When you want to do your tempo run and Mother Nature spits wind in your face.

I tried to blog yesterday, honest I did.  It was going to be one of those short stupid posts where I throw up some dumb pictures I took during the day, throw down some facetious garbage underneath them, and laugh my way through my little fake learnings.  But my internet went all wonky, wouldn't upload the photos, and then I fell asleep in the chair waiting for those damn things to upload.

But tonight my internet is raring to go, so we're about to bring on the stupid pictures and facetious garbage again.  Your excitement is palpable; I can tell.

So yesterday (Wednesday) I ended up doing an easy 3-miler on the treadmill rather then my longer tempo run because I had to get up at 3 AM and leave the house by 5:30 AM.  Would have done it outside but I wasn't exactly keen on running in those hellish 20 mph winds when I could run in perpetual summer on the 'mill.

Who's unimpressed with this selfie?  YOU ARE

And I thought I outsmarted those damn winds, too, smugly thinking I would do my tempo on Thursday rather than my usual Wednesday, when the winds wouldn't be so strong.  Well, they weren't as strong - only 16 mph cold freaking winds. 

It was like Mother nature laughed and spit in my face at the same time. Only she spit at me with wind.

I briefly toyed with doing the tempo (2 miles easy, 3 miles @ 8:30 pace) on the treadmill, and then my brain forced me against my will to get on outside running gear to forget that ridiculous idea entirely.

Taking it outside WOOT

But 16 mph winds...those winds are a tad strong to be able to tempo at my required pace.  So I decided I would actually outsmart the winds by plotting a course where I would run with the wind at my back or to my side instead of straight-on into them. 

I did the first 2 mile warm-up going into the wind, but the actual tempo was run to the east and on that north/south road in the map above.  I was glad I thought of doing the tempo this way as opposed to my usual "I'll run this mile loop over and over again even though it means I will run some of these miles straight into the wind." "Now Terie," I hear you all asking, "Why would you ever run a tempo run straight into 16 mph winds?"  And the answer to that question is "Because I'm an idiot who has done that very same thing too many times before."

I am also the same idiot that ran the 3 miles at tempo way too fast, as per my usual.

And the usual large dog tagged along on the run.  And he was crazier than normal because we don't normally run down that north/south road and he was all OMG WHERE ARE WE GOING IS THAT A CAR LET ME CHASE IT HEY CAN I RUN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD WHERE ARE WE GOING.  He was so all over the place that he must have gotten all sorts of new smells on his feet because he was thoroughly inspected by the cat when we returned home.

Large dog. How do you not smell yourself.

I found out later that the time of day we went running (4:30 AM-ish) was the warmest part of the day, as the temperatures plummeted from the 30s into the teens for the rest of Thursday.  This forced me to dress as if it were winter again and, if you think my running outfits are bad, you should see what happens when it gets super-freaking cold and I'm in regular clothing:

And there it is.

To the learnings!

• When I woke up last night a cat was sleeping on the keyboard and had written gibberish in the blog post that almost happened last night.  Hubbs said that would have been better content for all of you.
• Palpable is a cool word.  Use it more often, please.
• Those grey running tights are new...expect a more detailed review tomorrow.
• You haven't really run until you take large dog on a new road and his ADHD comes on full force and you are strapped to him.
• I know you covet my parka.  

Tomorrow's workout: Total body weights with some barbell love thrown in.