Catch Up

Snuck out on Tuesday late afternoon for a run on the Crystal Spring Farm trails again. Still big stretches of ice but less of them. Worked on pushing, if not the pace then at least the perceived effort, on the stretches free of ice. Anyway, got in 5 miles and managed to shave a minute a mile pace-wise off last week's run on the same route. Partially due to trail conditions and hopefully partially due to a bit of focus ;)

Thursday, I got out on the cart paths in the morning. 6:00 am and totally light! As in, no headlamp needed, and that makes me happy. Cart paths were in pretty good shape, although after Wednesday's rain, there were some new ribbons of clear ice running here, there and everywhere. Still, easy enough to get around. The sun was rising through the trees as I ran hole #2, and although it was chilly, I was warm enough in all my layers. A good 6 miles for the morning.

This morning, I headed over to Brad. I had a long run in mind, but to be honest, my heart wasn't really in it and the trail conditions did nothing to help. It was chilly but bright out as I set out onto the mountain side around 9:15. I wanted to check out the BBU course, but found that things were pretty rough out that way. Lots of hoar frost, uneven trail and ice amidst some bare stretches. I only made it a short ways down the connector before turning around upon seeing that the trail looked more like a frozen stream than a trail! I was being stubborn enough to want to get in some hills, so I very carefully picked my way up the Boundary Trail to the turn off for Lunchbreak. Only made it about halfway down before turning around, yet again, as the trail as far as I could see looked like a frozen stream. So up to the summit and down Tote, then back up to take Terrace down. Needless to say, those 5+ miles were pretty slow.

I headed across the street, not quite sure of my route. I had already decided to shorten the run to 10 miles. In my mind, it seemed like a better idea to call it a cutback weekend than to get in something like 14 or 16. I don't know why, but if I ran 10 today and reduced my mileage for the weekend, I figured I'd hopefully have more energy for 20 next weekend ;) Twisted? Or perhaps just how I was justifying things out there? Either way, that was my mindset.

Anyway, I ran out on the Knights Woods Trail past the O and then across the snowmobile trail onto the singletrack on the other side. I was surprised to find the singletrack everywhere on the east side much icier than I anticipated, but I was moving faster than I had been over on the mountain side at least. I took a right on the snowmobile trail and out onto Fox West, then cut back to the snowmobile trail on the cut-off and turned onto Fox East up at the meadow. I'd say things are still about 25-30% ice.

Pretty ice patterns

Fox East

Fox West looking up

Fox West looking back

Back on the Link, I did a short out and back on Lanzo to check it out for Ryan - found it, you guessed it, icy! - and ran into Keri and Tami out there. We chatted for a bit and then I took off for the car, while they headed out for a few more miles, although sounds like they cut their run short as well. As Tami said, "It wasn't good." Quote of the day, for sure ;) Still, any Friday miles are good miles, so I am grateful for the 10 miles I did get, even if I wasn't feeling entirely chipper out there.