6 at 7 in 2

I hit the road this morning to do 6 miles. The plan was to run 6 miles at marathon pace, which by my estimation right now is about an 8:50 pace. The forecast last night was for temps around 7 degrees with a windchill around -2, so this was one of those few runs which I was really kind of dreading.

By the time I got ready to hit the road it was 6:45am and I figured I would scrap the marathon pace and be happy getting the miles in since it was so freaking cold. And it was cold. by far the coldest weather I’ve run in this year, maybe ever. Every part of my clothing that allows perspiration had iced – I had ice underneath my wind jacket on top of my technical fabric stuff, my fleece hat was covered in it, my new RoadID bracelet had ice on it – pretty wild stuff. It was worth going out just to watch the looks of bewilderment people give you as they are driving by all bundled up in their cars.

When I got home I checked Weather.com and Wunderground and they both reported the temperature in Freehold to be about 2 degrees with a -10 degree windchill. I didn’t think it was windy, thank god. Wind would have been the straw that broke this camel’s back. And I ended up averaging an 8:42 pace, mainly because I was cold and wanted to get the hell back inside. My heart rate was a little higher than normal, but I’ve come to accept that as a byproduct of running in really cold weather. Tomorrow it is supposed to be almost 25 degrees warmer – forecast calls for 26 degrees with snow showers – woohoo, tropical compared to this morning, I think I’ll wear shorts.

It’s going to be warm in Arizona though – Go Eagles!