Winterlude

I wear my winter miles like a badge of honor. Snow? I'm out there. Polar vortex? The cold never bothered me anyways. Ice kind of scares me--I had an encounter with black ice this week that scared the cr*p out of me. But overall, I'm outside, putting in the miles and avoiding the treadmill as much as possible.

On Saturday, the sun came out and the temperatures skyrocketed to the 60s. When you make plans to run with blogger friends, conditions must be perfect. Wouldn't it be great if that was how things really worked?

For this January weekend, Mother Nature gave us her very best effort.

It has been unseasonably warm this past week in Chicago. There's almost always a price to pay for warm days in January. We dealt with foggy, drizzly conditions most of the week. Since "treadmill miles don't count" for the lululemon/strava run challenge, I was grateful for the warmer conditions. On Sunday, I completed the challenge for a total of 52 miles/83 km.

The warmer weather sure makes the miles more pleasant. We had a lot of rain this week, but fortunately, I was able to get Tuesday's run in between the raindrops. I did a lot of puddle jumping on my 10k around my neighborhood and survived the black ice incident.

Thursday's run felt great, and instead of wrapping it up after the 10k I had planned, I felt so good that I ran a total of 7.5 miles. I was so excited to try out this new top I got on sale from Athleta that I didn't even consider the potential of disaster with wearing white on muddy trails. Fortunately, I stayed upright and the mud stayed south. By the way, this top is a winner!

I was really excited for Saturday's run. Kim from Running on the Fly was in town, and Marcia and I planned to meet her for an early morning run along the lakefront. While it was warm, it was still foggy. They promised me a jumping picture in front of the bean, and we headed down there first. As it turns out, starting there was a good move because the anti-Trump women's protests were assembling as we headed out of Millenium Park. I read later that over 250,000 marchers were there.

There was jumping (above) and yes, planking at the bean. We had it to ourselves!

Along the lakefront, where we ran, you would never know anything was going on. As we headed south towards the Shedd Aquarium, the fog started to burn off and the sun came out for the first time in days. We took it slow but stopped to take plenty of pictures.

You can never get enough of this view.

To wrap up the week, I laced up and headed over to the retention pond. It was still warm--40s-- and cloudy. No wind made this one a win. I stopped to play with my handstand. When I was in the city yesterday, I kicked up into handstand at the bean. It felt easy, and so today I figured I'd try it unassisted. I surprised myself on my first attempt when I held it for a few seconds. I fell over when I tried to straighten my legs. Encouraged, I continued my attempts until I finally got those legs straight. You know handstand isn't about strength, right? It's all about core. I sent my picture to Becky, who has been preaching to the core (pun intended). I knew would she be excited.

Speaking of Becky, we worked on more back squats and deadlifts. In between sets, she threw in some overhead presses and lunges using a bar and dangling kettlebells. I guess the heavy lifting isn't enough. Glad I didn't clobber myself.

I was happy to go to yoga twice this week as well.

Camel pose
Skandasana

Overall, it was a great week. I actually have been feeling pretty much like myself. The RA symptoms seem to be lessening. I'm still having a lot of pain in my hands, but otherwise, I feel pretty good! I go back to the rheumatologist this week and I'm anxious to learn what's next for me.

How was your week? Anyone else complete the lululemon/strava run challenge? How was the weather where you are?

I'm linking up with Tricia and Holly for the Weekly Wrap as well as Angela and Ilka for the Sunday Fitness and Food Linkup!