Because the Race Won't Run Itself..

Last night I attempted to make some homemade pasta and it surprisingly actually came out really good... Definitely something I will be doing again soon.

Now I'm not sure if it was the carb load from the pasta or the fact I went to bed with no intention of setting an alarm and allowed my body to fully rest/sleep... which ended up being 11 hours, but I woke up with a lot of energy. It's funny though, because initially when I woke up, I had ZERO plans to use that energy in anything outside of my apartment. 

After hearing nothing but shoveling outside, and having my mom convince me that I needed to get it done before the rain/ice hits, I got myself together and headed outside for a few hours of shoveling. Mind you, by myself, with a small shovel... The pictures will say it all..

This is what I had to work with..

And I kept having to push this snowbank back since I'm too short

After I had finished the back... I still had so much

Making room around the front of the car

I would hope my Dad would be proud of the extra space

Even on the sidewalk side

BOOM.

Talk about a workout... By the end of this I was in snowboard pants and a Bruins Jersey [yes, I wore the Bruins jersey, come on they have a game tonight!] I would like to take a moment to thank the stranger/neighbor/hockey player "Matt" who stopped and helped me for about 20 minutes with the front side of my car. He didn't have to, and doesn't even have a car in Boston, but was walking by after helping the little old lady who lives above him and asked if I wanted any help. Those 20 minutes of help probably saved me at least another 45 minutes out there. I will say though, as we were talking he a) made me feel old when he said he graduated college in 2011 and b) I found out he was a Habs fan and almost told him he should probably stop helping me. haha. seriously. But we at least shared some hate for the other NHL teams, so I let it slide... just. this. once. though.

Throughout my almost 3 hours of shoveling, I happened to see a lot of people attempting to run down along the beach and I couldn't help but think, "hey I missed running yesterday, I should probably get some sort of mileage in." I'm not going to lie, it was inspiring to see others out there pushing themselves to get a workout in and could only think that they too, were training for the marathon. Just because there's snow on the ground, doesn't give me a solid excuse to not run... So I made my way back inside and got myself together for the run. 

I do have to thank my mom for the "Crampons" that she bought me, as they were definitely a life saver today and made my run not only possible but bearable. 

Crampons... making running in the snow/slush doable

Alright snow/slush... Let's do this.

As I headed out I set my Nike Plus for a short 3.5 miles, and ended up doing 3.75 miles. The only discouraging thing today was, if it weren't for the mounds of snow and slush, my body felt really good and I could've done more mileage. BUT, I was running in my old running shoes and the crampons, and knew it was going to probably affect my stride/normal running pattern, so I didn't want to push it too far, in hopes it would avoid any added insult to injury.

The whole neighborhood out sledding

There were actually a lot of people out still shoveling or walking around, and it was encouraging to hear the many people I passed telling me that it was awesome I was out running and getting mileage in. The smiles on their faces, even as they were working on 3+ hours of shoveling was all the support I needed. Or even the guy on my last half mile who I stuck my tongue out at as he was shoveling his car, in an effort to explain that it wasn't easy to be running in the snow, and his comment back "hey keep it up!" and a smile on his face, and I held my pace for the final half mile. Good to know little things like that can help me with my running.  

Not to mention... it was absolutely gorgeous out!

Please notice the "trail" I was running on... Definitely not the easiest to do!

So I may have said above that there was only one discouraging thing that happened today, but I guess you could say there were 3. The additional events were: 1) stepping in a HUGE puddle completely soaking my right foot... luckily the sun and my stride helped dry it off a lot quicker than I expected; and 2) when I was just about to mile 3 a car comes flying around the corner... and nails a HUGE puddle, which in turn came up over the snow bank COMPLETELY drenching me from head to toe...At least the couple walking towards me found some humor in it... But I just grit my teeth and kept running. The slush/splashes/snow were the inevitable.

So much slush!

I would say overall today was a great day of physical activities and I definitely got a FULL body workout.

Finally home from my run... and still not impressed with being splashed by a car.

And now that I'm home relaxing, enjoying some of my leftover pasta from last night, my body feels pretty good. Only a little sore from the shoveling, but I tried to maintain the proper shoveling form throughout so that my back/legs/body didn't hurt too too much, and so far I think I achieved that. Now it's time to get ready for the Bruins game and meet up with my friend Danielle to enjoy the game! 

Definitely NOT a fast pace, but I'd love to see what yours would be in snow/slush... I'm keeping positive in that it was decently steady with no superrrrr slow moments.

Hopefully the roads will be a little more clear tomorrow. But I might wait and do my run at lunch again, so I can take advantage of downtown sidewalks. 

Tomorrow's Distance: 4 miles

Tuesday: Rest