Weather or not ...

JV, one of my 5:45 a.m. jogging buddies, called me last night. That, in and of itself, was unusual. Generally, he will shoot me a quick text to confirm our run the next morning. When I saw that he was CALLING, I figured something was up.

He wanted to know if we were running together on Tuesday morning. We always run together on Tuesday morning. What was the deal? RAIN. The forecast called for heavy rain, he said. My immediate reaction was ... SO?

JV is relatively new to this deal, so I explained to him OUR deal. The forecast called for heavy rain ... but also very warm temperatures. We would run. There were no safety issues -- lightning, ice, etc. Just wetness. And not even cold wetness. He hesitated. I made some wiseguy comment to the effect of, "what, are you gonna melt or something?" And that was that. We met at Eric's house as usual; yes, we got soaked. But it was warm. We ran. Slowly, as always. That's what we do. Rain or shine.

Again, my personal morning run rule is something like this: We jog in any conditions, with the following exceptions:

--Dangerous lightning (rare in the early morning)
--Icy or snowy roads (common in the dead of winter, before dawn)
--Really cold rain (45 degrees or less), because that is really annoying and uncomfortable. Especially in the dark.

Which leads me to this afternoon's practice.

The plan is for us to go to Farm Lane (men) and Cator Loop (women) and do some tempo pushes and then some faster, shorter turnover pushes. Rain -- heavy or not -- will not alter this plan. HOWEVER ... forecasted thunderstorms MAY alter this plan. Lightning and thunder while we run on an old woods road and tree-covered pathways may not be a good idea.

We'll have to make it a game time decision, be safe and hope for the best.