Reading · Amy Dawson · RSS Amplifier

This page did not load. You can still read it on the original site — the toolbar below keeps your place in the directory.

The best way to run outside all winter is to never head inside

Looking backward on my training, I believe that this is what I needed to do in order to have success with outdoor winter running. After years of resisting, we bought a treadmill. It took just one not so nice day and I turned to treadmill running.

I have never enjoyed running on a treadmill until my son played a cruise ship gig on Explora Journeys a couple of years ago. We went on our first ever cruise so we could hear him play, and frequented the gym. The Technogym treadmills were amazing. We still have our Precor elliptical machine that we purchased in 2002 so we reasoned that it was wise to buy something we love that we know will last. We purchased the home version of what we used on the ship and this was our first winter with it.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

I need a reason to train

Our entire family signed up to run the Syracuse half marathon. This March race has been held in a blizzard and a heatwave - you never know what you are going to get! After a winter of mostly indoor training, I was hoping for the latter. I had even thrown away my totally dead winter running gloves thinking it would force me to buy new ones. It didn’t. But, signing up for the race did prompt me to keep up with running, even if it was largely done on the treadmill.

After a week of 50 degree weather, the cold came back for our race day.

Just finish

Sometimes I give myself specific time goals and some are just for fun! Today’s goal was to finish. After a winter of indoor training and one where I hadn’t prioritized buying new gloves, I felt pretty wimpy when I saw the forecast. The evening before we had walked the mile from our hotel room to Francesca’s Cucina for excellent Italian food. It was so windy and cold for the walk that it was hard to even think about running! Thankfully the forecast called for the wind to die down for the race.

Xander, Elizabeth, and Scott at Francesca’s Cucina

Same weather, different clothing

Xander insisted on shorts for the 21 degree start while Elizabeth and I chose layers. Verdict? He was a little cold and we were slightly overdressed.

Post Race

I knew my race was not a zippy one, but I didn’t expect to come in at 2:11:25 either. With Elizabeth’s ski gloves on, it felt easier to not look at my watch. I set Strava to give me updates each mile and it had given me nice sounding paces for each mile that would have been a bit faster than the time I ended up having. Turns out, I have Strava set to pause whenever I walk or stop. It paused when I stopped at water stops and when I walked slowly enough through them to make it pause. I thought I was running faster than I actually was. Lesson learned!

An photo of me somewhere close to the end of the course.

I didn’t get a post race picture or video of myself, but I have something from every family member. All 3 of them crushed this race! Xander and Scott had time to enjoy a leisurely brunch and Elizabeth and I scrambled and had a fast brunch before we headed to bring Xander to the train to head back to school.