Today, 11:30 am, at the Log Cabin entrance to Mount Tom, I ran 4.75 miles in 39:13. That is 8:15 per mile. That distance was covered wearing my Trigons, which completes the my usual Cool Running Log data. Temperature was in the teens.
There was also a workout Thursday that I could not log due to the CR to Active switch. The snowstorm which started at noon had dumped 6-8 inches of fluffy powder. At 6pm I arrived for the group run anyway. Not alone, two ladies were walking their dogs. Waving, I put on the snowshoes and caught up to them. One was new to the area and had been a runner. I told her about the club, she had run in a race with John Kelley and was interested in finding a group to run with.
I said goodbye where the woods begin and took off up the hill. Didn't make it past the water's edge without stopping, totally out of breath. Checking my watch, my temperature was comfortable, no unusual pains from the showshoes, there should be no problem completing the distance even if it took an hour. Striking out at a run from the crossroads along the winding causeway, resting briefly at the treeline. I resigned myself finally to the sense of running in place, working much too hard at foward progress against the weight and drag of the snow. It was dark in the trees.
As I started out running again the pine branches above dumped a load of snow, surrounding me in a beautiful sparkling whiteness. 'Whump!' every now and then as an enormous snowpack from the branches fell beside me. Walking again at the canal fence, setting out along Wright Pond still at a run when suddenly headlights appeared ahead. Saved by the plow! I pulled to the side, off the road, giving the plow a wide berth. The plow drew up beside me and stopped, the driver rolled down his window. They told me the Res was off limits after dark, warned me that there was no one to find me if anything happened, and told me that the road was covered in ice anyway. I thanked them for the advice and told them I'd go back right away.
I was running a loop course, so that would have been true if I'd met them or not. Off came the snowshoes and I began running towards the pump station. In the flats before the hill I found the ice. It was a solid sheet of ice with a dusting of snow for traction. Step by step I made it up the hill. Theplow had not touched Whitney at all so I strapped the showshoes back on and was able to run for the entire quarter mile to the crossroads.
There, I rested feeling totally spent with tremendous respect for Jay, Sheila, and understanding that Paul Low won all the Mountain Races he did becuase of the snowshoe races he also won, not the other way around. Great conditioning. The whole adventure took about 40 minutes for 2 miles! I had achilles and plantar pain in my right foot briefly during the run. That night and the next day, a nasty damp pain spreading down from my normal sore groin area on the right was the only complaint.
Today that did not bother me, but today I felt the same achilles pull when I began to bring my right foot foward in the gait cycle. This only lasted for 10 foot falls or so. My posture was much improved immedately after the snowshoeing, so I'm sure it will wind up to be therapeutic despite the potential for damage. Either way I felt fine for the rest of the run today and am probably in much better shape than if I had raced Norfolk or run with the club.
This morning was to be a 10.5 mile hill run up and down Mount Tom. Despite ducking out of that, I have run 25.75 miles this week. This is a healthy increase from about 20 the week before, and allows for another healthy increase this week. My limit should be 30, which I probably won't make due to weather and shorter snowshoeing workouts. I expect Cool Running to be back Monday and I can start to look at weekly hours run as well as distance for comparison.
Posts
