Wow, quite the adventure run today. Paul and Cody were out of town, so I was on my own. I slept in and finally started my run at nap time- 3:30 pm (with a barely-eaten PBJ and Mac and cheese digesting in my stomach). It looked gorgeous and sunny out, though it was only 35 deg. I wore shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt, with stretchy gloves. As soon as I started, I discovered a brisk breeze was blowing that made it quite cool- I turned around 3 minutes into the run to trade my shirt for a fleece top, and to get my ear warmers. I was very glad I did that, but I was still an absolute popsicle for 2/3 of my run - brrrrrr!!! But at least having frozen legs and hands helps distract from how tired I was. Wind chill was 25 deg when I finished, and I was in my shorts and thin gloves for all 140 minutes.
I ran to the canal and up into Logan canyon. I took the mostly-snowpacked, sometimes rough, and occasionally very icy river trail almost to the end of the singletrack. My average pace on the roads was about 7:30, and was about 8:15 on the snowy trail, though the last mile of very rough singletrack yielded a whopping 10:23 mile! Wow, smoking! And let me tell you, it was as hard as a 6 min mile on the roads. I was glad to turn around, but discovered I now had a strong headwind that really chilled me even more. I ran back along the canal and through River Heights and Providence to my old house, then to the church where I picked up my car. The return miles on the road were 7:30-8:00 pace, and my legs were rather tired by the end. Of course, I kept my donut streak alive by stopping by Macey's for a danish, even though it was 6:30 pm. 18 miles, 2:20:38 (7:48 avg- pretty darn good supposing I had 5 miles on snow and ice).
My left hamstring is very tight at the bottom and has been for a while. I had to stop 3 or 4 times to try stretching it- it really slowed my down on the downhills. I'll have to work on it.
Last week I did 58 miles with a 16 mile long run, both of which were my longest since SGM. So that means I broke both records again this week with 64 miles and 18 mile long run. Next week will be ~65 miles and will include the Striders 10 mile race. | 