Peeking out

What's this?! Tulips beginning to poke up in the garden?! No doubt taking advantage of the 50-60 degree days amidst our snow storms, gale-force winds, and temps in the teens and lower.

Usually by the time the tulips peek out, my base training has done its job and my legs, lungs, and brain are ready to crank it up for whatever monumental running accomplishment I've planned for myself for the year.  Much to my dismay, I seem to be lagging behind this year.  Legs are cranky, lungs are so-so and brain is needling toward the discouraged side of the scale.  The weather certainly hasn't been conducive to hard training - but it's winter so what's new about that, eh?!  Tho' I must say, two long runs through snowdrifts did my hips, back and glutes no favor and they've been quite demonstrative in their reactions to the abuse.  Cranky, cranky, cranky.

So what to do? Nothing too drastic since #1 in the plan is to be sensible in order to achieve #1 on the goal list which is to have a consistent year of running.

• Stick with one mid-week day of hard running, gradually incrementing the distance.  For the last couple of months, the hard running day has consisted of hills which I do believe offer a very big bang for the buck.
• Increase weekend mileage - gradually - with a semi-long run on one weekend day and a long run on the other weekend day.  In mid-April, speed work will be incorporated into the semi-long day in preparation for the Bolder Boulder.
• Put stretching into the daily routine.  Running buddy Connie told me she has been very consistent with her stretching this winter and it's been helping tremendously (and she's running faster and stronger than I am these days so 'tis good inspiration ...also a clear demonstration of what a prolonged period/months of consistent training can do for a person vs. the haphazard stretch I've had since early last summer).  She mentioned this during our hill workout Wednesday and I've been doing two stretching sessions per day since, focusing on hips and back to very good effect.  The crankiness is quieting!
• Lose weight...just a few pounds but a few pounds on this 5' 2" frame really make a difference with increased pounding (so to speak), compromised speed (such as it is), and general lethargy.

Follow those few simple steps, and hopefully, come April, I'll be ready to jump into Bolder Boulder training with all the flair and panache of a garden full of tulips!

Slip Slidin' Along

Our little library seems to be holding steady in this white and slippery winter.  However, we humans are having to be oh so careful.  It seems that every winter I have one spectacular fall.  I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet this year given the snow-melt-freeze cycles we have repeatedly experienced.  Yesterday was one of the melt days, today we awoke to temps in the teens and about 1/4 inch of snow covering yesterday's melt/today's ice.  Tricky going.  So tricky, in fact, even Taz pup's feet slid out from under him as he rounded a bend on the trail we were running (yes, a snow-packed trail topped with a thick layer of ice, topped with that very light invisibility cloak of snow).  My hope is that we get another 4 inches of snow today so that the ice camouflaged as snow will truly be a nice soft grippy layer of real deal snow for tomorrow's early morning run.

I am oh so tired of running on this stuff.  But! Still runnin'!

...and More Winter!

As noted earlier, what a winter: ice, snow, wind, cold.  And today, the result of that wind and that snow: snow drifts.  Forty-five minutes of breaking trail through snowdrifts in the middle of my 2.5 hour early morning run. Toasted my legs yet, as also mentioned earlier, oh so beautiful.

...still runnin'...

Cattle dog grins

I am not a fan of out-back runs, nor am I wild about running round and round in circles.  But! The last few days of below-zero temperatures have meant that Taz pup was only able to be out for a few moments at a time.  That all changed today when Boulder warmed up to a whole 21 degrees!  Weehaw!!! Time to take Mister Taz for a run.  His reward for patience during his house-bound days was a double trip round and round his Ya Ya loop (so called because that's where he gets his ya yas out).  My reward was the joy of seeing Taz's big ol' cattle dog smile at full wattage.  A great day for a great run with a great dog.

What a winter!

Running on ice.  Running in calf-high/knee-high snow. Running in monster winds. 

But still running!

Today's run was on packed snow - and in minus 6 degree temperatures.

Cold but beautiful.  And still running.

Wondrous World of White

Yesterday was an ice and snow-covered day, with ice winning out. It really was some bad running (tho' I told myself it wasn't as bad as not running at all!).  More snow fell overnight, which offered up a predominately snow-covered pre-dawn outing, almost eliminating the ice factor.  Woohoo!  As a bonus, thanks to it being a weekend wintry day, the town was very verrry quiet as I set off on my run.  No other person on foot was to be seen for the first two-hours. However, one set of footprints preceded me from the south edge of Boulder all the way to the west edge of Superior...'twas rather nice to have the company of this phantom runner.

Somehow, the slow and strenuous run through ankle-to-calf-high snow, with the occasional knee-high drifts, was one of the most calming experiences I've had in quite some time.  Perhaps it was the combination of the all-white world, the silence, the crisp air, and solitude.  All together, despite setting a world-worst record time for the route, this will go down as a Very Good Run.

A study in white, February 1, 2014