back on the drumlin
the recent thaw has melted the unplowed snow/ice on the glacial drumlin trail so i headed down the trail toward town this morning. it was a bit tricky running in the wee hours of the morning as i had to not only dodge patches of ice from snow melt but the "reminders" of pet owners who didn’t feel it was necessary to clean up while walking along on the trail. regardless, i ended up with six miles in a little less than 50 minutes and hit the shower.
for a good laugh (or at least a cringe) check out the ten greatest videos of treadmill usage gone wrong…
off the reservation
i opted for a little more sleep this morning and brought gear to run during lunch. temps were in the upper 30’s and i headed north along the lake. the wind was blowing in off the lake making for pretty much a crosswind the entire route. i turned around just short of the zoo and headed back. while heading past a parking structure, a SUV pulled out – just ahead of me – without even looking. if i had been five steps further i would have ended up as the guy’s hood ornament. regardless, i rolled back in a few ticks north of 46 minutes covering six miles.
afternoon sun
i had a rare opportunity to get out for a run during the afternoon. the sun was so bright…i had to wear shades. temps were only around 30 but the sun made it feel much warmer. i headed down comanche then up university. as i passed by the local elementary school, the crossing guard stood in the intersection and held up his stop sign to make sure i could pass safely. we exchanged pleasantries and i thanked him for his help.
i ran up university to uw-w and turned around to head for home. the route is fairly hilly and i noticed on the way home that my left shin was a bit tight. i made it home fine but may need to take a day off to let it relax a bit. at this point, i’d prefer not to aggravate it any further. regardless, i managed six miles in a few ticks north of fifty minutes.
spring forward with flurries?!?
daylight savings time kicked in today. i got geared up mid-afternoon and headed outside with temps in the mid-20’s with an east wind (plus big flakes of snow). i headed into the wind (and flakes) for the first half of the run. i brought along my oakleys with the clear lens to block the wind and snow…which helped. as i turned south at around 4 miles, i started to move a bit more fluid as i didn’t have to battle against the wind and i had warmed up a bit.
at about 5 miles i turned into bethesda park then made my way west along the glacial drumlin trail. i tried to run on the unplowed section but it was essentially a block of ice that had frozen with divots in it from prior traffic. i bounced back onto moreland and made my way back into my subdivision. i finished running up the hill on comanche and stopped my watch at 1:14:11 with 9 miles covered.
it would have been nice to run more but i have other things that needed attention this weekend. regardless, this weekend’s effort was solid even though the weather left a great deal to be desired.
MTD – 74 miles
YTD – 395 miles
Odometer – 26,733 miles
left turn running…in march?
yep, i opted to run indoors today. the temps outdoors were around ten degrees and honestly – i didn’t feel much like running in it. i met dana over at the pettit center and got started at about 6:15AM. it was tough getting started but once we got going it was sort of bearable. one of the hockey rinks was hosting a short track speedskating meet – like what you see at the winter olympics. i guess i shouldn’t complain about running laps because those skaters make many more turns in the same amount of time on a hockey rink.
as time went on, the track got more and more crowded. seemed others had the same sentiment as us. we noticed a guy walk in wearing a seattle seahawks bandana who we remembered from a month or two ago. he had insisted on running on the inside lane and wouldn’t move to the outside of the track to let faster runners pass…which would be polite. he (of course) was wearing an ipod and seemed to be in his own world. eventually we got his attention and he begrudgingly moved over. near the end of his run he sprinted past us, i guess to show his dissatisfaction.
we didn’t have to say anything to him today but i just about doubled over as we were about to pass him. dana turned to me and made a comment about swiping his seahawk bandana and said "we’re faster than him…right?" (…and no, we didn’t swipe it…)
as the story above demonstrates, we kept ourselves entertained as best as we could under the circumstances. it isn’t much fun running indoors but it is better than freezing outside or taking a "zero" for miles. we ended up with 2 hours which i’ll call 15 miles.