Training Week 3/28 - 4/3

I finally psychologically put the snowshoes away for the season this week. My head knew that snowshoe season was over, but my heart was hoping for at least one more run. Tough to find snow when it's nearly 70° and it's April. In 2010, I ended up with 54.25 miles on snowshoes (add a few miles in 2009, too), which is less than I would have hoped, but definitely a good start. I don't think that snowshoeing will be my best discipline, but it will probably be my favorite.

Onto the numbers...

3/28, Sunday: 13.75 total, Run for the Border Half Marathon.

3/29, Monday: Off. Terrible weather and a long commute. Add the fact that I'm a sissy, and that equals 0.

3/30, Tuesday: 5 - 42:52, Highland Green Loop. Felt OK despite the rain, wind and general yuk.

3/31, Wednesday: 7.5 - 1:13:02, Random run including Mt. Ararat trails, Cathance River Trails and Highland Green Golf Course cart paths. After all the rain, this was a fun run. I couldn't bring myself to run on roads. I stayed mostly away from the trails right along the river, save one, the Rapids Trail. The amount of water in the river was impressive, and I hoped that the whole trail would be passable. It wasn't. One low section was completely flooded: 50 yards wide and only a few steps in I could see it was at least mid-calf deep. Since I was alone, I decided it was wisest to turn around rather than attempt a crossing. Felt OK on this run, but it was clear I was still feeling the effects from the half marathon.

4/1, Thursday: 3 - 24:42, Suck Loop. Beautiful day, but I felt crappy. No idea why.

4/2, Friday: Off. Decided another rest day wouldn't be such a bad idea.

4/3, Saturday: 13 - 1:57:31, Pineland Farms with TMR. Thanks to the in-laws I had the chance to meet up with the Trail Monsters as they watched the Little Lady while D headed to work. Foggy at the start, but it turned into a beautiful day. That could also describe my run. I felt really off and sluggish for the first five miles, but I felt terrific by the end. Also averaged just over 9:00 per mile for the loop, which is pretty solid for as good as I ended up feeling. Very good signs. Great run with the crew!

Totals:
Miles: 42.25
Trail: 20.5
Road: 21.75

I hate it when the road exceeds the trail! That being said, big bounce back from last week...both physically and mentally. Somewhat ironic that my biggest week of the year is also the week that I decided to not run a marathon, but that's more based on where the days fell.

Tuneage!



I realized that a number of you (maybe 2, which is at least two-thirds of my readership) view this via Facebook only. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't embed videos when pulled from Blogger. And, since you don't want to miss out on the tunes, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOOhfS1hZVo

Looking ahead, up next is The Rivah, aka the Merrimack River 10 Mile Trail Race. I'm pretty psyched to try my hand at this race, since I was forced to spectate two years ago due to a calf injury. Looking at the past results and my present guess at my fitness, I have a goal time in mind...we'll see...