Running Outside -- A Special Report

Well, tonight I did something, kind of, that I've been thinking about for awhile. My son had hockey game, and his game tonight was at the "outside" rink. I say "outside" because it is only quasi-outside. The rink itself is inside a large warehouse type building, but there's plenty of large doors to the outside, and there's not any real heat inside the building other than a couple heaters that are over the bench areas to keep the players warm.

So tonight, I decided that I would run laps around the rink during his game. I had a 40 minute run to do, plus 5 minutes each for warmup and cooldown. The games last an hour, so I knew I had time, if I could tolerate the cold. Temperature was about 25 degrees, and it was comfortable. Especially once I started running.

I got in just over 4.5 miles total, including the warmup and cooldown. During my run time, I was averaging just over 10 minutes per mile, which is much better than my dreadmill times. I'm glad I did it, and despite the advice of my personal trainer, I may start running outside more often now that I know how it is. Although, I would probably have to get a better fitting face mask than the one I use for biking. And I WILL need a mask for running completely outside. At least tonight I had the building to protect me from any wind.

It was a great run, and great to be outside!!