Broken Record

It did not feel all that cold on Thursday, not colder than the day before, really. I had not looked at the thermometer and sometimes ignorance is bliss. It was not until 2 hours later when I saw the car's thermometer that I realised just how cold it had become. It originally said -13C but had switched to -12 by the time I had the camera out. A colleague who passed me in his car while I was running had the same number on his thermometer at that time - apparently he felt rather snug and warm in his car when he saw me. Another colleague had photographic evidence of -14C in Tralee (we're having a competition in the office hence all the photos), so I did not have the record for myself.

As ever the main road was the only possible running surface and I went down to Glenbeigh and then further on to Mountain Stage until I reached my turnaround point. I felt comfortable enough, as soon as you reach a certain effort level you feel snug and toasty, just the fingers are closer to frostbite than ideal. I ran at a reasonably easy pace, easier than the previous mornings.

The Deep Freeze did not let up and we had another bitterly cold night. I never thought I'd see temperatures like that in our Gulfstream-kissed little patch. One crank on the radio blamed BP's oil spill in the summer. Blaming the Brits is generally popular round here but to the best of my knowledge this is the first time ever they got blamed for our weather!

For once I had no excuses not to do a "Fast Friday" and I did a faster effort today. I paced myself by feel but set the HR alarm on the Garmin to help me in this. I thought it was my imagination when it got colder the closer I got to Killorglin, but later on the car's thermometer confirmed this, it was a comparably balmy -6C in Caragh Lake but a nippy -12C five miles further down in town, how extraordinary.The pace was 10 seconds per mile faster than what I would have expected. The coach may still give me a slap on the wrists for that, but I swear I ran well within myself and the HR never went beyond the set limits.

The thaw is supposed to come by Sunday, when the muppets on the radio will have to find something else to moan about. Personally I am loving these conditions, it's is so pretty outside and as long as our heating is working I'm fine with it. I don't want them to start moaning about the economy again, I prefer being cold to being broke.

Happy Christmas everyone!

23 Dec

12 miles, 1:32:38, 7:43 pace, HR 145

24 Dec

11.2 miles, 1:18:38, 7:01 pace, HR 152
   incl. 10 miles @ 6:57