Where's the Donuts?

Miserable weather outside and last night after the trail run my left arch/ball of the foot started to hurt, so I tried to take care of both with a treadmill run. Six at 7:41 pace at the Y, I could feel my arch to start but once I warmed up nothing to worry about. Tried to be light on my feet to not pound it too much. Spent longer than usual stretching afterward as well, I think my calves, etc. are tight and that may play into some foot/ankle soreness. Good recovery run to start what should be another week to increase the mileage. 46:05

supernova glide blue -- 86

I got zonked with something yesterday afternoon, either a cold coming or just the week landed on me in one shot and stuck me on the couch. Went to bed feeling really fatigued and sore. Sleeping in this morning helped (I'm on a late shift this month), but I wasn't going to pile miles on feeling this way. Shorty around Manette to shake my legs loose and sweat a bit. I -- as usual -- feel better after finishing. Tossed in a serious hill up Cascade Trail for good measure, just to tack something helpful on at the end. I'm still planning a high mileage week and I want to be above 50 by Saturday, so back to drinking Vitamin C. 35:04

supernova glide blue -- 90

There seems to be a theme among FRBers I follow this week, so I jumped on board and hit the treadmill again. Actually, I didn't need peer pressure. My cold is sticking around and it was 30 degrees and sleeting again, so I decided to just go sweat for 30 minutes and hopefully rest up for a high-mileage weekend. 

Easy pace, 4 miles. Foot felt fine, for the most part. Energy is just low. 33:00

supernova glide blue -- 94

Manette Hills loop, minus the extra loop around the YMCA. Rained, then hailed, then the sun came out. Kept a medium pace, but I'm low on energy and still a little sore as I recover from the mini-cold. A lot of sweat though, so hopefully I'm getting flushed out. 43:11

supernova glide blue --  100

Day off for a Chuckanut prep run. Drove up to Skagit Valley and got to the empty parking lot around 1. Gray day, but 47 degrees and no rain, so I felt good about heading for 18 solo. 

Clayton Beach to Cleator Road in 40 minutes even. I was slower on the climb to Fragrance than planned, my heart was racing and I just wasn't warmed up for those hills. At Frangrance I found my first patches of snow, enough to cover the ground and make things a little slick, but not too tricky. 

Up Cleator Road to the gate in 22 minutes, but here's where the run went awry. Out of nowhere you hit snow where Cleator gets steep. Just 2-3 inches initially, but that was 5 by the gate and 8-10 inches at the switchbacks before the ridge entrance. I was trudging through it, picking my lines and paths through the two or three sets of footsteps in the snow, but it was tough.

I started heading out the ridge, the trail was covered but not as deep because of the tree cover. The wind and rain picked up there, however, and freezing to death on that ridge alone wasn't a good plan for the day. It's pretty exposed. So I turned around. Went up Cleator to the Chinscraper trail and ran that backward. The last bit before the parking lot was snowy, but it cleared quickly in the trees there and the rest of the trail was fine.

At the base of Chinscraper I did the Lost Lake trail climb backward, hit snow again but this was also quite a bit less (maybe 2-4 inches) than the road. Got to the top there and ran back down, then found Frangrance Road (hopped on at a dry point) and ran back to the parking lot. I knew I was short from skipping the ridge and the climb out of Lost Lake, so I took the Interurban for another 30 minutes. Probably 15 total. Tired but not slammed, and probably could be considered "good" after dealing with the week's fatigue and recovering from the cold. My energy uphill through the snow was encouraging, the first 1/3 of the run when I was finding a rhythm was not. 2:30:00

brooks cascadia VI -- 51

I stayed in the valley to have dinner with friends after the run, and didn't get to my bed until 11:30. So the 5:45 wake up to go meet Mike came early. But it was kind of intentional, I wanted to run early to get some work on tired legs. 

We ran 12 on the Beach Drive course, kept the pace pretty easy (I wasn't pushing or surging, that's for sure). My legs felt shot three miles in, and the last four coming in were a grind. We were still hitting 7:30 pace. So it was punishment for a cause, and piling some miles on tired legs will help.

My body wasn't so happy overall though, breakfast didn't sit well and I even struggled through my afternoon nap. Just exhausted for a good week of training, I guess.

supernova glide blue -- 112