It figures that after doing the last several runs outside in darkness, sub-freezing temps, and snow/ice, my treadmill day would turn out to be sunny and 45 degrees. D’oh!

Oh, well. I was still smarting a bit after hitting the deck on the ice yesterday and my legs were really craving some tempo after having done mainly long slow distance runs this week. I wanted to just put it on auto-pilot for a while. I built up my pace over the first 3 miles and then did 4 miles at a steady tempo (8:20), then I stepped it down over the next 3 for a total of 10 – giving me 52 for the week. The ITB issues that I’ve had over the past 3 months are steadily disappearing into the rear-view mirror. Nice!

More simulated ultra training today. Started before dawn in 9 degrees with a light snow falling. I knew this would be a rugged one so I had my pack with plenty of water and bars/gels, etc. I ended up doing 13.5 miles in 3:07 including stops, etc. Conditions were tricky.

Map

I ran to a state park a few miles away and did a loop through the woods and rock formations. I was running on top of 2-3 feet of snow for a few miles. It was nice where it was a frozen surface, but there were extended sections where I would punch right through and would have to slog along. It was beautiful, though. Here are some pics taken by someone else:

Roxborough State Park

It was nothin’ but white today…

I ran on frozen mud, choppy/frozen snow, deep wet snow, fluffy snow, and hard water ice. The past couple of days have been over 32 degrees in the daytime, so everywhere that melted turned to solid ice overnight. Combined with a dusting of new snow, things were pretty sketchy at times. I biffed pretty good going around a corner and had numerous other close calls. Finished up feeling good. Can’t wait to go again!