Cold Long Run.

This morning was a kick-your-butt kind of a long run.  After bundling up in layers, and wearing my trail running shoes, hoping for more traction on the icy roads, I headed outside for a 12 mile run.  The first half I felt really good.  In fact, I didn't stop at all until mile 5.8, when I decided to walk for a minute to take some water and fuel.  At that point, I had reached what I like to refer to as the "wind tunnel", a section of this particular route that is always windy, and I mean windy!  Between the strong winds and the temperature in the teens, my face was starting to feel like it might crack if I moved my lips or cheeks at all.  Once I got past the really windy stretch, I started to run again.  I could tell by some aches and pains in my legs that I was having to change my gait to accommodate for the ice covered snow pack on the road.  There were sections that were very slick, and other parts where trucks had distributed sand and salt on the shoulder helped make the run a little less stressful.

All in all, it was a good, challenging run.  It felt nice, two weeks out from the marathon, to do a run of that distance.  By the time I reached home, my Garmin said I had done 12.45 miles, but that included a bit of a walking cool down.  I also did 25 minutes of Pilates to help stretch out my legs.