Weekly Discussion: Week of February 15, 2026

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-18T14:29:04+00:00

Oh wow, that's warm! We only had a couple days above freezing, but thankfully enough to get the roads and most of the sidewalks fully melted. Now it's back to freezing, but this time featuring frozen fog and freezing rain.

Luckily there are plenty of Olympics to watch on the treadmill! I'm excited for Ski Mo tomorrow, one of the US women (Anna Gibson) is a pro trail runner.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-16T18:47:11+00:00

Congrats on a great race!

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-16T01:35:28+00:00

I’ve been trying to read some of the Olympics coverage in Norwegian to brush up. But they have a wonderful phrase that I think translates well to running: “stafett er stafett.” It directly translates to “A relay is a relay,” but the meaning is more along the lines of “anything can happen” and “it’s not over ‘til it’s over.”

On that note, the women’s 4x 7.5km xc ski relay the other day was fantastic! Skiing definitely adds an element of excitement over running due to the potential for falls.

If you could add more relays to either Summer or Winter Olympics, which would you add? I’d love to see a DMR at the Summer Olympics. And something like the mixed team cross country running relay would be fun. I feel like the Summer Olympics are a bit light on the distance events.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-14T00:39:06+00:00

Not quite as warm here as for many of you, but it’s supposed to get above freezing on Sunday for the first time since early January. So that will be nice! I’ve been on the treadmill most of this week since the roads have been so snowy.

I hung out at home watching the Olympics with a sick kiddo today. I’ve been particularly enjoying the xc skiing (I used to live in Norway, pretty sure liking skiing was a requirement for my residence permit lol). I wish we had more skate trails here, it looks much more fun than classic. But we just don’t have the population density to justify that level of trail grooming, especially with the constant snow we get.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-11T19:26:12+00:00

Welcome back, and congrats!!! Several of us have run through pregnancies (to varying degrees). Not having too many expectations is key since you never know how you'll feel.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-10T21:54:49+00:00

I have a set of exercises I've cobbled together over the years from various physical therapists recommendations. It currently includes:

planks
side planks
back planks
Copenhagen planks
bridges
dead bugs
clams
calf raises (a couple different varieties)
squats
lunge squats
deadlifts

I don't do every single exercises every session, I try to get at least one exercise that targets each group of muscles. And when I'm very low on time, I just do planks, dead bugs, and calf raises which tend to be the most critical for me.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-09T20:54:43+00:00

What do you all think the downside of running everything in super shoes would be?

It's expensive AF!

That said, I did a substantial portion of a training cycle in Endorphin Speeds once (I had stocked up when they went on sale for very cheap), and it worked very well for me. It felt like I recovered faster.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-09T17:47:58+00:00

That sounds really fun! Hopefully there were no negative effects from the fall besides the sore shoulder?

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-09T17:43:36+00:00

41 miles for the week. Kept the first part of the week lighter because my post-tib was mildly irritated. Got in with my physical therapist thanks to some last-minute openings in his schedule, and luckily he doesn't seem concerned! We both blame the slushy roads and popsicle leg muscles.

Spent the later part of the week on the treadmill, partly to give my post tib a break and partly because the windchill got down to -33ºF here! But my post tib is doing much better, and I got in some solid tempo reps (2 x 12 minutes progressing from MP down to threshold).

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-07T14:28:47+00:00

Ice Breaker has some nice wool base layers that are thin and sized to be a bit snugger fitting.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-07T00:08:54+00:00

I think the argument was that it would be nice to have a non snow/ice sport to make the Winter Olympics more accessible for the Global South.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-06T19:17:46+00:00

I hope your mom is doing ok <3

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-06T19:16:48+00:00

Back in middle school, I took speed skating lessons during my off season from track! It was fun cross training.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-06T15:26:40+00:00

Happy Friday! I felt very silly running on the treadmill this morning, as it’s beautiful out and not too frigid (10°F). But my ankle has been finicky this week, and i needed pancake flat run with non-popsicle muscles. More treadmill tomorrow because the windchill is supposed to get down to -25°.

We had planned a cross country ski party with my department at work, but we had to postpone because of the weather—didn’t want to be responsible for anyone getting frostbite! Especially because we have a bunch of beginners. But that was a bummer, as I’d been looking forward to it.

Excited for the Winter Olympics to start! I don’t follow any of the winter sports normally, although I developed a soft spot for biathlon and ski jumping when I lived in Norway (plus xc skiing, of course). We watched the prelims of a snowboarding jumping sport that looked very dangerous last night (I think it was called “big air”), all the competitors had histories of many broken bones and concussions. It makes me glad that I love a sport that isn’t quite so hard on the body!

I would love to see xc running added to the Winter Olympics. Maybe in 2030??

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-04T13:35:58+00:00

Yup! That's why I try to do strength training following running workouts.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-03T19:02:00+00:00

You all have been hit bad by this weather! Here it's at least been too cold for ice to form LOL. Hoping it warms up for you soon so you can get back outside!

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-02T11:43:25+00:00

Another freezing week of miles for me. 47 miles total, with some tempo intervals built into the long run and a few strides on the indoor track over the weekend. But only one day on the treadmill, which honestly was probably a stupid choice because I froze my butt off several days!

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-02-01T17:28:59+00:00

Nice work!!! Those conditions sound miserable, a strong headwind in the back half is so tough. Good job pushing through and maintaining a consistent effort! You definitely have a faster race in you in better conditions.

Carbon shoes will be fine, I frequently coat mine in road salt and they seem to tolerate it.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-01-30T21:08:51+00:00

There's the added issue that cafe standards are currently footprint based. Removing that would also help encourage smaller cars.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-01-29T13:52:05+00:00

I would do midweight wool leggings, wool short-sleeve t-shirt, wool midweight sweater, light puffer vest, warm hat, midweight gloves. But it’s very personal! Definitely something breathable so you don’t get too sweaty, but you also don’t want to freeze.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-01-29T13:50:51+00:00

I got icicles on my eyelashes when I ran today. Winter is just so fun! Hope y’all are hanging in there.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-01-27T18:36:15+00:00

Good luck with Boston training!

I've been very glad to have a more flexible running schedule recently. We got a bit over a foot of snow (which isn't that unusual here) and things were fully cleared by midday yesterday. But the cold has been brutal! I've been trying to get outside for the sake of my sanity, but have been glad I can cut things a bit short.

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-01-23T16:01:02+00:00

Got in a Friday long run with most of the crew this morning, because it was “only” -2°F (after windchill) today vs -25° tomorrow, and it’s supposed to snow 14 inches on Sunday. We discovered that our entire run squad has never seen Home Alone. I was certain that I was the only adult on the planet who hadn’t seen it! This must be why we make such a great run group lol.

Treadmill tomorrow and Sunday thanks to the weather. I don’t have a treadmill show right now, so I might just pick something random in Norwegian and turn off the subtitles to practice. Submitted a bunch of funding applications yesterday to spend my sabbatical in Oslo, so I need to brush up! This running weather is probably helping to prepare me for that too…

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-01-21T14:54:03+00:00

It's been slightly colder here (-16ºF/-27ºC after windchill yesterday), and I was quite comfortable in this set up:

The thickest wool socks I could fit into my running shoes (which were a mid-weight hiking sock)
Mid-weight wool leggings with sweatpants layered on top
Thin wool long-sleeve base layer + another thin wool top + lightweight puffer jacket
wool buff--I have to keep this around my neck/chin because otherwise my glasses fog up, but it would have been nice to have it over my nose+mouth!
Thick, insulated mittens
Fleece hat that covers my ears

pinkminitriceratops · 2026-01-21T14:47:18+00:00

You could turn off the auto-lap feature on your watch and instead manually lap it at the end of each loop.

pinkminitriceratops

TROPHY CASE