Slow and Steady

Running outside during our Minnesota winter requires a tortoise-like approach. To run quickly is to invite disaster--or at least falling. It has snowed for 31 out of the last 41 days here, so there is plenty of the white stuff. Nevertheless, my town does a fantastic job of trying to keep enough of our paved paths cleared to give runners safe places to run. Despite the best efforts of the city crews, the past couple of days of light snow left a thin, uncleared layer on this morning's route.

Now I would guess that you are thinking that this will be a tale of slipping and falling, but no. It is a reminder of the small joys of squeaky snow and that sometimes taking your time is a good idea.

At a certain temperature, the snow squeaks underfoot. For some reason that is a comforting sound to me. Almost as enjoyable as the sound of being out in a heavy snowfall with nothing else around. I can actually hear the snow falling and I love the sound! Sure, it was 12 degrees out and I was starting to lose sensation in my cheeks and I could feel the icicles starting to form on my eye lashes, but the snow was squeaking. O, for the simple joys of winter.

Conditions like this morning also call for a pace reduction. It is simply reckless to try to keep a fast pace on snow-covered paths. Especially when you don't know what is underneath. Bottom line, this is not a season for PRs and for tempo runs. It is a season for logging enough miles to be able to stay reasonably fit for when the snow melts and it is not dark in the mornings. And it is OK for this season to be like that.

For more than 20 years my life has been governed by the seasons of my kids' school year. But now that season is passing and the seasons will be governed by something else. It is not bad, just different. I suppose that I could try to force keeping with the school year schedule for life, but why? Why not embrace something new and different? My time off no longer needs to fall in certain windows. A trip to here or there doesn't need to account for homework or school sports schedules. It means finding a new routine, but I am looking forward to embracing that.

One part of this year's new adventure is to engage in "The Radical Experiment". David Platt wrote Radical, a book that is upsetting my apple cart. Part of the Radical Experiment is to read through the entire Bible in a year and to pray around the entire world in a year. So far, so good (today is the Czech Republic). Tackling a project like this that spans the entire year cannot be a sprint. It must be like a winter run--slow and steady. But so very worth the effort!

Pressing On!
-Ken