Juno we got snow?

If the storm forecast hits the UK news then you know it could be bad, right?
The local news basically had this as their story for the entire 30 minutes. I mean, look the weatherman has his shirt sleeves rolled up to show it's worse than normal!

I forget who makes certain decisions here, the Mayor or the Governor but they made the decision for the first time ever to close the roads to everyone from 11pm and also shut down the subways then too.
It was supposed to help the gritters and ploughs along with any emergency vehicles and a lot of people joked that they got a better nights sleep as it was a lot quieter.

I somehow didn't think it was going to be that bad but some people did what normally happens and queued around the block to empty stores of certain foods earlier that day.

I can understand if the forecast was for a week of snow but however bad it was supposed to get, it was only for one day! Maybe a lot of people normally order food in over here and never have "proper" food in their fridge?

I watched the roads outside get quieter and quieter, it was definitely weird to see.
Then the scary part was at 9pm, my phone made this weird alarm sound (despite being on mute!) and displayed this emergency message.

I also got an email and creepy voicemail from work saying we had closed at 6pm and would aim to be open by 12pm the next morning.

It was like Christmas morning when I woke up, I peeled back the curtains and was wholly disappointed with the results. Elsewhere in New York got a lot and other states like Connecticut got hit hard but it was just a regular snowfall in most of the city and Brooklyn.

For the first part of the morning the trains were still suspended.

Just after 9am they announced they would be back on, running on a Sunday schedule. TBH I didn't notice much difference heading to work, apart from it being nice and quiet!

This was my morning walk to the train. All out in front of the houses people were clearing the pavements, a lot of people had the day off, all the schools were closed.

I ran home that night and most of the roads were cleared.
They stick a plough on the rubbish lorries to turn them into snowploughs.

With the snow it always makes the sky and the dark areas a lot brighter so in the end after I ran under the bridges

I headed up to Prospect park and managed to get a couple of miles through the snow.

So it was a bust, as they say but already there is talk of another inch or two tomorrow and another "storm" at the weekend.

Freezing cold rain

A couple of Sundays ago I headed out for one of my long weekend training runs. I tried to vary where I was running once I started doing the slightly longer runs. This was the 14M route I'd decided on the day before.

Of course it was pouring rain but I didn't think it was too bad when I set off. Unfortunately 40mins later I was soaked through and freezing, like really really cold. By the time I hit the water an hour later (with an hour still to go!) I was ringing my gloves out under the Verrazano Bridge.

There was nobody out there! The rain was so cold. I ended up in the park on the corner of Bay Ridge praying the toilet was open so I could use the hand dryer, which I did... for 10 minutes.

I toughed it out, mainly as it was too difficult to find a train back home. No stretching when I got home, I jumped straight in the shower and my fingertips were tingly for the rest of the day.

I'd say it was good mental prep if nothing else but I actually did the distance I set out to do uncomfortable as it was.

End of year and 2015 goals

We had a quiet Christmas and New Year. I ended up working Boxing Day, New Year's eve & day but had the weekends off, so as usual I was losing track of what day it was!

Like our decorative wallpaper?

I finished 2014 running around 1230 miles (760 in 2014) and biking 535 (975 in 2014).

My indoor speed session training is going well and I definitely feel stronger already especially as in the last 3 weeks I have started marathon training again!
I haven't entered yet, but I have decided to go for the Bear Mountain Marathon first weekend of May.
That's the one I have done the half marathon for the last two years but now I have the confidence of completing a marathon, a trail version has gotta be fun?!

The positives so far are that I am already back up to 13M and felt good. The cold weather means I haven't felt the need to eat and drink but I know when I go further I should. Plus as there are only a few aid stations on the course I might have to get used to carrying a bladder of some sort.
The negatives are it is pretty much dark for all running except for the last 20mins if I run to work.

But boy has it been cold, -C's with really cold winds. I've never pulled a neck gaitor up the longer a run went, normally it gets pulled down as you warm up!

I restarted my Instagram account and recently took a pictures while out on a run home from work.

And also a few from my weekend run down to the Redhook area.

Prospect Park looking good in the winter too:

I finally got back to visiting the dentist. Just another thing I had never got around to doing since moving here. Couple of things that were new to me was the flavoured cleaning stuff, I chose Strawberry, ha ha, and the offering of my music for the treatment. The dentist said patients could listen to music of their choice through Spotify on his iPhone. I guess it might help you relax slightly!

Up to now I'd been using my phone for the distance and pace while doing the longer runs but I just bought a new Garmin 220 watch which will also make it easier to upload practically all my runs to Strava so you can see my routes if you want.

Out of curiosity I wore it to soccer last night. I ended up running around 1 3/4 miles for the 40-odd minutes we play for. The more interesting, actually quite amazing fact was that my heart rate averaged 175!!

My heat map, ha ha.

As well as Bear Mountain in May, I will probably try and improve my half time with the Brooklyn Half a couple of weeks after that. I also just got in through the lottery for a trail race in upstate New York, the Leatherman Loop. A little worried as it's just a week before Bear Mountain, but it's only 6 miles and looks like it could be fun, river crossings, mud patches etc!