned to run 9 miles on Wednesday and I kept planning that all day. I just needed to warm up by raking six bags worth of leaves off my lawn first. Then read some blogs. Then I called a guy to come give me an estimate on cleaning my basement concrete floor and he came in the middle of the afternoon. Finally I couldn't stall any more and I put on my winter gear: leggings good to zero degrees, long sleeve top, wind jacket, gloves, Smart-Wool socks, and fleece headband. Filled my water bottle, stashed some gels and was on the street at 5:30 p.m.

The temperature was 34 degrees but the 20 mph wind made it feel 23 degrees. Brrr. After about 10 minutes it felt fine, but it was a challenge when I ran into the wind. I ran around Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun, but didn't "close the loop" which means instead of two circles, I ran one large circle. Last Saturday, I ran 13.1 miles, but started to fatigue by mile 8 or 9. That's why I decided I needed a 9 mile run mid-week, which I figured would take 2 hours. Since I got going so late, I had to reduce my run, totaling 7.3 miles. Better than nothing.

Lake Calhoun is popular with walkers and runners. Last weekend it was very crowded, but yesterday the trail was very easy to maneuver. There were a few runners out, and I have to admit I was feeling quite "macha" (I assume that's the feminine of macho.) As one woman passed, I commented on what tough Minnesotans we were. She laughed.

I had my last O2 training on Monday. It was supposed to be 3 workouts per week for 6 weeks but I dragged it out because of traveling. I planned on it being a supplement to my running, but ended up using it as a substitute. The way it works is you determine your aerobic threshold using a heart rate monitor. Each workout is one hour and each week you do a strength training, interval, and aerobic workout. By the end, you have to work harder to reach your aerobic threshold, and the fuel source shifts from sugar to fat. At least, that's the way I understand it.

They monitor your improvement by doing a Max Aerobic Function (MAF) test. You run 4 miles on a treadmill, with the incline set at 2, and record the time it took. The first week, it took me 57 minutes to run/walk the 4 miles, with the splits 14:45, 14:82, 14:12, and 13:61. That seems incredibly slow, even for me.

On Monday, I ran as hard as I could. I was trying to impress K, my trainer, well, as much as a 53 year old back of the packer can impress a 22 year old IronMan. I ran the entire time, even though my legs felt fatigued the first couple of miles. She attributed it to my long run on Saturday. It took me 53:45 minutes; the splits were 14:45, 13:15, 12:47, and 12:42. I was able to talk to her the entire time, but they were short sentences towards the end. At the end, my heartrate was 189. I was booking! It's never been that high before, so I guess I have improved. The highest I ever remember getting my heartrate is 184, and that was a few years ago.

K gave me the workouts, so I'm going to repeat the program on my own. It won't be the same though. We talked the entire I did my workouts. Without her, the treadmill will go back to being the dreadmill.