Total: 46 miles running.
Sunday AM: 10 miles mixed road and trail. Still lots of unpleasant expanses of ice on the woodsy trails nearest my home. I did find a .5 mile hill loop that was ice-free and commenced to run it 5 or 6 times.
Monday AM: 8 miles road, Bread and Butter Loop. My first Bread and Butter loop of 2014! I call this run my Bread and Butter because, when I’m training, I’ll run it 2-3 times during the week. It’s a bit more than 8 miles (8.14, my Garmin says) and just under 500 feet of elevation gain. All on major roads, so I feel safer running it in early morning. The whole route is rolling hills, but there’s three sustained climbs. I know my training’s going good when this run feels like a recovery run; this day, on rested legs, it felt pretty awesome.
Tuesday AM: 6 miles road, to gym, for weights. I tripped on this run. I blame the Christian Scientists, who always do strictly the minimum to maintain the sidewalk surrounding their church’s property. Maybe they’re at home praying for something to remove the clumps of frozen dead leaves on the pedestrian byways. But as I was cruising down the hill in dim dawn past the church, my mind was so transfixed by these obstacles that my left foot smoothly caught a differential in the height of the sidewalk slabs, and I careened to the ground — “oomph!” Ow. Huge scraps on my right knee and left elbow. I am forgoing medical treatment and trying to heal my wounds via metaphysical-based prayer.
Wednesday AM: 40 mins spinning, weights.
Thursday AM: 8 miles road, Bread and Butter Loop. I saw more runners out at 6am today (a 32-degree foggy dark morning in January) than I’ll see on a typical morning in May. First I passed the two lady Chatters (I see them quite often and they are both always talking simultaneously). But then, I saw 6-7 more runners at various points in my route. The power of the resolution, I suppose! I hope I continue to see them well into Spring and Summer, as I love passing other runners on the sidewalk in the pre-dawn and saying “good morning.” It’s just the right amount of social contact that I want during my run.
Friday AM: 8.5 miles road, Bread and Butter Loop plus a half-mile of extra hill. I was going to go swimming but, it being winter, if the sidewalks are clear and it’s not 15 degrees, I gotta run outside. Next week looks snowy and cold — I’ll swim then.
Saturday AM: 6 miles treadmill, speed intervals. A wintry mix and possibly slick sidewalks sent me back to the gym, where I expect to remain for the rest of the winter! Thankfully my sinus/chest congestion has improved to the point where I can do a 8 minute mile pace without hacking up a lung.
