Are you a Fairweather Runner?

I used to be somewhat of a fairweather runner.  

Sometimes I just wanna stay inside when I see this!

But something has changed recently.  

It could be all of the inspiration I am finding on the Dailymile.com or Twitter.  It could be the need to complete my miles, and the quickest way is to head out my front door.  It also may have been the fact that I’ve been telling people I’m going to run x number of miles tomorrow..and don’t want to be a liar!

Whatever it was, I overcame some weather obstacles the past couple of weeks.

I ran in the cold.  My rule of thumb for running in the cold has been only above 40 degrees (and even then I have turned around after only half a mile).  I have now run in sub 40 degree weather 3 or 4 times.

I ran with snow on the ground.  It was more like sludge, but still a slippery precipitation on the ground that I normally refuse to run in.

I ran when it was drizzling.  Seriously, I cannot believe I did it!  34 degrees and misty, windy weather.  I didn’t run quite as far as I thought I would, but I ran it nevertheless.  It was not very fun, I will admit that.  But now I know it’s not impossible.

I ran in the mud.  Okay it was a short few minutes when I came to a point without sidewalk (I didn’t know it was muddy).  My shoes are proof of the treachery I encountered.

Funny story having to do with another running accomplishment.———-

Many of my runs have averaged 11min/mile, however on Wednesday I killed that with 9.5 min/mile run.  It may have been because I was in a rush to get home to make what was an important phone call…or so I thought.

Someone from a paper in a nearby city wanted to interview me about my running.  I thought this was odd as I’m not an amazing runner, nor an experienced one.  But I decided to take the opportunity and scheduled a phone interview.

I’ve never been interviewed for a paper before.  Should I have told you that?  I could have made you think that this sort of thing happens all the time..but it simply doesn’t.  Not yet, anyhow.

I got super excited, then overly anxious.  I jotted down talking points, why I run, what my training is like, where I get my inspiration from, etc.  I tried to find a decent running picture to send him, but all I could find were goofy ones like this.

Note the scarf hanging out from my jacket.  And the fuzzy pink socks in the background.

I decided I had better run before the interview to clear my head and to get the jitters out.

Of course I didn’t give myself enough time to run, so I had to rush through the run and a shower and ended up calling the nice gentleman in my bathrobe.  You don’t think he could tell, right?

Approximately 60 seconds into the interview, I find out that I don’t even qualify for the dang article since I’m not doing the race he thought I was.  Because for some reason it said I was on my training schedule.

I felt like a huge goober plus I was totally sweating since I had run and showered in about 5 minutes and got overly nervous so I’m sure my heart-rate was still at my running heart-rate.

I also felt bad for “leading him on” about running that race.  Poor guy had to find another lead and it was already past 4pm.  He said he would continue to read my blog though…that’s good right?

I keep laughing about the mix-up, but really I am kind of disappointed.  I thought this would be a sweet opportunity to be recognized (for being overly-organized?) and a nice way to plug the blog.  Such is life, huh?  My day will come! 😉
———-

Although I didn’t get that interview, I can recognize that I have grown in the past couple of months in my running.  I am getting better every week and am overcoming myself and what I think I can and cannot do.  Sometimes recognition from yourself is better than from anyone else. 

Next up: running in the snow!  (Maybe..)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Discussion Questions:
What goals have you accomplished lately?


Do you run in the cold?

{For more on my running, check out my Running Page!}