Training Log Archive: markg

The forecast for Sunday was a high of -29 and Blair wanted to know what running in this was like so I decided to check it out. On Sat night I conned Luca into coming too but then he pulled out on Sun morning, the big wimp. Anyhow, the weather didn't quite live up to the forecast temperature. It was -24 for the whole run (at 11am) with about another 5–6 deg wind chill and snowing lightly.

This temp was new territory for me so I wasn’t quite sure how much to wear. Turns out I got it nearly right, was just a little too warm on top and could probably benefit from a balaclava. On my head I had a wool beanie (toque for you canucks) and a polar fleece neck warmer; on my body I wore a long-sleeved, skin-tight base layer, a short-sleeved running top, a light wool jumper and then wind/water-resistant shell! On my legs I had a pair of linebreak tights (like skins) and a pair of heavy thermal running tights; light wool socks on my feet and normal running shoes (no goretex or waterproofing). Finally, on my hands I had a pair of light polypropylene gloves with some shell mitts. Took me long time to put on … Turned out I had a little too much insulation on top — next time I’ll lose one of the base layers — but everything else was just perfect. I also applied liberal quantities of moisturiser to my face and hands before heading out; I figured they would be victims for chafing and cracking.

So, out into the world! After the first blast of cold wind, it didn’t seem too bad. I started slow and I took a while to warm up. I had my neck warmer pulled up over my nose which protected most of my face and stopped my nostrils from freezing. Unfortunately it also directed my moist breath up over my face and after 20min I noticed that my vision was being framed by the icicles on my eyelashes! These got bigger and bigger and eventually stopped me opening my eyes fully. If this ever happens to you, don’t try to brush the icicles off — ripping eyelashes out sucks. I managed to check my reflection about half way around and I looked to be straight out of a drag-queen Christmas production.

That was about the worst of it. The snow on the ground was building up (20cm in some places) but mostly I ran on footpaths that had been cleared yesterday. It’s still sort of tiring and slippery in parts. My neck warmer started going solid from all my frozen breath and was hard to breath through, so I eventually ditched it. It was too stiff to pull over my head so I just left it in place around my neck. You might it would be too cold on my neck but I didn’t notice. I really noticed how cold the air was when I started breathing it in, the neck warmer had warmed it a bit before that, and it made me cough quite a lot at first.

All up, not so bad. I reckon I’ll head out again in these temps. I heard some talk of Wed being -34; maybe I can set a new record!

Quick jog on the treadmill at work and then over to Au Clair to watch Borat. Very bad but at times very funny. It was -18 out. I ran in my jeans and down jacket with two layers underneath - legs were cold, top was hot.

Had to go across town but the trains weren't running in the core so I did.

C • Like the forecast 2

At UoC's indoor track; warm up and down plus 5 x 200m intervals at 40 sec pace with 200m floats (don't know what pace). Started getting a stitch after 3 so took an extended rest, then did a couple more. Easing my way back into training.

C • Indoor track 2

Ran home from the UoC.

Just discovered that the standing glute stretch with one ankle over the other knee and dropping your bum seems to help with the ITB pain. Could this be the key?

C • AOA retreat 5

So left work to meet Megan and Cheryl for dinner but there had been an accident on the train line. Decided to start jogging down the line until they were running again and ended up running with some walk breaks — didn't want to get too sweaty for dinner — to Banff Trail. The best news is I had almost no pain from my ITB! I stopped to stretch a few times and it was all good.