Minnesota, Baby!

This has been a very un-Minnesota-like winter thus far.  Temperatures into the 40's and even 50's, no snow cover at all (at least in my part of the state), no ice houses on the lakes and no snow drifts in the ditches.  By Christmas last year, the snow banks along the city streets were so high you couldn't see around them; I had to put on my snowshoes to walk the dog on the trails in the back part of our 10 acres; and the accidentally-bought plow truck ("Honey, I just put a bid on a plow truck on e-bay, but don't worry, I won't get it."  Five minutes elapse.  "Um, honey, about that plow truck...") had already been used to plow, and gotten stuck in, the driveway at least four times.  This year, the plow truck hasn't been started and I don't think we've even picked up a shovel.  We've been quite spoiled on the oval, too; since the oval is outdoors but refrigerated, we can enjoy the warm days without fearing premature meltage.

Tonight, though, was going to be the beginning of the end.  A warm day was forecast to give way to an arctic cold front, complete with gale force winds, temperatures dropping--for the first time this winter--below zero, and even a few snowflakes.

It didn't seem bad when I started for the oval...temp of 19, a little light snow...I did wonder why the garbage can, next to the house, was rocking back and forth as I pulled out of the garage, but whatever...

When I stepped out the door of the warming house at the oval, though, I was greeted with a full-on Minnesota January night.  Gusting winds swirled the falling snow and the snow that was already dusting the oval into massive clouds that almost obscured the little hockey players in the oval infield.  The temperature had dropped several degrees, and the wind chill was below zero.

All in all, a fine night to have forgotten my jacket.

I had already decided, before the wind and the snow and the jacketlessness, that the workout that Coach TieGuy had written for tonight--2x10 laps at race pace--was not happening.  After my 8-days-of-no-skating-to-heal-the-heels, I had skated 10k--25 laps--last night, followed by what should have been another 10k but turned into 15 laps because my feet started hurting.  So 20 laps as hard as I could did not seem to be in the best interest of my still-tender heels.  I was thinking more along the lines of one, two, and three lap tempos (race pace), to get some speed work but not stress the feet too much.

And my warmup went well, despite not having a jacket.  UnderArmour Cold Gear is awesome stuff (US Speedskating knew what they were doing when they got UnderArmour as their sponsor!). I just had on a Cold Gear compression shirt and a mid-weight running shirt, the wind chill was below zero--and I was fine.  I was a bit disturbed, however, to note that the pads that divide the oval track from the hockey-rink infield--1 by 2 by 8 foot pads--were blowing onto the oval with disturbing regularity.  Usually it takes the impact from a small hockey player careening into them to send the pads out onto the track.  Tonight, they were blowing willy-nilly into our lanes--and strangely enough, they were blowing onto the backstretch, from east to west, as well as onto the front stretch from west to east.  Strange wind currents at the oval...I knew there were days I've skated into a head wind in both directions! (Why yes, yes, I did walk to school uphill both ways.  Why do you ask?)

In the next half hour of skating, I: had my first tempo come to an abrupt end when I came out of the corner to find the backstretch blocked by three hockey rink pads; saw several small hockey players actually get blown off their feet; completed 3 stunningly unimpressive tempo laps; and found, when I was ready to go in and went to get my skateguards off the pads that surround the rink , that my skateguards had also blown off the pads. All that, coupled with my hurting feet, convinced me that I was done for the evening.

Just another Minnesota January night at the oval...