Nine Frigid Miles

My training schedule called for nine miles this morning, but my brain was calling for more sleep. The only thing that got me out of bed was thinking of a banana sandwich. So despite not really feeling it, I headed up to Central Park to meet up with Caitlin. We’d planned on doing 8 together and then I’d run the mile-ish home. We ran one full loop (six miles) of the park, running it counter-clockwise like the half-marathon course will go. 

Our legs and our lungs felt really tight, but we pushed on until we’d finished that first loop, and then Caitlin decided she’d do her last 2 on the treadmill, and I decided to exit the park and the hills to finish my last 3 on flat land. I ran through Hell’s Kitchen and the far West Side of Manhattan  to finish up my 3. I overestimated a bit where finishing up 9 would leave me, and I ended up running an extra .14 to get home. It was a really hard run, but I’m glad I did it.

My face was really red from the cold.

Today, I wore three layers on top: a base layer, a mid-layer and a fleece. I wore one pair of pants (although I seriously considered a second pair) and two pairs of gloves. Check out my winter running tips here.

After I was done, I was in no mood to make sense of the random assortment of food in my fridge, so I ordered this chicken stir-fry bowl and ate every last bite of it. My running appetite is definitely coming back.

Running 9 miles in this frigid cold was really more than enough outside time for me today, so I did the lazy thing and ordered some FreshDirect to come tomorrow, so, for dinner, I was determined to make something of the random contents of my fridge.

Whole wheat pasta, chicken patty (from my fave grocery store, in NJ), marinara sauce and a little goat cheese. In an ideal world, this would have also had some spinach or broccoli. But I don’t live in an ideal world.

Now, I have some studying to do. Will explain tomorrow!