Out of the Deep Freeze!

Truly amazing how 20 degrees on a windless, sunny day can feel so warm after a two week stretch of frigid, windy weather! This week, temps have recovered a bit and we have been back in a more normal weather pattern, even reaching above freezing on Wednesday and Thursday. So happy to be out of the deep freeze!

Tuesday morning I headed out and ran Highland Green via the connector, as although one or two snowmobiles had made a pass over the powerlines, the snow is so deep and so dry that it simply has not compacted enough to make it runnable. A rather meh run all around due to conditions and having to run a stretch of busy road to and from the loop, but at least I only had to wear one pair of tights and could get by with a thin pair of gloves instead of having to be bundled up in a gazillion layers! (6.3 miles)

Wednesday dawned a bit cooler and I decided to chance it and see if the powerlines were runnable. They had firmed up ever so slightly, but not enough that I wanted to continue on past Highland Green. Instead, I ran the loop backwards, taking a few short detours off onto the trails to the Heath and down past the ecology center. Neither direction had been packed enough for running. As I turned back onto the powerlines for the final mile of the run, the horizon glowed a fiery orange. And with a clear sky, the crescent moon, Jupiter and Mars were visible above. Gorgeous morning. (5.4 miles)

Thusday, I had the day off, in exchange for having to attend an all-day training in Augusta on Friday. No one was available to join for a run, but I decided to head over to Bradbury after dropping Sam off for a run anyway in the hopes that there had been enough snowmobile and fat tire bike traffic that I would find conditions decent. I found quiet trails (no one there!), warm temps and beautiful light, but the reality is that my mind was no match for the soft conditions and the long run I was hoping for just didn't materialize. All my energy was just going right back into the soft, churned up snow on the snowmobile trails and on the east side the singletrack just hadn't been broken out enough for me to want to run it. Conditions up to the summit were a bit firmer and the Boundary Trail had had enough traffic that even though uneven and pockmarked with bootprints, it was fairly decent running at least. I contented myself with 8 slow if beautiful miles and then headed to Pineland Market to get a big a** cookie to fortify me for the afternoon chores ;) (8.0 miles). The long run is just going to have to get done this weekend!