First Run of the Year

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  I got in my first official run of the year this morning, and it was cold one.  I hate the cold.  I despise it with all fires of infernus.  After all, I'm a little brown man who was born on a small island in the Pacific close to the equator, so clearly my dna wasn't exactly designed to handle 19 degree temperatures.  But as it was, I needed a long run, so out I went.  I ran an errand and hit the road.  Did I mention that it was 19 degrees out?  Well it was.  So I bundled up, wearing a compression shirt, hoodie, pullover, 2 pairs of socks, compression shorts, tights, running pants and a hat.  I had on so many clothes, I looked like the little brother in A Christmas Story, and frankly I ran like him too.  I slugged out a 7.3 mile run at 9;19/mile.  I did part of it along the trails at Warner Parks.  I really am digging trail runs, and I wish that I had more chances to get hit the trails.

I didn't do too much stretching today, but I did run some "suicides." Remember back in grade school and high school, when the gym teacher/coach would brutalize you with sprints up and down the court all day.  Yeah that's what I'm talking about.  See I was helping out with son's basketball team, and when the coach told them to do suicides, I did them too.  I hated running suicides as a kid almost as much as I hate running in the cold now.  Did I mention it was 19 degrees this morning?  It was so cold that I had frost all over my clothes when I got back from my long run.  Ugh.  Okay back to the basketball practice.  Well the boys must have been tired from the holidays, because they were missing a lot of lay-ups.  Missed lay-ups=more suicide runs.  As hard as they were though, I really enjoyed them.  I liked running them so much, I just may have to work it into my training program to break up the monotony.

As a final note, congratulations to Chris Johnson, the running back for the Titans, for running 2,006 yards this season.  He joined 5 other running backs who ran over 2,000 yards in a single season.  He edged out O.J. Simpson in that field and passed Earl Campbell's franchise record of 1,934 yards back in 1980. Way to go, C.J.!  Okay kids, run hard and have fun!