Sunday, January 3, 2010

Week 4

63 miles this week. Wish I had done more night trail running, because it's fun, but I can't have everything. Where would i put it?

My new running toys are quite wonderful; I'm very much looking forward to getting my money's worth out of them- or the gifter's money out of them, as the case may be. Both the Microspikes and the Hydration vest are wonderful addictions- I mean, additions- to my running gear.

I bought more car keys this morning to keep myself from having a fiasco like last Friday- my first run of the year was interesting, to say the least. Not a debacle, thankfully, but an appropriate outworking to the curse: may you live in interesting times.

And perhaps I've been unkind or evil enough to merit the curse. At the very least, it keeps me in good stories. I hope.

I'm still working on how to not overdress in temps below 10 degrees- even though the real temp was in the single digits and the wind chill was below zero, my windbreaker during my runs this morning was soaking with sweat. I think I may need to start using my vest, and save the jacket for temps significantly colder than today.

Still, seems odd to have a single layer on my arms in weather so brutal. But I guess pushing my 170# body around results in lots of waste heat, which I wish I could donate around.I know some of my friends would be grateful! it's a good thing, though, that I haven't spent a lot of money on heavy duty jackets and the like. I mean, I'd never get to wear them until it gets insanely, ungodly cold!

Anyway, next week should be fun. it's another 63 mile week, but with two fun Q workouts via Daniel's- a 12 mile run (or there abouts) with 2 miles easy, 2X 10-12 mins at threshold pace (~7:41) with a 2 min rest interval, and then an hour of easy running. the second fun workout will be about eight miles if I'm doing my math guesstimation right: 2 miles easy, 5X 5 min hard (~7:00) with a 4 min rest interval.

not that I've ever been precisely certain what "hard" means, according to Daniels. I haven't had it described as I've gone through the book, but I've been kind of lax in trying to read the book. Sad, I know, but I've got the lazy going. At least, with respect to actually knowing what I'm doing. Hopefully i'll run into someone who knows Daniels' definitions and will be able to explain it to me. Or find it in his book...

Last, but not least, I have 43 miles of easy running, probably broken up into group runs and two a days. Many, if not most of the solo runs will be at Pontiac, and hopefully a good number of them will be night runs.

I want more snow, so I can break out my snowshoes. I like my microspikes, but the snowshoes add an extra level of difficulty.

I want more cold, because winter just isn't winter without suffering a bit from the elements. when i was soaked with sweat, walking up a steep, snow covered hill unprotected from the wind this morning, I had to rate it mild to moderately uncomfortable. Certainly much better than running in 90-100 degree heat. Probably even better than running in rain on a 30 odd degree day.

lastly, I'm going to try my five fingers again in the snow. Since the water in puddles is probably all frozen, I should do better than last time. I may even try them with microspikes, because I'm a big fan of having traction...

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