Weather - 11 degrees, windy, sunny. Very cold, with the wind it felt about -10. I wore about 5 pounds of clothing and ran to the arboretum to do some hill repeats. When I got to the hill my toes were numb, and so I started the hills without a break. I was planning to run up and walk down for a recovery, but I thought I would be too cold so I decided to run down instead. My endurance held up, I ran 10 x 125m hills, with about a 275m recovery jog between each. After the 10 hills my, ummm, "groin" region felt ice cold and painful - yow! I decided to run a hard 2.5 miles at threshold pace to finish off the run, and I was hoping to get home quick to warm up. I felt good overall during the threshold run, I recovered nicely from the hills and my legs still had some strength to push. Overall a pretty good session. The Siberian Express 7.3 mile trail race is this Saturday, so I plan on running short and easy for the next two days so that I will feel fresh on race day. It is suppose to be in the 40's by Saturday, if it is I should have a pretty good day, as I run better in warmer temperatures. It will probably be quite muddy, so I am not going to set a low goal time. I will try for something modest, say, an 8:00 per mile pace, which should equal about a 1 hour run. My fitness and strength seem to have improved since the 5 mile X-country race last month, although I am not sure if I am ready to run a hard 7.3 miles. It should be a fun one.
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