Pretty Much Everywhere It's Gonna Be Hot

This was not the weather forecast for New York City this weekend:

Thanks, Arthur.

As Scott blogged, it was one freezing week and as such, I did very little running. Wah wah.

After my emo Christmas post, I took myself out for a run in Boston and was only mildly thwarted by icy mud puddles of death (see exhibit A). I put in about 2 miles just to feel my body moving again. I also got my eating under control and I've felt very on top of my food intake this past week. Last Monday, Jenn and I did a good 4 miles. And after that? I hibernated. My full intention was to go to TNT on Tuesday but when I walked outside and got slapped in the face by a gust of artic wind I said oh hell no and got the first subway home. New Year's Day was not a day for anything more than purely existing. I also had full intentions to attend the early morning run on Saturday. I even set my alarm for 7:40am and put it on the couch. Why the couch? Well, since Morning Celeste is a far more difficult creature than Normal & Ambitious Celeste, she has to be dealt with in different ways. And by that I mean manipulated into a conscious state. Since I sleep in a loft bed, I would be required to climb down from warm cozyfest, cross the living room and turn off my nuclear bomb warning alarm. This would hopefully get me awake. The next morning, the alarm went off. The building shook with gusts of wind. Bleary-eyed, I padded down from my loft. Success! I plodded across the room. So close! Turned it off. You can do it! And climbed right back up into bed and slept another 4 hours. Wait, that wasn't in the plan. Hibernation is fun.

New Year, New Week. In TNT tomorrow we're running a 5k. My runs are consistently longer than the 3.1 miles of a 5k but as we know my longest continuous running interval is only a little over 2 miles. I wanted to freeze my ass off be ready.

Today, I arrived in the UWS to meet Jenn at 3pm. Despite wearing more layers than a delicious cheese oozing bolognese lasagna, I was still shivering. My goal: to run two laps around the Central Park Reservoir without a single walking interval. 3.14 miles.

And I did. BOOYAH. In 38 minutes...a steady 11-12 minute/mile pace. I couldn't feel my legs or my butt the entire time because of the cold. No big deal. Up until the final quarter mile or so, I felt pretty strong. I always start off grumbling and hit a stride after the one mile mark. Getting my mind to wrap around doing the distance of 9 loops instead of just 2 is a bit impossible but I feel one step closer today. To me this was an even greater feat than running 5 miles because it was continuous.

Fun Fact: Shouting "I'm on a beach! I'm on a beach!" into the wind does not, in fact, make it warmer.