I flipping hate winter. I hate the cold, the diminished daylight, the snow, all of it. What I truly hate is the disruption to my routine.
Speaking with other runners, that is the thing we dislike most about any season. Runners are built on a routine and system. For the most part, I know when, where, and how long all my runs will be in February. I have a system and I stick to it. Snow days, icy conditions, school closings, they screw all those plans up.
Right now, I am getting ready for a 50k that is in a few weeks. I missed a bunch of time from a lingering flu that turned into a bronchitis situation earlier this month. Now, trail conditions make it virtually impossible to get out and run the miles I need to get ready for this race.
So, I have had to improvise. It has not been pretty, but I have been adding some strength stuff to my snowy routine to help me make up for the lack of good trail miles. While it’s never the same, it has been nice to work some different muscles.
I am hoping that the strength work I have been doing will help me in ways I did not expect. Yesterday, I mixed it up and did a circuit workout, bouncing between my rower, lunges, pushups, and planks. I followed it up with a long stretching session, another key area I should focus more time into. These exercises are things I would not have done had we not had such a wintery winter, and I am hoping that I come out better from it on the other side of this winter.
Don’t get me wrong, I am praying that the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow next month, but I am trying to turn lemons into lemonade while I am limited in what I can do.
Honestly, that is what I have been trying to do this entire 2024: make the best of whatever situation I am in and control what I can control. That pertains to the store as well because, to be honest, closing the store for snow days is not great for business. But if I can use that time to write more, read more, or even spend more time with my kids, then it’s not a loss.
While I would prefer it to be 70 and sunny out, I will take the time I would have spent watering my plants and stretch more. Things truly are what you make of them, so if you’re like me and are counting down the hours until Spring, try to find something that you may not do if you had more outdoor time, and implement it into your running routine now.
