Monday: 7.60 miles...nice and easy morning run, a rare effort made necessarily by the threat of freezing rain that afternoon. It was, after all, going to be the biggest storm since 1982.
Tuesday: 9.12 miles in the gym, much of it on the "dreadmill" because we had a couple inches of ice that had frozen over every surface. I did manage 6 miles at a 6:49ish tempo pace while watching local TV reporters report from every corner of the metropolitan area about the weather, including 10-20 inches of threatened snow on the way. It was riveting. Also, as I explained to a marathoner friend, my ultra tempo pace is not the same as my marathon tempo pace.
Wednesday: 8.15 miles nice and easy. I ran this in the street because my taxpayer money was put to good use, and by mid-afternoon the roads were clear. How is that possible, you might ask? The experts said we were going to get nearly two feet of snow! Oh, we got 3 or 4 inches. But the sidewalks? Still dangerously frozen over even today as I type.
Thursday: 8.15 miles again, including 5 up and down hill intervals on a street hill that didn't promise to break me in half like my usual hill.
Friday: 6.12, again nice and easy.
Saturday: 20.76 on the Greenrock Trail. When my alarm went off at 6 a.m. and I looked out the window, I was elated to see 4-5 inches of fresh powder. And then I remembered that I was not going skiing. After a slow drive to the trail head, I set out in the fresh snow. There was one set of footprints ahead of me that I relied on as my navigational tool, and I caught up to a fellow St. Louis ultrarunner around my second mile. David and I ran the next 13 miles together, taking turns breaking in the trail, and I'm proud to report we only had 3 or 4 wrong turns. I ran the final five miles at a brisk pace. The entire run took me over 4 1/2 hours!
Sunday: 12.15 miles in the neighborhood roads, since all of the sidewalks in the area are still iced over. I ran the middle 9 at a tempo pace of about 6:45. I was hungry when I got to the Super Bowl party.
Total Week Five: 72.05 miles, another mileage PR! Perhaps the most surprising thing is how good my body feels. I can feel a weariness in my legs at times, but they're still responding. Even more importantly (knock on wood), I don't have any niggles.
Time to reset the mileage...on to Week Six!
Chad, local runner who thinks your mission is awesome. A couple of us are running greenrock tomorrow starting at the trailhead off fox creek rd at 6am.
ReplyDeleteRyan, I'm finally getting caught up on the comments after some crazy life events lately. Thanks for the comment, and sorry I missed you out there a couple weeks ago. Let me know when you're out there again....I'd love some company!
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