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February 7, 2010 11:32:25

Posted By gregwagner

So, I feel good about my training. I got in 2 consecutive days of running this week for the first time this year. I ran Thursday and got out late morning on Friday just as the first sprinkle of snowflakes began to fall. Technically I can say that I ran in the blizzard. But it wasn’t until 10 hours or so after I finished my run that the sprinkle I ran in turned into the largest snowfall that my region has seen since…1899!!!

I walked outside Saturday morning after my family had to nudge mounds upon mounds of snow away from the screen door to simply get outside. I’m a tall guy—6’2” to be exact—and the ubiquitous sheet of snow was no lower than my thigh at any point.

What to do now? You shovel it, you wuss! Heck, if I can’t run I'm going to get a full body workout shoveling more snow than I have shoveled in the last 10 years. And with the abundance of snow in front of me, I was looking at quite the cardiovascular workout too.

What do I mean by that? Three feet of snow blanketed clear across a 15 x 25 foot deck—check. At least three feet blanketed from my porch to the driveway—check. Who knows how much snow piled up on the driveway and around the cars, but yeah that was taken care of, too. If that wasn’t enough for good measure, I shoveled the entire sidewalk on both sides of the driveway…all in the matter of 2 hours.

Just take a shovel full from the top and keep chopping down the wall in those same bite-sized sections. Too many people try and take heaping loads of snow in one scoop. It’s more efficient and less strenuous to break up one gigantic scoop into 2 or 3 manageable ones. Instead of exerting all of your energy on one scoop, you can disperse it across 10 to a dozen shovels. While everyone rests exhaustingly after 2 or 3 shovels, I keep motoring through a few dozen scoops…and then I still don’t rest near as long as they do. Granted, my gym workouts give me an advantage, but I never aspired to be an expert shoveler…I just like being efficient at it so I am out in the snow as little as possible.

Still…if all that shoveling wasn’t enough, my best friend calls me yesterday to let me know that his parents are home alone and asked if I would help them shovel out their yard since his mom is 5 foot nothing and dad has a bad back. Now, Ajay knows he doesn’t even need to ask. I was going to go shovel them out anyways. The fact that I knew his parents would invite me in for freshly cooked Indian food is just a bonus :)

Four to five hours of shoveling between two houses, a delicious potato fritter type snack with hot tea and earning $40 for my efforts makes out for a pretty great day. The best part of it all is that I was able to dig out two houses from this horrendous blizzard—and I got a full day of incredible cross-training in to boot. There is still snow everywhere, but I’m not even tired from all that shoveling yesterday. There’s still snow everywhere, even on the streets, but it is packed enough that I’m strapping my boots on and going for my run through the streets tomorrow. A little snow—or nearly 30 inches of it—won’t deter me from dominating at Boston in less than 3 months.

Besides, once I finish the loop on my course, I’m back in my house. If I can’t put up with bad weather for a 45-minute run, I have no right trying to run 26.2 miles. Call me crazy, but at least you can see why I win. Some people say what I do is impossible, but again, nothing is impossible if you train for that condition. It simply becomes the pinnacle benchmark of your ability…and that’s something we all should instinctively strive for.

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