Good morning! How is your weekend so far?

Sometimes writing up these workout recaps make me feel as though my always-impeccable memory is slowly escaping me.

I start putting together these Sunday workout recap posts at the beginning of the week, almost like a workout journal where I jot down my mileage, some thoughts and then review it all before hitting publish.

But, when I sit down to review the week and finish it up, I barely remember the workouts from early on in the week and read it as if it’s someone else’s recap.

Maybe I need to start doing those brain teasing exercises to keep my memory sharp.

Geez, don’t I do enough exercise as it is? Now my brain needs a workout too?

This week saw the return of real winter so I kept track of the early morning weather conditions for each day’s workout just to give you an idea of what I run in—and what sends me inside to the gym.

*Monday*

35-Minute Pure Barre DVD & 3.1 Miles

Current Weather: 37 degrees and super windy

It was a nice change of pace for me to see what I had to give for a 5k distance instead of going for my usual 6-mile loop,  achieve an endorphin high in just under 24 minutes and then go home to get on with the day.

*Tuesday*

45-Minute Pure Barre DVD & 6.2 Miles

Current Weather: 19 degrees and starting to flurry

I only had time for the first 35 minutes of Pure Barre which was fine – I swear the ending part of abs is not always necessary when you suffer through the warm-up section.

Plank Update – I am still plank pathetic when it comes to this Pure Barre Studio Series but realized I can handle planks MUCH better when I am fully warmed-up or after a run than at the beginning of Pure Barre.  

5k yesterday and a 10k today. These 6+ miles are the reason I run.

I didn’t feel cold at all, I just felt so good and in tune with a quick but comfortable pace of 8:40 until the last mile where I brought it down to 8:30.

I wish every run could feel so effortless and awesome!

*Wednesday*

Arm/abs section of Pure Barre DVD & 6 Treadmill Miles

Current Forecast: 19 degrees, windchill and real feel temperature below zero and ice all around.

This means treadmill.

I had a great treadmill run and if you missed Friday’s post, click here for the Beat The Boredom workout.

*Thursday*

35 Minute Pure Barre DVD & 45 Minutes Elliptical

Current Forecast: My car thermometer read 7 degrees as I drove my son to the bus stop and myself to the gym in my community.

I had to stand outside for about five minutes which left my feet so beyond frozen that when I got on the elliptical machine, I purposely paid attention to how long they took to defrost.

10 minute mark: feet still like blocks of ice

15 minute mark: I took over my long sleeve layer, feet still frozen

25 minute mark: feet still frozen, rest of me sweating!

35 minute mark: finally feel normal and not a second sooner.

*Friday*

11 Miles

Current Forecast: Balmy temperature of 25 degrees with light snow in the forecast.

I decided to run a little longer today even though I normally run long on Saturday for a few reasons:

1 – I thought I could get a long run completed outdoors because it was 25 degrees which was warm compared to Saturday’s forecast calling for a real feel temperature well below 10 degrees.

2- I considered doing back-to-back long runs if I felt up to it on Saturday because I haven’t done it in a while.

3- I had plans to go out at night and for some reason I wasn’t totally sure I was in the mood to have my long run on my mind.

I made it four miles outside until the flurries turned into snowing enough that I could no longer see.

I found my way to the gym where I ran another 7 miles to bring myself to 11 miles total.

I had purposely dressed with the possibility of ending up in the gym which meant I had a Run Swiftly short sleeve as my base layer and the Nike ear warmer easily worked as a head band.

This is what I looked like after coming in from the snow – red cheeks, snow I believe in my eyes and my face all cold and wet that my mouth was sort of stuck in that position.

I am going to share the treadmill workout I completed a bit later this week.

*Saturday*

3.25 miles outside – > 1 mile on treadmill ->   a little over 6 miles back outside = over 10 miles

Current Temperature : 18 degrees but wind chill brought real feel to zero or maybe below?

I woke up and did feel like running so the plan became ten miles.

I wanted to run outside so I gave it a shot. It wasn’t too cold and I didn’t notice wind (at least I didn’t think so) and I went slow to keep my eye out for ice which really wasn’t there.

Right under the three-mile mark, my phone developed a case of hypothermia.

What it meant was, it’s too cold to function and needed to warm up….not cool down.

I guess this means I am more nuts that I realize for running outside in such temperatures? I don’t know, I wasn’t cold but my phone refused to work.

I didn’t want to run so long without my phone so I headed into the gym to finish up my run on the treadmill.

Only, I didn’t feel like running on the treadmill. The treadmill gives me a great workout lately but I didn’t want a workout, I wanted to just run.

I hope that makes sense?

After a mile on the treadmill and giving my phone the chance to get warm and start working again, I layered back up and went back outside to finish my run.

I don’t love disrupted runs such as this but when you accept that kinks happen and figure out how to work through them in order to complete what you set out to accomplish, you develop that mental endurance which is part of the reason we do these long runs anyway.

*Sunday*

Rest Day

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

********

Anyone else have this experience with their phones? I usually only have an issue in the summer if the phone gets too hot in the sun.

If you have been running in the cold lately, are you loving it or hating it?

Are you planning to run today or rest today?