"Two easy 10 milers"

Well... maybe one easy 10 miler.

After work yesterday I headed to my favorite trail- Pontiac Rec.  I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it has this nice 10 mile loop which is relatively technical, hilly, and fun.

It's also significantly harder through 8-10" of snow.  My Saucony Razors have built in gaiters, which helped a lot, but didn't do that much for the snow which came in through the top.  Kind of like the waterproof boot not quite as high as the puddle into which you step.  Only slower.

On the bottom of the relatively heavy Razors (~16 oz) I had my Microspikes, which I believe weight about five ounces apiece.  Breaking through the snow made a 10 mile run take about 2.5 hours, which is about as long as my "long runs" should take- at least, according to Daniels.  I kept on wanting to know if there would be a correlation between depth of snow and some other, more understandable gradient of effort.  For instance, if every inch of snow was like a 1% incline.  Makes me wonder if anyone has done any studies on it.

Anyway, after the sun went down, the run became more grueling than fun- especially when the drifts started getting knee-high, and I ran out of water.  I walked up most of the uphills, like a good ultra runner.  Did make me long a little for spring, though.  I'd really love to go back to being able to run those trails without walking.

As for Saturday, I'm taking it off.  Sunday I may do it again- or possibly run with my group, or hit the local metropark.  Decisions, decisions...