But first came the aerial yoga. There are parts of aerial yoga that I adore and parts that I am not a fan of in the least. Discovering new flows, love. Leg series, no love. Hanging upside down, love. Full arm planks, no love. And we did both of those in class in warm up. The rest of the class I enjoyed because it was tailored to me. At the beginning of many yoga classes, aerial or not, the instructor will as if any one has anything they want to work on, or anything that hurts. This is your chance to make the class a better fit for you. If you have injured something, the instructor may avoid the one series and substitute another or be sure to provide you with modifications so you can get the most of the class. Or if you have something you want to work out, or a pose that you love, the instructor can do his or her best to work it in to the class. No one said anything so I asked for "yoga for runners" and for the next hour or so we released our lower backs, stretched our quads and loosened our hip flexors.
And then the snow started.
And then comes the another situation where I get crazy looks. I ran in it. Dog woke me up at 4:30 and off we went. It didn't feel particularily cold. I was extremely aware of my footing. I've seen the meme where the lady talks about the joy of running in the snow, only to fall dramatically as she ran from the camera. see here.
I never really settled into this run. I did essentially an out and back. Normally, I do big loops so that I can always diagonal my way home if I want to call it quits. Maybe I didn't want to give myself that option. The dog and I got a few honks and waves as we ran by cops and snow plows. The snow didn't really start to stick to the sidewalk until mile 5. While I never felt comfortable in this run, I did feel very serene. I was aware of the sound of the dog's tags jingling, the sound of my feet on the snow covered ground, the puff of my breath, the snow resting on my eyelashes. Mostly, I was aware of the white stretch of untouched snow in front of me. My mind was quiet. My legs moved under their own accord because if I thought about them, I was afraid I would realize how tired I was. Dog started giving me dirty looks about 7 miles in. She was coated in snow and had little icicle whiskers. At mile 8, that's when the real bargaining started. I should just take the short route, 8 miles is enough. I shouldn't be running in this weather. But I kept going and knowing I was so close to being done found a little spring in my step for the last mile and a half. Normally, in snow, I've heard I should add 30 seconds on to my pace. Considering I beat my last pace by 10 seconds, I was more than happy to add another -30 seconds. It felt so very invigorating to do nearly ten miles in snow. It felt like a moving meditation. You cannot see it here but there were snowflakes on my eyelashes.
If you ever have any question on what to wear for a run, Runners World has a great resource to help you decide.
On Sunday, I had a great oppurtunity with the yoga studio I work at. We were invited to be part of the Holiday Parade. If I can run 9.5 miles in snow at the butt crack of dawn, a parade should be a cake walk, right? One of our other instructors knows her way around the craft table and made us all costumes to fit the theme of the Isle of Misfit Toys. I was the dolly. I feel it necessary to add here that the temperatures were hovering around 20F and only dropping. I put on a couple of layers, put on make up and made the drive over to the city of Waukesha.
The costume added another layer. Hot hands were passed around. Hot chocolate was downed. We were nearly late for judging due to a cop giving us not quite accurate directions. Riding on a trailer at 25 mph is an exillerating and life acknowledging moment. And cold. Very cold. We had a short rig and lots of decorations. Sadly, I don't have a good picture of the float as I was in it most of the time. But the Chamber of Commerce said we were definitely one of the top floats. Obviously, we had a Bumble and everything!
We all had fun. Our candy supply was exhausted and at some point you just accept the freezing temperatures and the inability to feel your toes.
No run this morning, I'll run in snow, but this hit or miss ice seems too dangerous to do even with a flashlight. Besides, I have to take it easy. Race day Thursday!
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