This week was going pretty well and then ended up like something out of an Anton Chekhov story. I’m lucky I wrote most of this before the latest snowstorm hit on Sunday, or I may not have written it at all.
Monday: Forgot I was supposed to run! Took the day off like an idiot!
Tuesday: 9-mile treadmill day. It’s getting warmer, but the roads are still a mess. With the problems I’ve been having with my knees, I’m playing it as safe as possible. Core in the afternoon.
Wednesday: 24′ at tempo pace. I’m saying minutes this week instead of miles because I’m not sure my treadmill was well-calibrated. Either I’m getting stronger, and 6′ pace was easy enough that I progressed to 5:45 in the last mile, or something was off. I hesitate to take full credit until I can repeat this workout on solid ground. With all the snow we’ve had this winter, I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance. Strength in the afternoon.
Thursday: 12 miles at MLR effort. This felt awful at first, but I eventually got into it and averaged sub-7′ pace for the last 9 miles. Really solid.
Friday: Back to the treadmill. 9 miles. Felt lousy; it could have been the hot pace of Thursday’s MLR, or it could have been baby germs.
Saturday: The nicest weather we have had in ages, right ahead of another big snowstorm. I took the opportunity to wear shorts. 9 miles. Tried to do strides but couldn’t drive my left knee. These aches and pains have been really frustrating.
Sunday: 16 miles, mostly with friends, with a fast finish once I was solo. Another run that started out awful and got much better. Stomach problems late; there was no emergency, but I think I need to take more water with the new gels I’m using. Still experimenting and trying to train my gut.
90 minutes of shoveling in the evening. The snow was heavy and falling hard enough that by the time I was done, it was piled nearly as high as when I started.
I’m struggling to imagine a future when it isn’t winter. I’m convinced I’ll be shoveling snow the night before Jersey City. I’ll be shoveling snow for my birthday in July. I’ll be shoveling snow for my son’s high school graduation. It’s never going to stop. Editor’s note: It stopped.
This Week: 65 miles, and another foot and a half.
Sitting here on the other side of the blizzard and the resulting cleanup, I feel good. A harsh winter can make you feel so helpless. My shoveling sessions on Sunday night and this morning left me feeling really low about it all. But I kept going back out there, and slowly but surely I dug us out of this mess. My hard work is a mountain in the backyard that stands about five feet high. I’m really proud of that.
I’ve said before that marathon training is about finding a way to keep going. Add “two blizzards in a month” to the list of things that will try to get in the way, and then cross it off.
Baby: My son was sick for most of this week. He has gone to daycare exactly once since February 13, on Tuesday. We have been calling in a lot of favors from his grandparents.
His daycare was closed today, because of the weather. We couldn’t call in any grandparents, because of the weather. I still had to shovel, because of the weather. I was still expected to work, because I have a laptop. I spent five hours shoveling, so good luck with that.
On the bright side of this blizzard, my son seems to finally be feeling better and got a kick out of watching his dad shovel today. He’s going back to daycare in the morning.
Maybe it will be spring, eventually.
theDNF 
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