Wind chill temperature of about 3 degrees - January 21, 2009

I am so happy to report that my knee felt really good throughout the day yesterday. It also felt great for volleyball last night. I planned to do my usual mid-week run this morning and with my knee feeling so good I was really excited about it. I turned on the travel and weather channel to find out that the temperature was about 3 degrees with the wind chill. Brrrrhhhh! I put on 2 pairs of gloves, but other than that I just had my usual winter running attire. With a short sleeved Under Armour shirt and a regular long-sleeved running shirt my torso was pretty warm, except for a slight chill on my tummy. My quads were pretty cold for most of the run and my fingers kept getting cold so I pulled them out of the fingers of my gloves and made a fist inside the glove to warm them up. Overall, I felt pretty good about the temperature considering. I wasn't sure how far to run, but selected a route that could be 3.75 miles or about 5.5 miles. As luck would have it I felt a slight twinge in both knees right at the time I needed to decide which route to take so I opted for the short one. However, within a minute or two my knees felt totally fine. Instead of running the basic 3.75 mile route I figured out a way to make another turn further along to increase it up to 5 miles. I finished the 5 mile run in just under 45 minutes and felt great!

I usually do some stretching on my front steps after my run, but with it being so cold I figured I'd do all my stretching inside. However, I immediately got a little distracted and forget to do so. I did remember after my shower and did some stretching at that point. My leg still felt really good so I wasn't too worried. I think the worst thing about this morning's run was trying to warm-up after my shower. I sat on my bed in a robe while eating breakfast and watching the Australian Open (tennis) as I shivered. I couldn't stop shaking for about 20 minutes. Now that I have thoroughly warmed up everything feels good.