Friday, February 10, 2017

Pre-Storm Snowshoeing

This has been an interesting weather week, that's for sure!

Monday was a much needed zero, but then I also ended up not running Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday it was snowing in the early morning and I didn't want to run on the trails as I was unsure about a thin layer of snow atop ice and I dislike running the roads in bad weather as it seems unsafe, and Wednesday morning the ice was pinging off the skylights at 5:00 am. Of course, as the day went on, it turned into a lovely day but of course I had to work so I missed out.

Yesterday turned into a snow day, despite the day arriving with no snow falling. I decided I had better take advantage of the break in the weather and get out while I could so I headed out around 6:40 am, just as the sky was getting light with my snowshoes in hand. Unfortunately, no one had been out fat biking or snowmobiling on the powerlines, so I broke trail up to the bottom of the Mt. A. road, stopping a few times to take in the sunrise view. Thin bands of deep yellow and orange alternated with deep purple and pink right along the horizon, the sky glowed pink, and a sliver of the bright yellow orb of the sun made a brief appearance before disappearing behind the deep bank of gray clouds. The pictures don't really do it justice. Beautiful.

Sunrise sunrise

Glowing horizon

Ryan had been out snowshoeing on Wednesday so I followed his tracks up Mt. A. and found the backside groomed. I took the trail down through the woods back to the edge of the powerlines and ran out onto the end of hole #1, up along hole #2 and across to hole #3. Although the reality is that the snow shouldn't have been groomed on Wednesday, as it would have been better to let it set up before grooming, I was happy to have a fairly solid packed surface to run on, even if in many spots, people had walked on the snow and slipped to reveal the ice beneath.

Sunrise glowing through the trees

Groomed trail in the woods

I crossed the street to run around the Heath and found that several people had been out previously, partially packing the trail, which was nice. Definitely made the going easier. Then it was back across the street, up Mt. A. and back down (just because) and out along the groomed trail through the woods to the Mt. A. fields to finish up the snowshoe portion of the program. Probably got in about 4.2 miles on my snowshoes plus 1 mile running in the streets holding them ;) It was a slow run today but I was glad to get out and get in some miles!

Of course, it turns out that I somehow, somewhere, managed to lose both, yes both, the front clamp pieces of my snowshoes. There had been cracks in the metal which Ryan had been duct taped previously, but at some point, I lost them both. I have no idea how or where. I haven't used my snowshoes for running since the one snowshoe run I did back in December after the Fells, although we did snowshoe once later that month with my mom and dad out in the Cathance, and then again with Sam right after New Year's. In any event, if it felt like I was going slowly and that I was slipping around a bit on the trails yesterday morning, well I guess that's why ;) What can I say? Not sure how the pieces could have fallen off without me noticing, but apparently they did. HA! Ryan just shakes his head, but I can only shrug... I just like to go out and run! Details like front clamps, well, I just do not pay attention to.... :)

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