Stupidest Run Ever

I mentioned in my last post on Friday that I was hoping to get in an 8-mile run in Saturday morning, but snow and wind were in the forecast, so I was unsure if I could do it.  I went to bed early Friday night, and got up before 7am on Saturday.  I looked outside, and it didn’t look too bad.  There was definitely snow on the ground, but it wasn’t a ton, and it didn’t look to be falling too hard.  A check of my weather station said it was 20 degrees, and the winds were at about 10 mph.  Those winds aren’t ideal, but I’ve run in that before.

I exchanged texts with my friend Jessica, who was also up early for a run (she hosted our Winer’s gathering Saturday night, so maybe she had the idea to pre-work off some of the food and wine, too!).  She ran hers on the treadmill, but since my treadmill is in the barn, and would therefore be cold anyway, I figured I could handle a snowy run.  I’d done it before!

So I bundled myself up really well, with extra layers, and an extra hat on top of my thermal headband, and headed out. The first 4 miles weren’t too bad. I stopped once or twice to take a couple of pictures.

 

 

It was definitely snowing. (These two shots were taken later in the morning, with my real camera.)

 

 

 

When I rounded the corner around mile 4, that’s when things started to go downhill.  By then, the sun was fully up (not that I could see it), and the winds and snow had both started to pick up in earnest. It turns out that that was also the point at which I turned headfirst into the wind. But wait, it gets worse… that was also the point at which I came to a field, about three quarters of a mile long, where there was nothing to block me from the wind and snow that were coming at me, probably at around 25 miles an hour at this point.

I was miserable. It wasn’t as hard to run in the wind, but the cold snow was what really got me. My right hand was absolutely numb from being hit by the wind-driven snow. It got so bad, that when I hit mile five, I had to stop. It was so miserable out there!

 

 

I literally couldn’t feel my fingers on my right hand, and my left one wasn’t far behind. It was so bad I wanted to cry, but I didn’t have the energy to. I was so damn cold!

I debated calling my husband–this was the first time since March that calling for a pick up had even crossed my mind. Back then, it was due to a sudden-onset injury, but today it was just pure cold. I stood there for probably about seven minutes with my back to the wind, trying to warm my fingers up. I kept debating in my mind whether or not I would call my husband. But then I realized that it would be a while before he got there, because he was asleep, and he doesn’t wake up very well, so he wouldn’t be very happy. Finally, I girded my loins (so to speak) and headed down the road again.  I discovered that I could run with my hands tucked underneath my armpits…not exactly fun, but it was the best alternative for my frozen fingers, so I just kept doing that every few dozen feet, to try and get feeling back in my digits.

I stopped for another break at mile 5 1/2, warmed up my fingers some more, and then headed out again.  Mile 6.5 brought me to a 90° turn, still into the wind, since it was coming from the east northeast. Dude, anytime the wind comes from the east, off the lake, it’s brutal. I took another five minutes to mentally prepare for the last mile and a half home, and then I headed down the road. When I finally got home, my hands were so numb, I couldn’t even get my scarf off. I went directly up to the kids room, which is the warmest room in the house, with the furnace directly underneath it, and just put my fingers next to the heating vent and let them thaw. The whole time, I was thinking how stupid I was, and swearing I would never do that again.

There were no immediate post-run pictures this time, because I was too miserable. Once I thawed out, I did have Jamie get a couple of shots.

 

 

 

The kids asked me how my run was, and I told them point-blank that it was awful, and that I should’ve run on the treadmill. I suppose I could say that I certainly wasn’t bored with my run, as I had feared I would be running 8 miles on the treadmill, but it sure as hell wasn’t fun!  That snowstorm was way more intense than I had anticipated, but to vindicate me a little, it was way more intense than the National Weather Service expected either…they were forecasting a paltry 3-5 inches on Friday afternoon for Saturday, but by the time it was all over early Sunday morning, we had 9 inches!  My kids enjoyed it, if nothing else. 😉

 

 

I couldn’t get them to come inside most of Saturday and Sunday!

There is some good news to this post, however.   As I’ve mentioned probably about a gazillion times on my blog since March, I’ve been working very hard to get back to my goal weight. I got down to about 113 last year, and I held it there for about five months.  Then, when I hurt my knee in March, I gained a total of 8 pounds. I have been struggling since then to take that weight back off, but in almost 9 months, I haven’t gotten there.

In that time, I have done at least one thing differently than when I first got to goal: because I couldn’t run, but I still wanted to do some form of exercise, I re-started the strength training program I’d done on and off again over the last 12 years, which helped me to lose the initial 50 pounds back in 2000-2001.  I exercised three times a week when I wasn’t running, then took it down to twice a week when I started running again.  It has surprised me that I have been so consistent with it…it’s been a long time since I got so serious about weight-training!  But once I started doing it, I liked the results and the feeling of being stronger, so I stuck with it.  Probably the most noticeable difference, besides the comments my OB made when she saw me either this month, was that lifting those 45 pound bushels of tomatoes during tomato canning season was actually a lot easier this year! 🙂

Because I’ve clearly gained some muscle, I decided about a month ago to up my goal weight to 115.  I figured I have a couple of pounds of muscle on me now, so I can stand to weigh a little more than I did when I first hit goal.  Since my goal weight is actually a goal range (originally 113-113.8), I decided that I would set my goal in my Weight Watchers eTools to 116, and then, as long as I stayed somewhere in the 115 range, I’d be okay.

Two weeks ago I hit 116.2, and I was so hoping to get below goal last week, but alas, I managed to gain weight (again) and weighed in at 116.6. Argh.  This week, though, I was feeling really good about my weight, despite the small gain.  My clothes fit well, and I just felt thin, or at least, healthy.  It was starting to seem silly to quibble over a pound, when I was feeling like I was at a really good weight.  Over the weekend, I gave serious thought to setting my goal to 117, and as long as I wasn’t over that weight come Monday, I would stop worrying about losing “those last few pounds.”

To my surprise, and yes, I’ll admit it, my delight, this greeted me Monday morning after my 3-mile run:

 

 

Woohoo!!  I was truly astonished.  You all know I’ve been working so hard this year to stay on track and exercising a ton (I ran 3 half-marathons!), but yesterday was the first time I’ve seen the 115s since the first week of April! It’s been a looooong 8 months.

You would think I’d be thrilled to get to eat more, but I’ll be honest…I’m pretty scared that my foray into the 115 range is just a fluke.  I’ve had so many weeks where I’ve gained or stayed the same, despite being in weight-loss mode, with my obsessive tracking and all my exercising, that I’m afraid to eat more at this point.  So, after some inner debate, I decided to just stay the course this week with the same number of points, and continuing to use only half my activity points, to see what happens on Monday.  I figure the worst that could happen is that I might lose a little more, but I also figure it can’t hurt to be below goal right before Christmas!

So that’s what’s going on with me.  Thank you so much for reading and for following along with me in this difficult journey this year.  I won’t pretend to think it’s over, but it does feel good to be back at goal for the first time in a long time!

This will be my last post for a while, maybe until after Christmas, because I have a lot to do to get ready for the holiday, most notably, make my hand-made Christmas cards (80 of them—yes, I’m a freak).  Plus, I’m really looking forward to catching up on all my blogs…that’ll be like a present to myself after I get all my cards, Christmas shopping, and baking done. 🙂

So, Merry Christmas, or, if you don’t celebrate, happy holidays!  Thanks so much for reading and following my blog!