4.45 miles on ice and snow this morning – winter is here. A bit of a recap of the last week as well.

It has been an interesting week for weather…

Last Sunday I did 4.45 miles by myself and then another 0.85 miles with the pups. We then took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to spend a few hours wandering around the zoo.

A few days off of running and then 7 miles on the treadmill late Wednesday night with plans to put in more miles the next night.

But then winter hit – very icy and snowy with high winds made everything very slick everywhere. And of course I had some piss poor planning and hadn’t gotten winter tires put on the vehicle yet. So I burned what free time I had Thursday night swapping tires – spent way too much time on cold, wet cement buggering up my knees and legs. Always fun. Plus I think the cold aggravated a cough I had been fighting for a few days.

Then swimming lessons for the kids Friday night (glad I got the winter tires on the vehicle for that drive).

And now Saturday morning, it’s not snowing anymore and the wind died down but it was still quite cold – it was interesting to break out my winter running gear. I was tempted not to run but I figured I couldn’t skip my first planned cold weather run – it would set a bad precedent and make it too easy to skip more.

The my lungs weren’t pleased with the cold air, especially with the cough I have had a good portion of the week. I did have to stop a couple times to clean the lungs out but it wasn’t too bad overall.

I did take it slow as well since there were several spots in the residential areas where the side walks were very rough and slippery – I tried to convince myself it was good trail running training…it was a tough sell but actually is probably pretty accurate.

I was under a bit of a time crunch this morning so I only did one neighborhood lap for 4.45 miles and then the cough made me skip doing an after run with the dogs (they were PISSED).

The cough does seem to be getting better so I am hopeful for a longer run tomorrow especially with the temperatures predicted to be a bit warmer. And the pups will get a well deserved run as well – it should be interesting because I haven’t run with them in the snow before. Based on their antics in the backyard they should have a blast.