Safety First

Winter finally showed it's ugly face by dumping 8 inches of snow on my town (some place got a lot more) Saturday night into Sunday. Once the snow stopped, plows started coming through and pushing the snow to sides of the streets and many sidewalks were not yet shoveled. I needed to get some miles in, so rather than playing chicken with the plows, I moseyed over to the gym for a treadmill run. I wasn't looking forward to doing 7 miles on a treadmill but I took Matt's advice and kept an open mind. Thanks to the Run Run Live and Run Digger Run Podcasts, the experience wasn't so bad. I finished the 7 mile in 57:19 for an 8:11 pace.

Last night as I was walking home from the bus stop, I made sure to look at the conditions of the roads and sidewalks. There was still lots of snow on the side of the street and the most people did a bare bones shoveling. On top of that, people started to park their cars on the street again instead of in their driveways. WHY????? YOUR HOUSE HAS A DRIVEWAY PLEASE USE IT!!!!

All of these factors, coupled with the fact that I run in early in the morning when it's still dark, do not make for very safe running conditions. So this morning, I went back to gym for a 4.5 mile tempo run on the treadmill. Fortunately, I had Brandon's newest podcast to keep me company. I did today's run (4.5mi) in 34:55 for an 7:45 pace. I hope I'll be able to get out for my other mid-week runs, if I can't, it's OK too. I don't want to risk slipping or something worse. I am thinking about getting a pair of Yaktrax but they wouldn't solve this particular problem. The streets are in good condition, the bottom line is, it's not safe. Between the snow, the parked cars, and the cars on the road, there isn't enough room for me to run.