Today's Run - Freezing Five

Report:
I picked the Great smiley face even though I'm a bit in between the Great and the Good smiley faces. But anyway, today's run was cold. Freeze-your-nuts-and-your-nose-off cold. But I survived. I played around with some different methods of keeping warm and some worked while others did not. But everything is intact and there appears to be no permanent damage so I'm happy with the results. Can't learn about this crap on race day so you might as well test things out on a training run.

Weather:
Temps were about 20F to 25F. Wind was very, very light. The sun was out but I was running early enough that I didn't actually run in the sun until the last mile or so.

Fluids and Fuel:
Pre-run food was yogurt and water. I took an e-Gel right before I started. During the run I had two bottles of plain water. I experimented a bit and used warm tap water instead of cold water from the fridge. Worked great at keeping my hands warm the first few miles but it was cold enough that the spouts were freezing up by the end of the run. Recovery was oatmeal, toast, eggs, and coffee.

Aches and Pains:
My right hamstring felt fine during the run although I did notice it during the last half. It didn't hurt, but I think I'm hyper-sensitive to it at the moment. Outside of that, the only things that hurt were my fingers and face from the cold.

Gear:
Aside from using warm water in my water bottles, I also tested two new methods of staying warm. First, I put a hand warmer in my shorts. My Under Armour shorts have a little pouch for a cup so I shoved the hand warmer in there. It didn't work. Or at least made no difference that I could tell. My second test was putting Body Glide on my face. It worked fairly well at keeping my face warm and keeping the wind off it a bit.

Codename - Freezing Five
I was running behind on my podcast yet again so I had to record and upload this morning. I feel like a slacker but I'm also hammered with work so there's only so much I can do.

Splits:
Outbound - 29:45
Inbound - 29:20
Finish - 59:06