No Runs, No Posts

Yeah, I haven't posted in forever, because I haven't RUN in forever.  I am finding it increasingly difficult to get out there and run in this cold weather, despite my brave bullshit of a few posts back.  30 degrees is cold.  35 degrees is cold.  40 degrees is warmer, rarer, and in my present state of mind, still damn cold.  I get super hot when I run, and thus a mile or two into it, even in say 35 degrees, I want to be down to shorts and t shirt.  Which makes the beginning 2 miles a huge suffer-fest as I freeze myself to bits.  This, of course, really interferes with my motivational strategies and inner monologue . . .   "It's 35 degrees!  You'll be plenty warm once you get going!" vs. "It's 35 degrees!  Body parts will fall off in the first mile!"  Guess which dialogue's been winning the past 10 days?

Sure, there's tights and running jackets and gloves and hats (all of which I have), but that all becomes extra flotsam after that first crucial mile, plus it interferes with my carefully crafted excuse-making skills.  This is all a long-winded introduction to my newest piece of running equipment, the seemingly dreaded TREADMILL!

I bought a gently used Proform 545s from a girl I work with, loaded it into my car with about 1/2 inch to spare (no exaggeration), brought it home, quickly broke it getting it out of the car, and installed the thing in my spare bedroom.  Don't know exactly what happened, but when I turned it on it just wanted to incline up and up and up.  4 hours, helpful boyfriend, many tools, and a lot of internet searches later, the incline motor is now unplugged and the thing works just fine as a replica of flat runs -- my fav!  I initially thought to repair this missing feature, but the more I consider it, the more I think about how I hate running up hills in the first place (tho I've gotten a lot better at it in the past 6 months).  A nice flat treadmill sounds just fine to me.

So after all the moving and repairing and researching and thanking wonderful boyfriend for his help in all of the above, I got my running togs on, iPod fixed in my ear, and my water bottle all filled and ready to go, clambered on the thing and . . . 

. . . ran 2.5 miles.  Wow!  I stayed warm, though.

2.5 miles, 11:30 pace.