This Week's Training...So Far

Since Monday's miserable long run, my workouts have felt good! Over the last four days I have put in a good screw shoe six miler on packed snowy trails, a cross training day of snow shoveling and P90X, a 12 miler on icy, snowy roads with Fartlek, and a 6 mile snow shoe run. All of them felt great!

OK, I'll admit it. The snow shoe run almost did me in. I did well for the first 4 miles. I ran on snow mobile trails that had seen one snowmobile pass through and then drifted over with powdery snow. It was enough of a base to make running possible, if a bit challenging. But the last two miles were off the snow mobile trails and out into the woods. I followed Kevin's lone set of snow shoe tracks down the River Run Trail. He is about ten inches taller than me, so stepping into his tracks required a fast bounding stride. This part of my run was just about at snow shoe race pace, necessary if I didn't want to have to break my own trail which would have brought me to a walk. After catching up to Kevin eventually, I walked out with him. I was so depleted by then that I almost froze on the way out. I was shivering and my hands were numb. I rode home with my snow shoes on because my hands were too cold to manipulate the bindings. Once we got home, a hot tub soak revived me.

The twelve miler with Fartlek was wonderful! I used Kevin's hand-me-down micro spikes. These are the same ones that both fell off and got lost for a week the first time I used them. This time I modified them with thick elastic bands and they stayed put. As much as I hate out and backs, it was necessary if I wanted to stay off busy roads. I don't appreciate it when I am driving on slippery roads and there are runners out in the middle of the road trying to avoid the deep snow on the shoulder. So if I can run on roads with little or no traffic in slippery conditions, that's what I do. I ran the hilly New Settlement Road using the school parking lots and the fairgrounds for my approach and return. It's pretty awesome to live in an area where I can go out and run for twelve miles on roads and only see one or two vehicles the entire time! Believe me, this is not taken for granted. I started running while living in the Connecticut suburbs. I remember very well what it was like jogging in place waiting for an opportunity to cross at all the intersections!

If things go as planned for the weekend, I will have a solid 60 mile week of running!