I chose to do my run workout outside this evening, even though it was very cold.  It almost turned out to be a very bad decision.

When I looked out the window after work, I could see that the sun had melted yesterday’s snow on the roads and sidewalks. That gave me enough confidence to run outside.  What I didn’t factor in, was that the air temperature was dropping rapidly.  That meant that, the wet patches on the sidewalks, were freezing into areas of thin, black ice.

A few hundred yards into my run, I nearly fell completely over.  A few yards later, I slipped again.  I almost turned around, and went back home.  Fortunately, I live in a very quiet neighborhood and so I switched to running on the roads.  This was much better, as the roads had been salted.

The challenge is that my neighborhood is quite small and I had a fifty minute run.  I decided to try running to the local High School.  That was a mistake… I found even more ice underfoot, and some of it was hidden by snow.  After about a third of a mile, I turned around and ran back to my neighborhood. I then spent forty minutes, running back and forth along a quiet side street.  I went up and down the street about twenty times, and I am sure that anyone who saw me, would have thought I was crazy.

The key was, that I got my run done, even if my pace was slow due to me being cautious.  I got back home safely and felt very refreshed.

I share stories like this to help people realize that is perfectly alright to adapt during workouts.  I share to help others.  Tomorrow, I will publish a race report covering my experience at the 2018 Ironman 70.3 Ohio race.  Most race reports highlight really cool experiences and often a person’s best performances.  My upcoming report will be very different; it reviews my most disappointing race result ever.  I learned a lot from that race and hopefully, you will learn something from my experience too.