Weather - 16 degrees, cloudy. 3-4 inches of snow fell last night, it was great walking to work with the camera, made some interesting photographs. After work I tried my best to run in the thick stuff. It was deep and slick, making forward progress more difficult than usual. I am now skilled in snow running, and my bruised left foot is 98% healed, but I still struggled to run my normal pace. I ran to the arboretum and did 10 hill repeats, it was slow going, but it was fun to watch the sledders flying down the hill. After 5 or 6 times of going up and down I finally started to pick up some speed because I had worn a path down. All of the waiting around is killing me. I felt like running 2 hours of hills today, so it was tough to have to stop after just 10 repeats. My energy is growing to unmanageable proportions, I feel like a balloon with a steady supply of incoming air, and on my way to becoming a piece of limp broken rubber. My body wants to run long. I miss the energy fluctuations that come with running more than 2-3 hours. It is a good kind of pain. But, only 2 more days to go, then I can get my fill. The snow on the ground is not going anywhere, so it is going to be a challenge to cover 28 miles on windy prairie trails. There are not any hills, but it is wide open land with little wind cover, so it will be a constant back and forth of getting too warm, then turning into the wind and getting chilled. My goal is the usual, to run my heart out. I don't plan on giving 100% effort, probably 80-90%. I am still training for the longer ultras in March and April, so I don't want to have to wait 2 weeks before I can run more than 3 miles because of muscle soreness. But who knows, maybe the snow will cause me to be sore anyhow. #439
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