Spent

When I told Ryan I was signing up for the TARC 50k, he suggested that I not focus on specific weekly mileage numbers but more on getting in solid back-to-back runs and letting the other runs fall where they may. Since my weeks tend to always get interrupted with one thing or another, I often end up falling short of the goals I've set for each week. I totally get what he was trying to say, but I am a planner. I like to have something to shoot for, and have a plan laid out, even if it does almost inevitably change :-) I like to look at the numbers penciled into the boxes in the calendar and at least have something to work off of. So, I've kept my weekly running "goals" but am trying to cut myself some more slack this training cycle and focus on what I am doing, and not what I haven't done each week. This has been working fairly well, and while my mileage and my long runs haven't gotten too big yet, I still feel like I've been getting in some good running overall.

This was one of those weeks where I fell short of the number written in my planner. But, I did end up with 32.25 miles, and I certainly feel like I put in a solid week. In fact, I feel fairly spent. The combination of my cold, the snowshoe race on Sunday, a number of nights spent staying up too late working on a few work projects, plus what I'd consider two good-for-me, back-to-back runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, meant that by this morning, despite getting some good uninterrupted sleep this week (all hail Sam's new twin bed!), I was just plain tired out!

But it was another nice morning and I had no other real excuse not to run, so I headed out anyway. I ran with snowshoes in hand over to the Mt. Ararat trails. There, I donned my snowshoes, ran up and over Mt. A., out along the cart path at hole #3, which had been nicely groomed, and then across the street to the Heath. Once in the woods, the trail became singletrack, with a crusty surface and soft snow beneath. Back out of the woods, I crossed the road again and headed past the ecology center down to the river, where the trail was a bit more evenly and solidly packed. I ran down to Barnes Leap, took a look at the river, and then turned around and ran back exactly the way I came. I tried to focus on not hitting my snowshoes against the now very dark and nasty looking bruise on my inside left calf, but I did whack it a few times. Ow!

I finished up with 5 miles in 1:02, which was more than enough for the morning, and the cap to a what was hopefully good building week!