Seven degree wind chill

In the aftermath of another winter storm, this one featuring a few badly-timed inches of snow, fierce winds up to 50mph, and bone- chilling cold, I put in my 19 training miles.

I can think of weather I'd rather run in, but there it is. Maybe last year's marathon day weather was so bad because the winter was so mild and I'll get good weather for my Boston?

I learned a duct tape trick to cover the toes of my trainers against the slush, which sort of worked for awhile. I looked for roads that were both plowed and low-traffic. 19 miles of them. Three hours and ten minutes worth.

Running up hills into the west wind brought me nearly to a standstill. I keep going, into what is kind of like resistance training -imagine how fast I'll be able to go on bare, warm pavement if I put my time in on the icy, slushy, windy days.

This run today was complicated by landing square on my unpadded sit bone playing Futsal this morning, getting knocked on my tush. Aggravating a two year old glute injury, but it's just a bruise, not a twist or a break...the upside of running in this kind of cold, and because I never really figured out how to keep my backside warm, I really couldn't feel much at all...I think all I can't do is sit.

Boston is a phenomenal town in which to run a marathon. Here, people cheer for everyone, not just the name on their signs.

Here, on a blowy Sunday afternoon when folks are digging out, I slog past a couple guys who encourage me, say they are jealous, and when I say "let's do this," one says, referring to Boston, 9 weeks to go! I suppose the only freaks out running on a day like this would be marathoners. Boston marathoners, this year, thank you, no caveat necessary!

What does a recreational marathoner eat?

What does a recreational marathoner eat? Anything she wants ;-)

It is a good day when Lose It! tells me I can eat 3500 more calories after a twenty mile training run. 

Breakfast is oatmeal, peanut butter, blueberries and cinnamon. Lunch? sandwich. Cookies. Dark chocolate. 

Snacktime is where things get interesting. 

I joined Pinterest, spent about half hour on it, and high-tailed it out of there after I'd gotten the single most useful thing I'd ever seen in my life: a recipe for cookie dough truffles. I find the chocolate coating a bit fussy - with things the wrong temperature, the insides leak out. But that's not the only problem. The coating process simply takes too long.

Four of my other collected favorite words in English are "sheet cake and forks," so it should not surprise anyone to hear me rant about "cookie dough and spoon." I found another recipe that works just as well with half the butter, but I tend to add baking soda and salt to get the taste right. Also, don't use dark brown sugar. Trust me.

 Another really useful piece of advice I saw a while back is that chocolate milk, or hot chocolate, makes a really good recovery drink. 

When I'm running, I don't do many of the fancy running substances (I'm recreational, after all, and though they won't be testing me after the race, I don't need to go all performance-enhancement on anyone!) Probably because it is dessert-like, I use Gu Energy packets. Peanut Butter! Chocolate!! Jet Blackberry! Caffeine!! And, despite a life-long aversion to jelled candy, my new sister-in-law turned me on to Clif ShotBloks, also sweet, sometimes caffeinated, and much less messy than the Gus.

But back to the hot chocolate. When I buy out, I am partial to L.A. Burdick. They know their chocolate beverages, hot and cold. Big time.

However, I am lucky enough to live within biking distance of the Taza factory, and was lucky enough to score a Cocomotion hot chocolate maker off Freecycle awhile back. Want to make sure I keep my strength up? I'm partial to Cacao Puro!

So what does an old, slow, sweet-toothed recreational marathoner eat? Whatever looks good!