The plan that didn't happen & a 9-Miler in the COLD

Well remember the plan? The one where we were supposed to run Friday morning at a free 5-miler in Layton? And then we were going to do the 9 miles on Saturday morning? Well neither run happened. Here's what happened instead:

On Thursday we hit the gym for some speed intervals. Ran just over 4 miles doing that. It was hilarious watching my dad because I swear every 5 minutes he kept hitting the emergency cord which once knocked off stops your treadmill. He was getting so frustrated.

Friday we were going to run the free 5-miler that Striders put on but after feeling the temp on Thursday we decided against it. I believe Friday's high was like 19 degrees, which means the morning temp was well below that. There was no way I was going to attempt running in that freezing weather.

Saturday we were going to run our 9 miles but of course Friday was New Years' Eve which meant my dad party hardy'd and wasn't up for the task.

Soooo...FINALLY today we did our make-up 9 miles from last week. The weather was still a bit cold but today was our last day to do it or be forced indoors on a treadmill and 9 miles on a treadmill doesn't sound too fun. We chose to run from my house because it is relatively flat and traffic is well, there is no traffic. Just a few cars here and there. We ran to the bottoms and then headed north towards Clinton. We zig zagged throughout West Point to get our 9 miles. It was an excellent course. The cold froze my face stiff for most of the run. I guess I should have worn something over my mouth. You can see from the pictures that there is quite a bit of snow on the ground. I was really worried about that because I didn't want to be forced to walk but I didn't want to fall on ice either. Luckily a lot of the snow we ran on was more slushy than icy. The only bad thing about that though was within a mile my feet were wet. Luckily it didn't bother me. When I felt the water seep in I asked my dad if his feet were wet yet and he said, "No, but I am 4 inches off the ground in these shoes." So funny! He loves his shoes. He says they MAKE him want to run. Oh, and I loved my new gear as well. I clipped my new shuffle on my sleeve cuff and had my nifty watch on. It was nice to be able to watch our pace and be able to adjust as needed.

Now that the holidays are over we are hoping we can be more diligent on the nutrition side of our training. But who am I kidding? We are Zampedri's and as my dad always says: There isn't a meal we met that we didn't like!

**STATS**
Distance: 9.0 miles
Time: 1:34:11
Pace: 10:28/min/mile
Temperature: 24 degrees
Time of day: 1:18 p.m.