I ran outside! I ran outside! Granted it was mostly through snow drifts, but I ran outside! 7.25 miles in 1:09:19

Whoohooo – finally enough of a break in the cold to be able to take a run outside!  I didn’t have a run scheduled for today but I had to take advantage of the sunlight and warmer air.  Was rewarded with a nice red prairie sunset out of the deal as well.

We had about 2-3 inches of snow come down last night which lead into 40 minutes of shovelling this morning as it got pretty hard packed with the wind.  The shovelling killed my chance to run this morning but I got a chance again earlier this evening and took it.

The snow had packed in the sidewalks and running/bike trails in my area so I fell back onto a usually abandoned old country road near our place.  I figured it would be a bit snow packed but wouldn’t be too bad and most of the road was pretty good, except for some sections that ran east/west that were very hard packed and vehicle trails were down to one lane…ish.  And luck would have it that the road was actually busy today – I saw more vehicles on that road today than I have in my last 5 trips down it combined.  This meant I had to keep breaking trail through the hard pack – great for the legs but not so hot for my time. 7.25 miles in 1:09:19

Felt good to get out there though – feels awesome to finally be able to get some miles in outside.  After the outdoor runs at Disney World a couple weeks ago the treadmill was feeling exceptionally soul crushing this past week.

Also got a chance to try out my new Nike Element Shield Max jacket that I picked up at the Albertville Premium Outlet Mall Nike shop on our drive back from our Disney World trip.  It worked very well.  I liked the thumb holes to keep the sleeves down the arm nicely – worked well to then be able to pull my running gloves over top and ensure there were no gaps for the cold air to sneak into.  The media player / phone pocket on the left breast had plenty of room for my Samsung Galaxy S4 with the headphones jacked in and was easily able to pull it out to check something slide it back in while on the move.  I would suspect that most phones will fit nicely in the pocket.  I also liked the hole for the headphone cord to come through the pocket into the inside of the jacket – usually I will end up catching the dangling cord with my hands during a run and ripping my headphones out – not an issue with the inside hole.  Overall I liked the jacket and I suspect I will be using it for all my spring and fall runs.