I took Monday off from work since I had a race on Sunday after a very busy week. I needed some time to relax after 8 days straight of being busy! Then it rained all night Wednesday, and started snowing early Thursday morning. Roads were a ridiculous mess, so school was cancelled. We tried to call a 2 hr delay on Friday, but by 9 the roads were still so icy it was obvious they wouldn't be safe by 10 either, so school was cancelled again.
Of course I went for runs on both Thursday and Friday. Thursday's run may be the first run I have ever done where there was NO visible pavement. I finally decided to try the ice cleats I bought about 5 years ago, and never used. They were awesome for the first 2.5+ miles, but then one came off and refused to stay back on. The other one came off a quarter mile later. I think my shoes got too wet for the rubber to grip. Next time, I will use an extra pair of shoelaces to strap them on. Friday's run was a mess. There was black ice, white ice, snow, slush, and wet pavement, depending on how much sun each section of road was getting. The slush was the worst. It got my feet wet, and then my toes got really cold.
I was tempted to take Saturday off, but it was in the 40s and I finally convinced myself to get out the door and exercise. Then I took all the joy out of running by making myself run 400m (ish) repeats. There is a neighborhood up the hill from me that I run through all the time. It has 2 parallel streets, each somewhere between .25 and .35 miles long. (Strava only rounds to tenths, so I'm not sure exactly where the 400m mark is, but I figured running further is better than shorter. It puts both segments at 0.3 miles) I run down one road, up a hill to the other, run down it, then slight downhill back to the start. Obviously I'm a glutton for punishment, who wants to recover on an uphill? Especially one that climbs 44 feet in 1/10 of a mile...? The first time I bounced my way right up it. By the 4th time, I was crawling.
I was on the fence about running again today. I have been wary of overdoing it since my extra-high-mileage last week. But I only had 20 miles so far this week. That was fine with me all week when I was telling myself I was taking a light week. But then this morning I had to go and decide that I needed a weekly minimum of 30. I told myself that was still a light week, since it's 17 less than last week... But that meant I needed a 10 miler today. I guess it is past time to start doing long runs every weekend... Besides, it was in the high 40s by noon, and was going to reach the 50s while I was out there. How could I not go enjoy that?! Besides needing a long run, I also was overdue for a run up Muddy Creek Mountain. I hadn't run it since February 7, because of snowstorms getting in the way every time I wanted to go do it. So that's where I went today. I was under-nourished and under-hydrated for that run, but I had a strong run to the top of the mountain: 20:06 for the 2.2 mile climb, compared to 22:06 last time. The return trip wasn't so smooth. I was in bad shape by the time I got home, from calorie depletion. Sleeping in and sitting around the house all day for 4 days has messed up my meal routines.
Gotta love this elevation profile...if that's not great training for the Blue Ridge 1/2, I don't know what is! I included my heart rate in this photo...I think it's fun to see how it spikes towards the top of the mountain and then drops fast as I go down the hill...
runs this week
T : 6.1
R : 5.2
F : 4.4
Sa : 4.5
Su : 10.7
total : 30.9 miles
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