Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Five miserable miles on the Dreadmill.  I really don't know how you all do it, you who like the TM.  My hat's off to you!  Then I did about 20 min. of core and weights, and then I dug snow out of my driveway for 3 hours...

 You can see my helpers, whose mother drove by and took pity on me. They were wonderful young men and I was happy to pay them for freeing me so I could go to get DH from the airport...

Which brings me to my very important point: I did not run the TM this morning because of the weather! Let us be very clear about that.  lol  My FIL is still gravely ill and my wonderful husband has been at his bedside for the weekend.  I don't leave the DD home alone yet, so I had to grin and bear the TM.  It would actually have been a lovely morning for a run, with the winds finally calm and the streets all plowed nicely...

Which brings me to my Story of Drama. Remember last week when I ran in the lovely 3-4 inches of snow? Then we got a little more, fine.  Then Saturday afternoon came.  I know I go on and on too much so I'll summarize: 50-75mph winds, DD and me alone in the house, house shaking and screaming from the exposed windward side, very frightened, awakened every few minutes by gusts.  (Disliking the TM so much, and being so tired and emotionally worn, I blew off Sunday's run altogether. Shame on me.)  But there is this golf course behind us, you see. And all that snow on the course got hit by all that wind and voila! 3-6 foot drifts.  My neighbor has one that is over 10 feet high and people are stopping by to photograph it.  This just doesn't happen in Western Washington. (See 12/21/08 entry on that link.)

Looking forward to running the roads tomorrow - oh so much! 

Objective: moderate

Weather: 27F, slight breeze (4-7mph).

It was great to get out and run today.  For me, there's nothing like a run on the TM to heighten my appreciation of the open roads.  And the icy roads. We had enough of a thaw yesterday to create good sheet of ice out there.  There were also stretches of bare pavement, and almost always some snow at the edges for the Yaktrax to grip. (They will not grip pure ice.) Occasionally there would be a stretch of deep snow, all churned up with sand.  (The drifts were piled up in places and had been chewed up by cars.)  I really wanted to pick up the pace today but had a hard time doing so.  It was more like fartlek, fast-slow-fast-slow, etc.   It looks like we will have a white Christmas, not the usual green and grey.  That will be lovely, but I'd just as soon have my rain back after the 25th.  Will someone please remind me of that when I'm whining about the wet in March? :)

Before I forget, does anyone know how to widen the margins of this formatting?  When a picture is inserted, the margins go wider so I'm wondering if it is something that can be controlled.  ??

Objective: moderate (intended more miles, didn't succeed)

Weather: Oy.  Started at 31F, dropped to 29F. Started w/ light snowfall, ended w/ blizzard. Started w/ winds 12 mph gusting to 26, ended w/ 19 mph gusting to 30.  www.wunderground.com not to be trusted!

15 min. core and weights .... as soon as I warm up enough to go into the cold basement. :o

As you can probably guess from my weather report, what began as a challenging but pleasant run turned into a monument of misjudgment.  Attire: Sugoi midzero tights, polypropylene (sp?) shirt + tech fabric t-neck + Pearl Izumi wind breaker, Smartwool glove liners + Nathan LED gloves, knit gaiter, Nike cap w/ ear flaps.  What was missing: ski goggles (snowflake bullets in eyes - ouch!), larger gaiter (fleece skiing gaiter would have been nice), extra layer on legs, warmer, waterproof outer layer on hands (ski gloves or stranded mittens).

Although I could not have guessed how wrong the immediate forecast was to be, I should have been wiser about a couple of things.  Even a light snowfall with wind means snowflake bullets and I might have known I needed to take goggles, or at least leave them conveniently on my porch to swing by and pick them up if needed (instead of packed away in the basement).  I also should have seen the connection between the temperature and the snowfall. The snow was not cold enough to blow off of me (as it has been in the past weeks), but rather the wet snow we call Cascade Concrete. It stuck to my gloves, my gaiter, and my clothes, and made everything wet.  Wet + wind = cold!   Another effect of Cascade Concrete is that it really builds up under the Yaktrax, so you either end up skidding your feet every few yards to get it off, or feeling like you've got chunks of frozen hamburger meat glued to the bottom of your shoes.  Many little almost-ankle-twists.  But that cannot be helped.  I ran before the plows were out. 

So, it was a very educational run. lol  Would I have traded it for the dreadmill? No way! :) 

I wish all of you a very merry Christmas and happy Channukah, or whatever other winter celebrations you have in store! 

Objective: moderate

Weather: 30F, cloudy.   About 10 more inches of snow on ground since Wednesday. 

Since no Eastern metropolis has come forward to claim this obviously misplaced weather, I had another snowy run.  The roads are slippery and lumpy, but it was a pleasant run. I was glad to get more miles, thanks to DH being home again today (so that I could take my time).  The major arterials are smoother than the smaller side streets, but I had to keep hopping onto the very deep snow at the sides of the road when cars came.  I'm going to see about sewing a pair of ankle gaiters to keep the deep snow out of my shoes.  That's the sort of thing that might invoke Murphy's Law of the Umbrella (if you bring it, no rain) and keep the rest of our winter snow at a minimum.