runnin' in the rain

Sooo, I know it looks like this was two blog posts in one day, but it really is two blog posts in two days – I just forgot to post the previous one in last night.  Today is one less day until triathlon numero uno. 

In my post from yesterday (or right now depending on how fast you keep up with me ;) ) I mentioned I ordered my wetsuit finally and it gets here Monday (so far so good with leftlanesports.com – could be my new favorite website!).  I don’t know why but I am really excited to get this darn thing.  Maybe it’s because I’ve started checking the Lake Michigan water temperature daily and it ranges from about 55 to 62 on a good day. 

Uhm – that is some cold water!  I can’t even go outside not bundled up when it’s that chilly outside (by my own personal definition of the word chilly, which I think is anything under 70 degrees), so I can’t imagine just jumping right into water that temperature in only my swimsuit.  That wetsuit is 100% necessary in my book.  Also I’m just really excited to try it on.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like I will have a chance to swim either in the open water or in my wetsuit prior to race day, so I will be winging it 100%.  First off, this entire sprint is just a big practice and trial for the big one in August, so I’m not overly concerned with my time (although my competitive nature wants me to do well).  Second, the ten day forecast for Chicago has a peak temperature of less than 80 degrees (with some days topping out in the 60s) and rain pretty much every day, so even if I really really wanted to (which I don’t), my window of opportunity would be so small.  Not a good idea to be swimming in the lake when it’s lightening all around…

Which brings me to last night’s interval run.  I don’t know what the weather has been like elsewhere, but for the most part here in Chicago it has been chilly (see previously defined definition of chilly in paragraph above) and rainy (the torrential downpour kind) for as far back as I can remember (ok, just being a little dramatic here because on Saturday the weather was perfect).  At any rate, we’ve had a lot of rain and clouds and also a lot of days that have felt like fall from a temperature standpoint.  But back to the run.

Wednesday night practices are at 6pm.  Since I’ve switched jobs I’ve been able to actually go which has been great.  The fact that it is interval run training is not so great.  Nothing like sprinting for miles at a time (again, dramatic because it’s at most ‘mile’, but you get the point).  Yesterday I checked the weather before leaving for work since I just go straight to the gym after.  Weather.com said it should be somewhere in the 80’s around practice time, so I’m thinking shorts and a tank top would be great.  On a whim I bring a short sleeve shirt…just in case. 

It’s after work and I step outside and it is frigid out to me (granted I freeze all day in my office because the temperature is probably 30 degrees in there) so I’m already cold.  But it’s nowhere near the 80 degrees I was promised – probably closer to upper 60’s or 70, windy, and no sun.  So I’m feeling pretty chilly – good thing I brought that short sleeve shirt, should have packed a jacket too!

By the time I get to the gym, the weather is looking ominous, but like everyone else, I’d much rather run in some rain than run on a treadmill (treadmills are the worst).  We make the decision to run outside and as soon as we get hardly 100 meters from the gym it starts to sprinkle.  We keep going and then it finally starts to pour as we make it to the place in the park where we run the drills, and then it lets up.  At this point we are thinking, aha, a quick shower.  Wrong!  We ran our sprints in the rain (or torrential downpour if you prefer), which isn’t so bad, but running turns into more of fast leaping when you’re trying to dodge puddles.  Luckily it was a recovery week and we didn’t have to do too many (I should mention we could have stopped at any point, but what are we, wimps? No way!).  Naturally, on the way back to the gym it stopped raining.

And then we all went to happy hour, soaking wet.  But it had stopped raining, until we got there, and the torrential downpour continued. 

I’m not really sure what you’re supposed to get from all the talk about the rain in this post.  The sprints weren’t really that bad, and the rain certainly made them more interesting, so I’m not complaining that it rained at all.  We just ran in the rain and I thought you should know.  Oh – and it’s probably not helping that temperature in the Lake get any higher.

Until next time!