Enough of Winter Already

From the very beginning, when I first decided to sign up for Team Diabetes and Rome, I knew that the most intense training would take place in the dead of winter. I knew it, I dreaded it, but I was committed to just do it. To be honest, it hasn't been as bad as I imagined, but it is more difficult that my marathon training was last year. What a difference two months makes. I only have about three weeks of training left, but when I got to this point last time, the snow was gone and we were doing our last long runs in t-shirts and shorts. Best of all, we were running on clear pavement.
My last three runs have all been in pretty miserable conditions. Friday morning, I ran my 10K steady and fast, but the icy footing robbed about 5 minutes of time. It took me 59 minutes instead of my usual 54. There was some waiting around at traffic lights, but mostly the uneven footing slowed me down. And it was darn cold. Sunny, but really, really cold. Sunday was cold, too, but not as cold, and the sun was strong enough that you could almost imagine it was a hot summer day. The cold didn't bother us but again the footing made our 27K feel like 32. We were supposed to run 29 but I had calculated wrong. I've decided not to worry about the 2K. Our route was very hilly - it included that progressive uphill climb from the Champlain Bridge to the farm - and the snow on most sidewalks was so slippery that my hamstring and glutes were killing me Sunday evening.
I just came from running almost 8K this morning. The portion through the farm was severely cold. The kind of cold where you're sure your ears are being frostbitten and your chin freezes up so much it's hard to keep talking. Perhaps that's why Frederica and I didn't chat as much as we usually do. That and the fact that we'd both had difficulty waking up this morning.
Enough of winter and enough of my venting. It's just got to get warmer soon. Speed work on Wednesday night and our last 32K on Sunday. This time, Peter gets to map out the route.