OK, I'm not one to complain about the weather coming from what I thought was the coldest and windiest place on earth, Allendale MI but this has gotten ridiculous. I am in the process of cranking up the mileage and workouts for US 25k Champs but it appears the Mother Nature doesn't want me to have good workouts along the way. This all started about 3 weeks ago when I went to do some cutdown 600's. I only had to do 3 of them and was planning on running around 38, 36, 34 for them. Little did I realize that by the time I got to the track the first of several "hurricanes" would be joining me. I did my usual run in front of 300 of about 45 min. and arrived at the track. After a quick pit stop I stepped up to run the first one. I swear that the moment I hit the line the wind went from something I categorize as a breeze to something I would expect to be a part of an over-dramatized movie about when tornadoes and hurricanes collide. I attempted them anyway and after running an all out 200 into the teeth of it in 40s followed by a 100 where I almost fell down from being pushed in the back so hard I threw in the towel, reasoning that doing them like this wasn't going to do me much benefit and the following day's workout would go much smoother without them.
The next day...wasn't any better as that wind brought snow and the footing was impossible. I did my best with what I found and had something of a good one. I don't know that I ran that fast due to the footing but managed 40 good minutes of work. Later that day of course all the snow melted and my second run was nice (Maybe I should have learned something).
Skip ahead to the next Tuesday and I've got 2K's. The day shaped up nicely all day long until of course when it came time for me hit the workout. I warmed up over to MVP and right as I arrived, down came the cold rain and up came the wind. The Jack Quinn's Running Club was out so I had some company, at first. After my second one in the rain I was alone, cold and alone. I finished the workout, with unspectacular times as you might expect and began to cool down. Halfway home I ran into Tommy. About 10 seconds later we ran into an epic blizzard. I'm sure he will attest, it went from light rain to blizzard in about 5 seconds and by the time I got home I couldn't feel several parts of my body.
Running the next couple of days was fine until I got out the door in Friday for my 25 x 400m workout. Just as I show up to the track it begins to sleet and heavily. This time I said some variation of the words "no way not this time" and packed it up heading for home. The next morning I went out to give it another go and realized the sleet was the better option. The wind once again was up, way way up. I managed to run 15 400s in wind that could blow over a bus before realizing that all I was doing was, for lack of a better phrase, "pissing in the wind." Frustrated, I headed for home.
Jump now to this past Tuesday and it's time for some k's. Leaving the house there was wind but I figured that by now I was used to it. For the first half of them the wind was somewhat reasonable. After that it got ugly. The wind began to swirl such that it seemed to always be against me and several gusts were actually able to blow me of the track and on the the grass. Making matters worse, it was picking up sand from the parking lot and running became something resembling a sandblaster. Perhaps this had some health benefit acting to exfoliate my skin but what mattered to me was that Mother nature had ruined yet another workout.
Finally yesterday I managed to have a workout that wasn't ruined my the weather. I got up stupid early for a Saturday and was able to get my 3 X 2mi. in before the wind could come up. Hooray!
I don't know where all these ruined workouts have left my fitness exactly. On the one hand, I've been working hard and once I get a good day the high mileage and tough workout conditions should make any race seem like a breeze. On the other hand, I don't know where my fitness is, I don't have a nice fast rhythm set in my legs, and I have lost some workout volume. Overall, I know I gotta keep my head up and good things will happen. Looking ahead, I plan to find a short race this coming weekend, then have a go at the Cherry Creek 5mi. in three weeks and finally really get after it May 8th for the 25k. May you all have better weather than mine of late, good vibes and fast times.
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