This week was a pretty good training week, both in Shanghai and Buffalo. We were moving back to Buffalo so had to pack up, but it was still easy to get the runs in. The air quality was really good this week, so no issues there. The sun was even shining and blue skies were peeking out!

I took the train near our apartment down to the financial district, since I had to do 6 miles and it was roughly that to the area where we live from downtown.

This run was a tempo run (if you are unfamiliar with different kinds of working workouts, you can read a post about that here), which I was actually going to skip and do more of a run-walk since my calf had been so stiff and sore the previous day.

When I started out though, everything felt good and so switched back to the original plan.

When I was off the train and in position to start my run, I was sooo aggravated to see my phone battery was at 15%! It was 90% when I left the apartment about 30 minutes before.

Tech Issues

I have an iPhone 6+, so it has the dreaded battery issue. They are going to fix it when I get back to the States, but even in airplane mode it will suddenly drop to nothing in a few minutes.

I could never figure out how to download music onto my Chinese phone, so used my iPhone on runs for the playlist.

I think part of the reason I had such a good run pace-wise was that I was so ticked off at my phone.

I tend to run faster when I am mad, so maybe I should have dinner with someone who irritates me the night before the marathon, lol!

Practicing Fueling

The 8-miler the next day was with Dave, and it was also the day we were leaving Shanghai so we had to get up and out early.

It was good to run together and talk about our time in Shanghai and run by some of the places that were “ours” before we had to leave.

We ran out of pretzels, so we ate raisins only (not really needed as fuel, but trying to find the best snack to use).

After a bit, only eating raisins left a VERY sweet taste in our mouths. I decided I don’t like it, and will have to incorporate something else into the mix if I stick with raisins as one of the fueling snacks.

Jet-lag? Go for a Run!

The flight to Buffalo was uneventful, if long, and we finally dropped into bed dreading the next days run since it was going to be cold and snowy with jet-lag thrown in.

Dave and I find the best way to deal with jet-lag is to go for a run (even though we have to psych ourselves up to do it), and if possible we do it as soon as we land.

It seems to shake off the dream-like feeling you can have with jet-lag and gets you into the time zone. Getting in at 10 pm wasn’t going to work for that, though, so we took some melatonin and went to sleep.

Cold Weather Running

Both of us were awake at 3 am, and read until about 8. We braced ourselves for the cold and headed out.

It is interesting to me how different places can have the same temperatures, but you can feel warmer or colder depending on where you are.

In Buffalo, even though it was at least 20 degrees colder than in Shanghai, I felt warmer.

The snow and ice were maddening, though.

We had to run on sidewalks that weren’t shoveled, through puddles that were deeper than what we thought they would be when we stepped on them, and in the street with the cars when the sidewalks were impassable.

It is very frustrating, especially when it is the law that sidewalks are to be clear, to have to run like that.

I get that it may take a bit before someone can get to it, but when it is clear that no shovel has touched the snow all winter, I get mad.

Dave went down at one point and caught himself, but he then ran faster (he has the running faster while ticked gene, too, lol) and I was afraid he was going to twist an ankle on the uneven snowy ice.

He didn’t, but the rest of the run we were cursing those who didn’t shovel (including one of the police stations in town)!

We are (hopefully) coming to the end of a lot of snow, but for next year I think I may get the Yaktrax for running.

Does anyone have any experience with those? I’ve seen they are going on sale at some of the running stores as an end of winter sale item, so now would be a good time to get them.

Also, I live in Buffalo…so it’s not actually the “end of winter”!