A simple answer is … a foot covered with blood (take note of the picture). Apparently my one toenail cut into the other toe and ripped my foot open today during my hill workout. It scared me when I got home, looked at a bloody sock and feared the worst… It didn’t hurt or anything, but it looked more gruesome than it actually was, but it is a sign that i’m working hard (despite the cold weather).

That was kind of the wrap-up of what I consider to be one of the coldest weeks of training i’ve run so far. Despite the weather reports, this weekend really wasn’t that bad. It could be that i’m getting used to the temperatures, or maybe i’m just not letting it bother me… all week, all I heard was how cold it was going to bey on Saturday, but despite what they said, I still got in my 18 miler yesterday, and another 10 miles of hills this morning .. the funny thing is, today (Sunday) was actually colder than Saturday (when it was supposed to be the other way around). The best thing is that both runs this weekend were the best i’ve done so far this training season .. seems that taking those few weeks off before Christmas did help rest me up, because I feel stronger than ever.

So I had a couple of equipment issues this weekend .. I actually broke TWO zippers, the first one is on my running jacket. Apparently as I was switching out gear on my long run yesterday, my jacket zipper got a piece of material stuck in it, and I pulled hard on it to get it back up to my chin, and sure enough, I pulled off the zipper handle off (or whatever its called). It didn’t phase me much since I have a Velcro strip as well to keep it closed, its just an inconvenience now without the handle, but we’ll deal with it. The second zipper was on the bottom of my running tights .. I got home, and the zipper wouldn’t pull back up so i can get my foot out of it. At this point I hadn’t broken it yet, but after realizing the threads had pulled away from the material and it was all hosed up, I pulled a little too hard on it, and sure enough, it snapped. That one needs a safety pin repair, at least temporarily until I get new ones. I hate to replace them just due to a zipper since they’re still in great shape, but we’ll see how it goes as the season goes on…

Back to the cold .. both yesterday and today, the temperature was in the low teens, with a wind chill in the low single digits. I’ve got this rotation down of swapping out hats and gloves throughout the run so I don’t freeze up, but after 2 and a half hours in the cold yesterday for 18 miles .. everything was frozen (including the top of my water bottle). I actually took all of my hats off in the last half mile and my hair froze, my daughter thought it was funny when I came in with frozen hair. There is also something about drinking ICE COLD water when you’re running in the cold … it might be time to buy a thermal bottle for these long cold winter runs..

So yes, I mentioned I ran my 18 miler in 2 hours and 31 minutes, which means I ran it 11 minutes faster than I should have. As I’ve written in the past, thats good, but its also bad… I’m trying to maintain a 9 minute mile for my long runs so I don’t set my hopes too high for the spring marathons, but I can’t seem to slow down. Maybe once I hit the first 20 or 22 miler of the training season, that’ll smarten me up. It might be the speed work and the hill work (10 miles today of hills) that are helping get me in shape. I’m starting to feel the ‘burn of training’ now, which is something I haven’t had in awhile.. its only a 56 mile week, I still have more to add, so the ‘burn’ is only going to get worse.

Temperatures are supposed to warm up a bit this week .. so any improvement is a good one, but I can’t trust what the weather folks say, so I just have to wait and see..