I guess you can say that i’ve been fortunate the last couple weekends to have avoided any serious cold weather on my long runs, until today. It still fascinates me how weather people get away with predicting incorrect forecasts, and they always keep their jobs? How is that fair? Anyway, it was predicted to be around 35 degrees this morning, but turned out to be 24 degrees instead, thats a pretty big difference. But being mildly insane like I am, that didn’t stop me from heading out at 6:15am this morning anyway. I can’t lie, it was cold, but I knew that by looking at the morning forecast, it was going to warm up by the time I was out for about 2 or 3 hours, so I knew to dress in layers…

So I put on a base layer, a mid layer, a top layer and my running jacket over top along with gloves and my knit hat. I still wore shorts though, with a layer underneath…the sad part is that I got the running pants out this morning, but stopped myself from putting them on. I’ve said it before, and i’ll say it again …. I REFUSE to wear the running pants before I really have to. Thankfully it worked out okay though, I really didn’t need them in the end. I ended up stripping off the running jacket, the gloves and changed my knit hat to my normal running hat by the time I returned from my run. The funniest part is that just 3 months ago in the summer, I was fearing the sun coming up and beating on me because it would heat me up .. today I couldn’t wait for it to beat on me to help warm me up from the cold …

Running in the cold is a totally different experience though, and i’m kind of glad in a way that I had the experience I had today. You never can tell what the weather will be two weeks out when I run the Philly marathon… I noticed a couple things though today, first, is that I really need to stay hydrated regardless of the temperature. I finished two large bottles of water, just like during the summer. Second, I found that I ran a faster pace because of the cold. I kept trying to slow it down, but it was hard to maintain a slower pace, and i’m not sure if its my body’s reaction to the cold or what. I thankfully didn’t die at the end of the run, so I didn’t totally overdo it (or i’m just in better shape than I thought). Third, I found that by using the free samples of Eucerin on my face that I’ve collected, my face didn’t chap up and get cold. It also helped that I had a good stubble going on my face from not shaving for 2 days (i’ll have to remember this one for race week)… The main page for the race says that the average morning temperature in Philly at that time is around 45 degrees, so i’m thinking it won’t be as bad as it was today, at least I can hope for it.

Anyway, I’m satisfied with where I am right now with my training though, and I’m hoping I get another good week in before I formally start tapering next weekend. I knocked out just about 22 miles today in 3:13, which is less than a 9 minute mile pace. It was the last 20+ mile training run of the season though, and it was weird, but I felt sad about it … yeah, thats the mild insanity kicking in again. My back and hips seem to be cooperating though for now, no major pain in a couple days even though i’ve kicked up the mileage and the tempo, so I hope its healing up and it doesn’t come back until i’m past these races.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes for another 12 miler, its supposed to be 35 degrees in the morning again, yeah, ok. I’ll believe it when I see it .. So good luck r to everyone racing this weekend, depending on where you’re at, I hope the weather holds up!