Some workouts just don’t happened as planned. I switched up to an afternoon run the other day so that I could spin in the morning as well and ended up running on a snow-dusted track as a consequence.

It was a little slick around one of the corners and I had to slow down a little bit as I made my way around said curve 12 times during my 3 1-mile repeats. I had to slow down. And then run straight into a headwind that further slowed me down.

Perfect conditions for speed work? Nope. I think I’ll live.

Yesterday I had an eye doctor appointment (new specs!) and so I had to run after class instead. Late night running is not my favorite.

Again, the world will not end because I only got 4 dark miles instead of 6 sunny ones.

How often do we get perfect conditions, though? If I decided not to run every time it was below 50°F, above 80°F, raining, snowing, windy, or just crowded in the Park, I’d only be able to run about 30% of the year.

Does it reeeeally matter what the conditions are? Not really.

If I’m working hard and running at my maximum speed for the rest of that one mile, the 60 meters of slick-ish stuff isn’t going to matter. If I had bagged my workout entirely and waited for a perfect day, now THAT would make a HUUUUUUGE difference in my training.

Waiting for the perfect day, the perfect race, the perfect conditions will leave you doing one thing: waiting. I say, go out and run!

Run in the rain.

Run in the snow.

Run in the heat.

Do it all safely, please, but if you CAN run, RUN.

Endure the crappy runs, enjoy the amazing runs.

Now go out and run!