cold weather

I'm not saying it was cold or anything, but I did do part of my warm-up in the car.

On the 8th of Monday I decided to start some cold weather running in Northern, Ohio. Knowing full well that it is usually colder about one hour before daybreak I opted for the early 5:30 am run. Windchill at 20 and temps near 25. Winds were sustained around 5 to 8 miles an hour. I started the run with shorts and a thin dri-fit long sleeve. One mile into the 6 mile run I tossed the shirt and finised the remainder in shorts, gloves and my trail pegasus. The fun thing was that I actually broke a sweat. I remember watching a masters runner in Mississippi do some long runs in the two weeks of winter that Mississippi has. He would start of with barely a stitch on. Gloves,shorts and shoes. He always stated that when their is not wind...you can run in anything. I found out this past Monday that he was dead on. I was so comfortable while humming along in the lower twenties.

So on Januaray 1st I was told about the NPM. And although I did 52 marathons last year and figured 2007 to be relaxing, I could not resist a challenging race like the one at the North Pole. On January 1st I traveled back to Ohio from my last marathon for 2006. Several emails pointed me toward the NPM. I woke up on the second of January and told myself to relax for few days. It could not be done. As I tried to sit in my puffy black barca lounger...my legs began to twitch out of control. I soon found myself out in the freezing rain on my bike in the middle of a 40 mile ride. I loved every minute of it.