Those who risk, win: Catching my breath, letting it go

That song is so catchy I may just have to add it to my workout songs list. I feel like I spend most of my time doing just that anyways. Moving right along though, that winter storm finally came through last night. It must have turned to snow around 11 pm but luckily it wasn't too bad this morning, just a few inches at the most.
Now, usually Ryan walks the dogs every morning before work. So when he's not home that responsibility falls to me, and I won't even pretend to like it. In fact, I hate it. I know, I made the choice to have dogs so obviously I have to take care of them, and I do, I just hate getting up and having to walk first thing in the morning. Luckily they aren't walking me up at 5 am like they do for him, so there's always that. It's not that I don't like walking the dogs either, it's just that I don't particularly enjoy walking them together. You know how sometimes you see someone walking down the street with two dogs and they're all walking the same pace and the dogs are sitting and walking nicely? That's not us. When we walk, it's more like Nala running ahead and Stella dragging behind to sniff something or the reverse. If we're all going the same pace, Stella's pulling left and Nala's pulling right and then suddenly without warning, one of them jets across you to the other side, crisscrossing the leashes. In short, it's not the ideal walking situation. Just to clarify, I'm not sure how they ended up like this. Stella was fairly well-trained before Nala came along and I spent 3 months with Nala when we first got her, training her for walking. But as she's gotten older, she's become stubborn and I think it's rubbing off on Stella.
Today though, I decided to walk the dogs separately. Nala and I went around the neighborhood and Stella and I walked to get coffee. Both were around 30 minute walks. Then after that, of course, I had to shovel out. As I said, since the snow wasn't too deep, it wasn't so bad. Enough to sweat, not enough for a heart attack, to put it in perspective. Originally I hadn't planned on running today. I was going to walk, shovel, and dance. But then I remembered that the next 5K is on Tuesday, so I figured I would go and get one more run in beforehand. If you're following dates, yes I did sign up for a 5K on New Years Day. I thought it would be a good way to start off the year, plus you get a free hat! For my run today I decided to hit the beach. I knew that there wouldn't be much snow there and at the very least, I could run on the sand without worrying about ice and soaking wet shoes. I also took Nala just to get her energy out. Luckily there weren't too many other dogs on the beach and we were able to avoid them all.

Right before I made my decision to go running I happened to read an article about what to wear for winter running. Check it out here. I decided to try their tips out and layered out my shirts, starting with an Adidas wicking climalite shirt. It's basically this one, but the back is a bit different. I then layered that with a plain t-shirt and an Adidas zip-up fleece. I love the zip-up fleece because it's long and has zipper pockets. So I can wear it with my running leggings and keep my keys safe. It also zips up over the neck, straight to the chin, which I love. However, this particular fleece has a zipper pull on it that keeps flopping up and down in my face when running, so I always have to fold the collar down to prevent this annoyance. It was driving me crazy that Adidas made a running jacket that would have such a flaw. Until today, when I finally came to my senses and realized I can just unhook the zipper pull and resolve the issue. I know, I'm wicked smart, what can I say. So, without the zipper pull the fleece is fantastic because it keeps my neck warm AND holds all my other valuables safely. Of course, I threw on my climawarms as well.
Enough about what I was wearing though. The beach itself was freezing, as I assumed it would be. On my run down towards Nahant I was having a grand old time. There were some icy patches so I went down to the sand it was smooth sailing from there. Nala was keeping up, my neck was warm, my music was going, and my feet were dry. Things couldn't have been any better. And then we turned around to go back to the car and BAM, there was the wind. Suddenly it all made sense why running was so easy in the other direction. There was a strong wind and it was blowing the same way I was running. Now suddenly we were running against the wind. (Another great song, but not really run-mix worthy, sorry Bob.) The run back to the car wasn't terrible, but we had to run on the pavement due to other dogs roaming the beach. Luckily the snow had sort of iced over on top of the ice so it was just crunchy enough to lend traction without being slippery, but not soft enough to be soaking through my sneakers. When we got back to the car I was quite happy with the time and the run, though I really could have done without the wind. Remember a few posts ago how I said I liked the beauty of the beach? Well today I managed to grab some pictures, so you can see for yourself. You can also see the zip-up I was wearing, in case you're interested. Enjoy! (Oh and there's two of the dogs enjoying the snow too!)