Saturday, February 6, 2010

Saturday Musings

I went for a short run this morning, and here are few things I discovered/confirmed...

  1. Running on snowy sidewalks is kind of fun. I enjoyed the satisfying crunch my shoes made and seeing the foot prints of others who'd been out before me.
  2. I'm getting significantly more tolerant of lower temperatures (apparently it just takes practice). It was 24 when I went out this morning. I expected to do a super short run and come back inside b/c it was too cold. But, nope! I did a whole run and was fine. I think it depends highly on how windy it is.
  3. When "they" say to watch out for ice on bridges, ramps, and overpasses, this also includes the pedestrian walkway on those overpasses! I skated across the McCutcheon bridge this morning.
  4. I did some research the other day on arm swing while running. I knew the bit about holding your arms at about 90 degrees close to your body, but I didn't know that I was supposed to pump my elbows back instead of forward. Surprisingly this made a difference. What I didn't discover in my research was whether the arms should swing the same or opposite of your stride (e.g., right arm moving forward as left leg strides or vice versa)...maybe this doesn't matter?
  5. The first 4 miles of any run (in the cold at least) are the hardest for me. The 4 mile mark is officially the point at which my legs wake up and are like, "Cool, we're going for a run?" At that point, I feel like I'm good to go indefinitely (well, indefinitely for the next 5 miles or so, haha).

Bonus musing--I love that a 5+ mile run has become a "short" run. I love that I cleaned house for an hour or so afterwards and then went on with my day with plenty of energy. There was a time when a run that long wiped me out. No more!

Happy Weekend!

1 comment:

  1. I'm the exact same way. I almost don't like the first few miles, once I get those out of the way I'm happy. :)

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