Bradbury Slog

I had thought it would be nice to run our 10 mile run today on the roads, at a nice easy 9 minute pace. But Snowman wasn't really interested in that, so I agreed to a run at Bradbury. The temps weren't supposed to be too warm, so I hoped the snow would still be firm and it wouldn't be too mushy. Last week we didn't run on the West side of the park at all, so when Snowman suggested we started out our run on that side, I mentioned it might be fun to try out the 4.5 mile loop that Ian of Trail Monster Running had mapped out for a future race. It featured a decent amount of elevation gain and loss, and a stiff 0.2m climb up to the Bradbury summmit. I struggled a bit on that short climb, in part because it featured a fair amount of ice which I felt sure I would slip on, despite wearing my YakTrax. Due to the terrain and the conditions on a few of the lesser used trails, this 4.5 miles took us a while--over 50 minutes.

By the time we got back to the parking lot, I was feeling a bit discouraged. I knew we still had another 5.5 miles to run and this was going to be a long time out on the trails. I really wanted to finish the run on the roads, and said so, but despite it, I kept going. As we were headed up the hill on the Snowmobile Trail, Snowman said, and I concurred, that he was beginning to develop a pleasant contempt for the trail. It's not a steep uphill, but a good grind, and even harder with the snow. There had been a fair amount of snowmobile traffic over the weekend, it seemed, and the surface was a weird mix of packed surface in the shadows and mashed potatoes in the sun. At times I felt like I was running on the soft sand. Snowman had thought the loop we did on the West side was 6 miles, so was a bit upset when I told him that it was only 4.5. We agreed to turn around at approximately 1:20 anyway, and hope for the best. I fell behind as we headed beyond the park boundary and pretty much stayed that way for the rest of the run. Snowman circled back to check on me a few times, which was nice, but which just really made me feel worse for not being able to keep up. I was feeling pretty negative, and just didn't have the right attitude for the second half of the run. Ugh. I'll have to work on that a bit. We ended in 1:48, and after all was said and done, Snowman was nice enough to forgive me my foul mood. I'm sure he's right that this will only make us stronger, but I'm still planning to do my next long run on the roads! Or at least the dirt... Know where I can find any?