Plan of attack

Well, I'm glad this past week is finally over. The weather has been awful, brutal, miserable, blustery and cold (take your pick) but it is winter and that's to be expected. Running-wise the week was OK with a total of 62 miles but nothing with any speed/tempo except on the treadmill. Despite having had a recnet cutback week it seemed that I was tired and slow on most of the runs. Is it OK if I blame it on the icy snow covered roads?

Thurs - tired before the run, in fact it was tough even going up and down stairs at work. However, once past the 1st mile, I was able to complete the 95 minute run with 11 miles covered. Sloppy roads but warmer temp around -4C and light winds.

Friday - tired and sore from the slipping and sliding on Thurs and decided to can the scheduled 2hr run with an easy 5 mile loop. It's been awhile since I've had to call off a workout but you need to be able to take a break on occasion and save your energy for another day. It was an interesting run with conditions going from light rain, then sleet, then ice pellets and driving snow and wind by the end. Good thing it was a shortened run!

Sat - easy 1 hour run was the plan and I was feeling much better this morning. After cleaning off the 2-4cm of snow in our driveway it was off for a quick loop around town. The yaktraks again came in very handy on the icy roads as I meandered around. Ran across another runner, which is highly unusual in our little town and detoured to say hello. Turned out to be a visitor from Boston and we had an nice chat before veering off in different directions to finish our runs. Total of 10 miles in 84 min with temp of -5C and medium winds to make it interesting.

Sunday - today was the 'coup de gras' as far as tough runs so far this year. I met Andrew and Jonathan out at Boyden Lake in near ridiculous conditions of -15C with very strong NW winds for windchill of -25C (-15F). These are marginal conditions where there is risk of frostbite with prolonged exposure (duh). We organized our vehicles so that one van was at the halfway point with drinks and snacks stashed away and the others at our usual start and this turned out to be a saving grace later on. Jonathan has not been running much lately so Andrew and I met early for a quick 3 mile warmup to test our clothing in the conditions. By the time we got back Jon was just arriving and after a quick stop we were off with the wind strategically behind us.

Note - wearing 3 layers on top with a goretex jacket, running pants and goretex pants, balaclava, neck protector, fleece toque and gloves

The 1st 7 miles were reasonable with a slight cross or following wind. With our faces exposed the conversation was varied and understandable but once we hit the vans and geared up for the northern passage things changed very quickly. Balaclavas on, faces covered and all conversation was now muffled or completely unintelligable. As we came to a junction in the road with a choice of going north with the vans 9 miles away or going right with only 4 miles to go we made a vain attempt to start north into a driving headwind. This lasted all of about 100yds before the mutual decision was made to hightail it on a more direct route. The swirling gale still slowed our progress to a near halt on occasion but the cover of the wooded areas made this a much better choice. Another quick stop (with a coffee break even) Andrew and I then finished off the 20 miles by retracing our route back to my van at the Farmers Union. Oh boy, it was nice to stop and was that chocolate brownie EVER GOOD!

Meanwhile, I've also been busy coming up with a plan for the final 12 weeks to go for Boston. It's a mixture of what has worked in the past and a bit more consistency in the long runs and time on my feet week in and week out. Here goes:

Good running and stay healthy out there!