Only a few more days to earn your Winter Stripes!
Admit it, you love walking into work knowing your morning run mileage is more than 95% of your network will run in a week. You stay humble, because you also know your running can be knocked back with the simple twist of a knee or the hyper-extension of a hamstring.
At this time of year, as dawn breaks a few minutes earlier each morning, and the sun lingers longer in the evening sky, we are anxious for the days of shirts and shorts as our only running gear, and yet we are melancholy as we peel off the winter hat, tights and windbreaker for what may be the last run in our arsenal of layered, cold weather, tech gear running.
It isn't that we're going to miss the extra fifteen minutes of gearing up for a six mile run, or doing loads of laundry each week, or trying to remember to keep enough batteries stocked for our headlamps. What we will miss most is sharing the roads and trails with just the few other hardy souls that braved the dark side of the calendar. Walkers, bikers, and runners, of course, that got out early or snuck in a late workout when everyone else was sleeping in or safely striding or cycling indoors.
Each year, by late spring, we feel we've earned our stripes. It's a tough battle to round into the month of May in a decent fitness level and at a manageable weight, ready for some serious summer training and maybe, if all goes as planned, a fall marathon to race. After years, and for some, decades, the stripes earned are tattooed in place and visible by other winter warriors. You can tell by late April when someone's weathered the winter. There's a comfort to their gait, a look of confidence in their face and a glint in their eyes that this just might be the year they hit their goals.
This summer, as you pick up the tempo on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and extend your miles for your long run on the weekend, keep those winter days in the back of your mind. Yes, your trails and roads will be filled with the summer striders, causing you to veer and adjust much more often that you'd like, but without the good-weather fitness fanatics, our winter wouldn't be worth talking about during workouts.
Not that we'd brag about our off season hardships to each other...runners never do that. We stay humble, encourage the newbies and the sun worshipers, and we move on. Faster, leaner and more focused than the previous summer.
At this time of year, as dawn breaks a few minutes earlier each morning, and the sun lingers longer in the evening sky, we are anxious for the days of shirts and shorts as our only running gear, and yet we are melancholy as we peel off the winter hat, tights and windbreaker for what may be the last run in our arsenal of layered, cold weather, tech gear running.
It isn't that we're going to miss the extra fifteen minutes of gearing up for a six mile run, or doing loads of laundry each week, or trying to remember to keep enough batteries stocked for our headlamps. What we will miss most is sharing the roads and trails with just the few other hardy souls that braved the dark side of the calendar. Walkers, bikers, and runners, of course, that got out early or snuck in a late workout when everyone else was sleeping in or safely striding or cycling indoors.
Each year, by late spring, we feel we've earned our stripes. It's a tough battle to round into the month of May in a decent fitness level and at a manageable weight, ready for some serious summer training and maybe, if all goes as planned, a fall marathon to race. After years, and for some, decades, the stripes earned are tattooed in place and visible by other winter warriors. You can tell by late April when someone's weathered the winter. There's a comfort to their gait, a look of confidence in their face and a glint in their eyes that this just might be the year they hit their goals.
This summer, as you pick up the tempo on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and extend your miles for your long run on the weekend, keep those winter days in the back of your mind. Yes, your trails and roads will be filled with the summer striders, causing you to veer and adjust much more often that you'd like, but without the good-weather fitness fanatics, our winter wouldn't be worth talking about during workouts.
Not that we'd brag about our off season hardships to each other...runners never do that. We stay humble, encourage the newbies and the sun worshipers, and we move on. Faster, leaner and more focused than the previous summer.
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