On the Road Again

Yesterday, after almost 3 weeks, I decided to try running on the road again. It was a beautiful, but cold, morning and I'm still surprised at how much less you need to wear running than cycling when temps are in the teens.

I started up my new c25k app and did my usual loop, being careful to pause the app/timer so I could be sure to end my warmup *after* going up and over the hill by my house. As great as my treadmill setup is, running outside is SO much nicer.  And the new app I'm using allows me to play my own music and gives me audio cues when it's time to run vs. walk.

Not being able to get out until around 10 certainly had its pros and cons. On the up side, the sun was higher in the sky and made things feel warmer despite the actual temperatures.  And since it was open, I was able to swing into the local running store to take the chill off and look around at all the cool stuff.  But on the downside, there was a LOT more traffic and, with all the snow we've gotten, the sidewalks were either snowy, icy, or not shoveled at all, forcing me out into the road.  The combo of these two things meant that I waited almost 10 minutes to cross the Post Road & even then I couldn't avoid jaywalking since there were 4' piles of snow at either end of the crosswalk.  Big Fail.

But I eventually got to my coffee shop where I met an older couple that's very much into cycling and walking. They were probably in their 70s, but looked amazing and chatted with me like they were 50 yrs younger.  If I ever needed a reminder of a good reason to do all this crazy exercise stuff, they supplied it.

I had a nice cool-down walk home, despite the sketchy sidewalks.  And - amazingly - my knees were fine for most of the rest of the day.  My left one got a bit sore by the end of the day, but nothing like it had been.  A bit of icing last night and this morning and everything's back to normal again.

So I'm hoping we don't get any snow tonight so I can run outside again before the sun comes up.  It'll be much quieter & less crowded on the roads, but the coffee will still be freshly brewed.  I can't think of a better way to start off the week.