After having a great weather week for running, we were hit hard by a few inches of snow which made today's 16K time trial an adventure to say the least.
I had my route all picked out. I was going to do 2, 8K loops near my house which were flat and which was sure to give me the best chance to do my 16K in exactly 1:20 minutes.
After leaving my house at 8AM this morning I soon found out that the roads and sidewalks were covered in snow/ice. This made the footing terrible as I ran from the roads to the sidewalks every 100 M or so it seemed. After completing the first 8K I knew that I could not do that same loop again. I was approximately 300M behind my pace and trying to make that time up by running that same route just wasn't going to cut it.
I had two choices, one would be to cut the run short and try again tomorrow or find some alternative routes that were less snow covered. I hated the fact that I was even thinking about stopping so I quickly crossed that option off. I kept thinking about how NOT to use the elements as an excuse. What if on race day I'm confounded with this same problem? I kept saying to myself that you can't always have the elements on your side and sometmes you just have to push on through.
I ran loops around my neighborhood trying desperately to find any good footing and eventually I was able to make up the 300+ M. I finished the time trial with a few metres to spare. This was a great opportunity for me to run at a specific pace, no more no less. It was a good lesson in discipline as I found myself having to slow down at various parts of the run so I wouldn't finish ahead of my time.
After the run I was so happy that I didn't back down from the elements and pushed myself through and I feel that this is the type of run that I can look back on and draw upon during a race when I feel low on energy.
Tomorrow will be another 16K run but at a slower pace (5:20 to 5:40 pace) and then I begin to taper for Around the Bay.
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