A break from the cold for a short time. Light rain, temps low 40's, snow and ice are melting. Sort of shame as the trails were nice last night. Just a few inches of soft snow, no ice, a few spots of dirt showing up here and there. Unless all the snow melts overnight things will likely ice up tomorrow or by the weekend as we plunge back into the freezer.
Anyway, a good 5 up on the hills of Coventry Woods last night with Baker. A bit slow climbing up to the ridge on the slippery snow but downhills were fun. Nothing like some downhill running on trails covered in light firm snow. Even for a slow poke like me. Baker and I met a nice Husky who was out in his element with his owner. Such a friendly happy boy.
Today, run TBD. Probably relegated to the road or local trail due to work calls. Did the usual mile dog walk this morning with warm 40 degree temps and light rain. The dogs wore their rain jackets.
QOTD: Did you ever do a race in the snow?
I've done a lot of short winter trail races (10-15k). They are popular here and pretzel city sports puts on several. Snow is hit or miss though. I do remember a few epic ones. Can't remember the year, but it was a race called the Ugly Mudder. No mud that year. We had 8-10" of snow a day or two before the race. I was no slowpoke back then but certainly wasn't speedy enough to be with the fast guys out front. Well, trail conditions were really slow especially uphill as the trail had not been "broken in" yet. The poor fast guys had to do that. I remember about 2 miles in I was in a line of runners climbing a part of Mt. Penn and the front of the lead pack was just ahead of me. The whole race/field sort of compacted due to the conditions. Anyways, of course they lost me soon enough but that was a fun race, especially once we got onto some downhills.
In dog beers, I've only had one.
For my run late yesterday it was about 72 deg and humid - blah, today's run after work it'll be 32 deg with a spattering of raining. I'm planning on doing 10 mi, but we'll see. I'm supposed to be cutting back a little more this week, but I don't want to take a true taper because I want to sort of train thru my long run next weekend. I'm actually treating the 50 as a 'training run'.
qotd: The year I did Western States the first 25 miles or so were in the snow. It was on the early highest points along the trek but it wasn't that cold maybe mid-30s at the coldest so it was easy to keep warm. The footing was very mixed, deep snow, ice, wet, slushy, water crossings, pooling ice water, etc. Then as we lost elevation all of that was mixed with mud. Then later in the canyons and the heat of the afternoon it went up into the 90s. Still one of my favorite races.
tbd.
Pain is my friend
Thaw out? It got colder today for me. 9 degrees and then felt colder by the river. Got in 10 miles early.
qotd: I have run 5ks in snow, sleet and rain. I also ran the first 10 miles of WS100 on snow. I loved it. I had no problem flying through it. Passed a lot of runners slowing down and falling. Heard them talking about the snow and never having run on it. I would love to run a 50k all on snow.
ATY 24 141.445 2019 1st
Bear 100 22:08 2021
Jackpot 100 Feb 14:59 - 5th
Pulse endurance 48 hr 175.3 miles
Bonnevile Backyard ultra
Ute 100 Aug
24 hour loop race?
We are about to go into a deep freeze again. I think Houston may have some snow, not sure. We could have a little bit of wintry mix in the morning, but I don't think it is going to happen. I wasn't planning to run today anyway, so I am just sitting tight, working.
QOTD: I haven't run a race with snow actually falling, but the first 1/2 marathon I ever ran had snow and ice on the course. It was the Baton Rouge Beach 1/2 Marathon. I think it was in 2009. It was fun.
LB2
5 predawn miles this a.m. I was only scheduled for 4, but I felt so good, I tacked on an extra mile, then climbed The Hill by my house. I need to figure out the grade on that %&^$ thing. It feels like it's straight up.
LB - We had the opportunity to go Australia about 11/12 years ago and we loved it. I'd go back in a heartbeat, if it was so expensive to fly. We went because we found a really good deal on airline tickets that we couldn't pass up.
QOTD: Not unless you count a very rare, light snowfall in the higher elevation of the Arcata Community Forest a number of years ago. Seems like it would be, um, kinda fun . . . for a short period.
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
Not sure what today will be. I'm semi-waiting for a break in the rain, but also getting sidetracked by a few projects. It's a bleh-kinda day. But the ankle feels better so I probably should run...
qotd: I'm from MN so yes, have raced (short) races in the snow. Even got a packed snow and ice 10k in MD a couple of years ago. Depending on the shoes and the snowpack, it can be fun or it can be a PIA.
All I would have had to do was coordinate with the Air Force folks at Kadena and hopped on a flight over there for free. It is kind of a pain in the butt because you could get bumped at the last minute for any number of reasons, but if you were willing to do the logistics you could have. I did all my stuff for the commercial flight back to the states from Japan. I didn't think that through very well at 18 years old. But somehow, I made all three connections even though I scheduled my flights within 30 minutes of touch down. I barely made it to the one at LAX. I was running through that airport like a crazy person. I knew if I timed it right I could end up in Baton Rouge about 1 hour before I left Japan, and I always wanted to time-travel. LOL
Barely got over 60 today, brr! I'd like a break from the nice weather and have some good old fashioned rainstorms instead.
AT, glad to see you checking in. Hoping that recovery 2.0 gets back on track.
Mini taper this week for a 50k on Saturday. 40 minutes yesterday, rest day today, 30 minutes tomorrow.
QOTD: Ran in some snow during the Antarctica marathon, but also lots of mud. Highly recommend visiting Antartica but not the race. Can't say I've ever really run in snow otherwise.
5/11/24 Grizzly Peak Marathon, Berkeley, CA
7/20/24 Tahoe Rim Trail 56 miler, NV
9/21/24 Mountain Lakes 100, OR
Sue
I've been running but not expanding the mileage. Tuesday was a warm 40 degree day for us....ran my 4 out and back and should of brought Jack home and head back out but I had 10 guys at my house taking out 7 trees I wanted to keep my eyes on. Weds was more of a walk but we bushwhack for 4.5. Thursday was a great run of 4 and again I wanted to do more but Jack.....and I had to meet someone at noon. Friday! Friday! I will start increasing miles.
qotds: past and present
-says I ran 61 miles in January but I really haven't been too much into record keeping. -Going to Grand Canyon to R2R hotel and than R2R back. Going to take a month to travel around. Keep telling myself to make some plans. I also want to do sone backpacking on the Nortj zciuntry Trail...especially the Picture rocks portion.
-Alaska, Italy,
- no race on snow but plenty of running,
05/13/23 Traverse City Trail Festival 25K
08/19/23 Marquette 50 dns 🙄