Sitting in my car at the Fallbrook YMCA I could hear, feel, and see the wind and snow pummeling my car.  Option A:  Head inside and do my given workout on the treadmill.  Option B: Head out with my intended plan this morning and go out on the country roads for my workout.  Deep breath, option B it was.

The workout was normal warm-up and cool-down (for me that is usually about 1.5-2 miles).  But then 8-10 x hill repeats at 5k pace with a jog down recovery.  Unfortunately, the hill I chose to run had me doing my “hard” intervals into the wind and snow.  Easy jog downhill to my starting line that I had drawn in the snow and was covered up within 15 minutes by falling white stuff.  My first interval was a benchmark run.  Set my watch for 90 seconds, and ran until it beeped.  That was my distance to beat or meet for every interval thereafter.  Jog down, let’s go on #2.

One eye on my footing, one eye on the road looking out for the errant farm truck flying by.  #2 down, felt better than #1.  Back down we go.  Half an hour of up and down a hill in the Nebraska countryside.  I look around and all I see is empty cornfields, blowing snow, and some cows that are apparently as stupid/stubborn as I am.  Hit halfway on the intervals and I am feeling surprisingly good.  The snow is peppering my face, drivers are giving me weird looks.  Each interval getting a little bit harder.  Getting the top of each hill, trying to save just a bit in my legs for that next hard effort.

After hitting number 8 spot on, I was into the bonus round of intervals.  This is the extra on the “8-10” interval number.  Once you are here it hurts, but it is just telling yourself, “next step, next step”.  Finished it out, and headed back to the parking lot enjoying a well earned tail wind.

I tell my athletes that they can learn something on each and every run.  Some of what I learned today is reflected in the title of this entry.

1)  I am figuring out why I like running/racing in weather like this.  It is so ridiculous that you cannot take yourself too seriously and you are bound to have a good time.

2)  Effort based training is the name of the game this winter.  More on that later on this training cycle.

3)  Letting go of your training and putting it in someone else’s hands is hard to do.  More on that later also.