Ironman, Shmironman. THIS Is The Most Hardcore Thing I’ve Ever Done...

As promised, I’m back with some CRAZY photos from our interval workout on Saturday. We had just gotten 1.5 - 2 inches of snow overnight, and it was about 16 degrees with a windchill of around 0. I showed up to the track with a shovel because it looked like this:

There should be 8 lanes just in front of me...

Here’s what the middle of the home stretch looked like, with about a 1/2 inch of snow covering everything:

I shoveled the home stretch first:

Then I turned into that nasty-ass wind and shoveled the first turn and the back stretch. That was cold, windy, and just plain gross. The snow was deeper in these parts as it was starting to drift a little - it was maybe 2-3 inches at spots. As soon as I got it shoveled and grabbed my camera, the wind started drifting the snow right back into my path! Here’s the back stretch:

(don't laugh at my crooked line)

I felt like screaming a very “Mom” sort of line: “COME ON, MOTHER NATURE! I JUST SHOVELED THERE!!" I mean, look at this next photo! That’s 2-3 inches of snow that is filling what I had just shoveled in a matter of minutes!

Jen showed up as I was “retouching” certain spots, and we figured, “Aw, what the heck – let’s just do this thing.” So we started our workout. We were both going to run 800s with 1:30 rest between.

(Side note: Jen and her hubby were living about 5 hours apart for the last 3 months. She had moved up to the Cities, and he was still wrapping up his old job before he could move too. On Friday, he finally was able to move up to the Cities to live with his wife. Hurray! So what does Jen do on the very next morning? She gets up to do a cold, snowy, nasty interval workout when she could be snuggling (or better!) with her hubby! That’s the kind of dedication that helped her qualify for the Boston Marathon! Still... I woulda stayed in bed with my spouse if I were in her shoes...)

I wanted to do 5 or 6 800s, but after 2, Jen and I agreed that 4 would be enough. The snow was filling in, and it was HARD to run in it. Splits were slow. Here were my 4 800 splits:

2:52
2:54
2:54
2:52
Average: 2:53 (I normally average 2:44 or 2:45)

Here I am breathing hard after I wrapped up:

I apparently have a curled lip once I finish a workout;
this photo looks a lot like the one I posted Thurs night.

Meanwhile, here’s Jen with 1 lap to go in her last 800:

I took my camera down to the first turn to take some photos of how bad the snow was filling in. Here’s the turn after I shoveled it and Jen and I both ran 8 laps:

WHAT A MESS!

Here’s farther around the curve:

No wonder times were slow!

Calyx left a funny comment on my post basically saying that if this entire workout had a name, it could be considered a Crossfit workout. So, honor of Jen and her hubby finally getting to move in together, I’ll dub this workout “Jen’s Hubby.”

Jen’s Hubby:
• Shovel a path in the snow around a 400 meter track
• Re-shovel some of the areas that start to fill in (for a total of about 600 meters)
• Run 4 x 800 meters on previously mentioned path as it begins to fill up with snow and become worse than had it not been shoveled at all
• Go home and shovel out your yard
• Sit nearly nude in front of the fireplace for 10 minutes
• DO NOT REPEAT (after one, you’re done!)

After warming up and doing a LOT of grading, we got the gang together and went bowling:

Mike, me, Borsch

This middle-aged, drunk cougar in the lane next to us was hitting on me. She told me she “liked my form.” Well, I DID totally school Mike and Borsch: I got the high score of 169! After 3 games, Pharmie and Steph showed up too:

1/2 of Mike, Pharmie, Me, 3/4 of Borsch, and Steph

Next weekend, there will be NO track workout! That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. But I think that on either Thurs Dec 11 or Tues Dec 16 I’ll be at the Metrodome for “Dome Running.” I’d like to do some short/fast speed work to get ready for an indoor track meet. Any locals planning on Dome Running on the 11th or 16th? I’ll let you all know if I’ll be there. Happy (warm) running!