There is only one way to do full justice when you describe the sheer exhilarating feeling after running a few miles in sharp biting cold weather (mid twenties) with sharper winds slashing in your face amid the alluring natural beauty of pristine hills with dry barren trees giving a skeleton-like silhouette against a blue-pink eastern sky.
And that is – “God! I am so freaking glad I got it over with!” 🙂

The wind was making it real cold. Managed to avoid the rain though. We need to get spring here quickly.
One full week of back to minimalist shoes. Left knee still under observation. Strangely the pain is far less if I increase my speed – not decrease. All that is fine and dandy – but that merely shifts the problem from my knees to the heart and lungs 🙂

It is starting to warm up. Had a good run with the Bengali group. Our youngest member Eleena showed up again today!! Manas showed up with some delicious “kalo jaam” (an outstanding Bengali sweet). We think he is starting to worry we are dropping too many calories during our run 🙂 The sweets were very popular during our coffee break.
Speaking of coffee, when I went to order my coffee and Niki and Tasha’s drink, as you can see, they remembered my name 🙂

Switched up to my barefoot shoes that has no support at all and went for a 10K (6.2M) run to see if I can shake off my left leg issues. It was a beautiful morning – somewhat cool under a cloud cover and virtually no one on the roads…

Yesterday, I put a 7K run in Georgia Tech area. It was easy to spot me . Among all those college folks in shorts and half shirt in 38 degrees, I was the one with three layers and an unseemly cap on my head.
So, today I dropped a layer or two for my 5K morning run in Milton. And paid for it. It was cold. Really cold.
Speak of the horns of dilemma. I could run faster to make it a quicker run but that would mean the wind would bite me even more. Or I could slow down and make the wind bearable but expose myself longer. Eventually just ran faster and got it over with. Starting to get back senses in my finger tips…

Half of it with the Chalupa group. Half by myself.
Here are the runner friends post run and then the coffee…

I don’t mind the cold. But those 18 miles per hour winds gusting to 25 mph can really hurt during the runs. Reminded me of the Dallas runs during winter. 4 quick miles and then got inside the Starbucks 🙂

4K run in this crazy weather. Not a soul was around. The temperatures were fine (with wind chill 19F) – or at least I was dressed for it – but the 16 mph wind howling thru the trees threatening to flatten them what with the additional weight of ice on them and the constant crackling under the foot with each step as the ice broke at times were unnerving. This is now officially my craziest run this year – so far 🙂

Starting to pick up distances again . Consecutive 10K runs. Still long ways from my 32K runs. Part of the run today was with the Chalupa group. Whole of the coffee though was with them 🙂

10K run early morning on the dirt roads of Milton. It was a cold and crisp morning…