You have to be a little crazy to go running in 8 degrees. It's a good kind of crazy though!

On New Years day I headed out into the cold with a few other runners from my running group, the Rochester Runners. The premise of the run is to estimate your time for a four-mile run and then complete the run without a watch. The runner who comes closest to their predicted time without going over gets a gift card to our local shoe store. It's a fun way to do a group run plus it's a good measure of your internal pacing.

At eight degrees it was a chilly, but I've found the best way to make a cold run not feel so cold is to run with other people--it's a great distraction from the cold. I started off at a comfortable pace and even though it wasn't a race I've found that you when you run shoulder to shoulder with someone else you both usually end up running faster--you pull each other along. Which is probably why I ended up running faster than I predicted. I guessed I would run 34:20 (8:35 pace) but ended up running 31:35 (7:54 pace). Needless to say I was too far off to win the gift card.

Those Janji tights are my favorite for winter running. Warm and cozy even at 8 degrees.

The run was my longest run in a month (my last long run was 10 miles on December 1st before taking three weeks off). I wasn't sure how my hamstring would feel after the two mile mark. Would it tighten? Or feel fatigued? Though the course was relatively flat there were a few inclines. I felt no pain or tightness throughout the run, but did notice on these gradual inclines (probably no more than 50-60 feet in elevation) that I could "feel" that tight spot in my left hamstring. It wasn't tightness, just an awareness that it didn't feel as "smooth" as my right side. Despite the faster pace and the slight incline my hamstring remained loose after the run and then yesterday (the day after). I did "feel" it a bit more on my run this morning, so I'll be foam rolling stretching and doing PT again today. I'd like to keep progressing forward, but I also don't want to do too much too soon and risk creating a chronically occurring injury.

We're currently snowed in here (10+ inches in addition to what we already had), and once we dig ourselves out I'll be headed to the chiropractor and massage therapist for a bit more targeted work on that hamstring tendon. I also gifted myself with a ten-pass punch card to my local Barre studio, so I'm committed to getting in that all-important core/cross training.

How did you ring in 2014? Are you trying anything new this year?

-Sarah

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