Week 15 - A Cold, Very Cold Track Workout

The mere difficulty of running when the temperature dips below freezing makes us tougher.

Peter Snell, a pupil of the famed New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard and the 800 and 1,500 gold medalist in the 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games, claimed he enjoyed running outdoors in bad weather, because he figured all his rivals were indoors doing nothing, pampering themselves.

Cold, cold, cold. That what was on my mind as I tried to figure out the layers I needed to be wearing for the “outdoor” track workout in the morning. Too many layers would impede the speed, too few layers would freeze all my extremities and sweat. After pulling out the entire wardrobe of winter running apparel, I decided on my ensemble for the 5:45AM track workout. 3 layers on the top, 2 layers on the legs, gloves, a winter babushka and a water resistant shell.

Of all the track workouts I have done, this was by far going to be coldest one. I woke at 4:55AM and started to layer up for the morning. I was to meet the Wonder Twins in the lobby at LTF at our regular scheduled track time. All the other runners where to meet us out at the track, yeah right! It was the three of us, since Jeff was not feeling well and we knew he was going to be a “no show”. I arrived at LTF early enough to hit the treadmill with full garb on (minus the shell). I was going to run 14-16 minutes to warm up prior to heading down the dark alley of the Arctic streets of Alpharetta toward the AHS track.

After the treadmill warm up I met Bob & Jay in the lobby, took a quick shot:

18 Degrees out. The Wonder Twins are activated!

The frigid air almost immediately froze the layer of sweat that had formed from running on the mill. I picked up the pace on the short run to warm up, but Bob, yes Bob, told me to slow down since they had not warmed up prior. I slowed to keep in step with the Wonder Twins as we navigated the “black ice” in the parking lots towards our frozen destination.

After the 400M scouting around the rink, we started our speed workout. The Twins were running 8 X 400M at 1:31’s and I was hitting 4 X 800M at 2:47’s. The first round was as normally fast for both. The cold air immediately was felt on the second 100M’s as you rounded the oval and came in contact with a direct head wind. The snot froze, the lungs burned and the face stung as you increased speed to maintain the pace. The head wind was substantial enough that the 3 of us had to compensate our paces on the back portion of the track to ensure the times we needed to achieve.

After the 4 X 800’s the Wonder Twins still had 3 more 400M’s to go. I decided to run the outside of the track while they finished, but after 1 400M the fingers burned from the cold and I decided to head back to the gym solo. Both Jay & Bob were good with this, as I knew they would. Mild temperatures they would have given me a rash of stuff, but the current outdoor environment warranted a quick return to the comforts of heat.

Arriving back at LTF, I started to receive a lot of comments like, “is it cold outside?”, “I bet your cold?”, “did you run?” The jaws were still a little frozen and I politely nodded and said, “yes” to all the questions.

Though the weather was not ideal for track workout, change is good. Come race day you cannot control the weather so the more you can prepare the better you will be prepared. At least that is what I have to say to myself since I have about 7 more weeks of winter workouts before the temperatures start to change.