Sunday, 2/15/2015: 2.05 miles on snowshoes, 47:40, 22:26 pace, 0F, 65% RH, 17 mph WNW wind, wind chill -21F, sunny.
Garmin Connect Activity for A 0F snowshoe walk
It was cold ... -2F when I got up. I waited around all morning and a bit of the afternoon before it warmed up to 0F. I had read on Facebook that some runners had made it outside and some had ran on treadmills. I decided to snowshoe. I was unsure of the wind and potentially freezing my face off. I dressed warm with 2 pairs of pants and 3 long sleeve tech shirts along with a heavy hat, neck gaiter and skiing mittens.
So ... I chose to make a snowshoe path along the edge of the apartment complex. I didn't even venture more than 100 yards away. It ended up to be a 0.17 mile loop. The first several loops were spent breaking trail as I sank a foot or more into the snow. I got barely get up to a run on the rest of the loops. I brought my neck gaiter when I turned into the wind. It wasn't so bad ... just kind of boring. Maybe I should have braved the roads but I was outside and put some miles on my Dion snowshoes.
Meanwhile, a local runner named Matthew Roberts was down in Austin, Texas running the Austin Marthon. He ran a 3:03:45, 55th, 12th in his M30-34 age grounp and a BQ! Unofficial 2015 results are here. A woman elite runner, , led most of the race. She fell, refused to quit and crawled 450 feet across the finish link, link here. Truly inspirational!
Monday, 2/16/2015 and Tuesday, 2/17/2015: Rest days.
I have lost my running motivation ... again. It is just too damn cold and windy. Some runners on Facebooks have been lamenting about the same thing. Some are even starting to run ... on treadmills ... gasp of horror!
Wednesday, 2/18/2015: 2 runs of 4.5 and Snow Cheap #5 of 2.45 miles, 18F, 79% RH, 10 mph WNW wind, wind chill 6F, light snow.
Yes, it was sort of cold and it was snowing, but it was a Snow Cheap Wednesday. So down to Riley Lodge at Cobbs Hill Park I went! The drive down was slow but I got there in plenty of time. My plan was to go out for a 5 mile warmup run and then run on snowshoes for the race.
I had on the usual clothes: CW-X tights, heavy Sugoi long sleeve, black short sleeve with my Golden Bib, Brooks jacket, full balaclava, Brooks beanie and skiing mittens. I trudged up a partially plowed sidewalk to the reservoir, ran around the reservoir 4 times and then trudged back for 4.5 miles, link here.
I warmed up a bit in Riley Lodge and took off my Brooks jacket. I put on my Dion snowshoes just before the race. My thought was to run in snowshoes to avoid tweaking my ankles like I did during Snow Cheap #4 (I couldn't run for 4 days afterwards).
I lined up close to the start and milled around with everyone else. I heard Ellen say that this was a two loop race. Loop 1 was 1 mile and loop 2 was 2 miles. And ... we were off for Loop 1!
I started off to the side so I wouldn't kick up too much snow with my snowshoes but the snow was deep so I soon moved into the beaten track with everyone else. Running in deep snow in snowshoes was tiring so I wasn't too annoyed when the runners in front of me slowed to a walk. Practically all of Loop 1 was in deep snow. I said "Hi" to Stacey Maier when I passed her. I finished Loop 1 in 12:42. Then it was back out for Loop 2. This loop sent us towards Washington Grove. Joe Ciecierega and I passed each other a couple of times on this loop before he stayed ahead for good. The snow wasn't as deep in the trees so I could actually get up a semblance of a running pace for a while. Then it was back into deep snow ... clump, slide into the hole left by a runner, clump. Onward. We went down the same steep slope into the switchback as last time. A Monroe Miler (a youth running group) who ran through here after I did ended up falling here and required 20 stitches. I slid down and had just a bit of trouble but didn't fall. Back into deep snow until the finish. I finished Loop 2 in 28:18. And ... done with 2.45 miles in 41:00!
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| Crossing the finish! |
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| Some frosty Dion snowshoes |
I had some hot noddle soup (made by Claire) and cookies to warm me up. I ended up just ignoring my fingertips and going to Wegmans for a bit of late night grocery shopping. Eventually they pinked up and were normal again.
I tried to upload my Garmin for my warmup run and Snow Cheap #5 but only got the first one. I was disappointed but it was what it was. My Garmin Forerunner 910XT still has its cracked screen (courtesy of a fall at the start of Airport 5K in 2014. My old Garmin Forerunner 305 is dead with corroded contacts. Should I do nothing, get either fixed or just buy something new?
Anyway, I did OK. I finished 28th out of 166, link here. I was 4th out of 14 in my M50-59 age group, link here. Here is a link to Chris O'Brien's Strava upload of Snow Cheap #6 to get a read on where we ran in Cobbs Hill Park, link here. Chris is training for the Twisted Branch 100K Trail Run on 8/29. He was 6th overall and first in his M30-39 age group.
Thursday, 2/19/2015: 6.2 miles on the dreadmill
It was 5F with wind chills well below zero. Winter won for today. I went to LA Fitness in Irondequoit for the second time ever to use one of their treadmills. I cranked it up to 7.5 mph for most of the run and endured it enough to log 6.2 miles. I had to stop after 0.4 miles to stretch out my right Achilles tendon. Maybe I tweaked it during last night's Snow Cheap. The snow bank at the end of their driveway was quite high so I just had to hope that no one was coming when I exited onto Ridge Rd East to go home. My darling wife, Christine, held off cooking supper until I got home around 8 PM.
Friday, 2/20/2015: 6.2 miles on the dreadmill
It was 4F with wind chills below zero. Winter won again for the second day So I headed back to LA Fitness in Irondequoit to use the dreadmill. I cranked it to 7.5 mph and just endured the run. I did it in 2 5K chunks to break up the monotony. More mileage towards 100 miles for the month.
Saturday, 2/21/2015: Rest day.
I had signed up my first running of the Lake Effect Half Marathon at Onondaga Lake Park in Syracuse NY a couple of months ago. I thought it would be nice to be close to the race venue the night before so I booked my darling wife, Christine, and I into the Syracuse Ramada for Saturday night.
We had a nice and leisurely drive out. We arrived around 5 PM. It was cold and a bit snowy so I was happy to be only 2.7 miles away from the start instead of 85.1 miles. The hotel was OK. The room was nice with just a queen bed. We didn't use the pool or exercise room. My brother, Don, who lives in Syracuse, told us to go the nearby Flat Iron Grill for supper. We went to the hotel restaurant inside unfortunately. We had to wait 45 minutes for our simple meal of a steak for me and a hamburger for Christine. We weren't happy but just paid our bill and made a mental note to never eat supper at a hotel restaurant again. We made a strange accommodation to Christine's snoring (won't say what) ... but I got 4 hours of sleep.
