I don’t like winter and running in the winter is not one of my favorite things in the world, although I am learning to appreciate it.

When I first started running my introduction to winter running was the Joe Kleinerman 10k and Ted Corbitt 15k. Both are always in winter and almost always seem to fall on some of New York City’s coldest days. When I first did these races the temperatures were in the 20s with a wind chills in the teens. I remember my friend and I wondering why we chose an outdoor sport, after all there are plenty of indoor sports where they have things like heat. They even have indoor swimming pools.

But alas, I stuck with running and my attachment to both the Joe K 10k and Teddy C 15k. I consider Joe and Ted to be close friends although they are both dead and I never knew them. You have to like these guys to run in cold weather.

I rocked Teddy’s race in December but felt as though I just made it for Joe. I will blame that on the holidays and not running as consistently as I would have hoped. While it was on the cold side it certainly wasn’t as cold in previous years but I was chilled at the start and just couldn’t get warm enough. I was worried about my calf, my toes were numb, and my fingers were just about numb.

After the first half mile I had the funky sensation in my fingers and toes when you can feel the circulation returning to them and dealt with that discomfort for the next half mile. Then I started to get warm and took off the layers. The one thing that never does well in the cool weather are my sore muscles.

I’m always aware that I have an IT Band when it is cold out. It really feels like it’s flapping in the wind. I know that’s odd but that’s how it feels. It doesn’t hurt, it just feels like it’s flapping around in there.

So this one was a somewhat slower 10k and my pace wasn’t near my half marathon goal pace. But I survived it and I fully believe that we need to have one of those races/runs during a training cycle. If you’re in the right frame of mind they can help you refocus and fine tune the rest of your training. Of course, as we all know when you’re not in the right frame of mind it just sucks and the world is going to come to end. It worse than the Mayan Apocalypse.

So it’s time to narrow my focus and make sure I run consistently for these next few weeks before Miami. My goal pace is still very much alive and I know I can accomplish that goal if stay on track.

Joe and Teddy would like that.