Suffice to say this was a much more interesting running week than the prior one. I feel like I am getting back into my groove, progressing towards my goal.
Which I now know: I have signed up for the Superior Spring 50k on May 17. I have long wanted to race on the Superior Hiking Trail, and this will give me a chance to do so while racing my second Ultra. With a total of 4200' of elevation gain, and a top elevation of 2000', this should be a little easier (I hope) than my first.
Of course that also means that in four short months I'll be hauling myself over more miles in one day than I did this whole week. And with that, the summary:
Monday: 4 miles, 30 minutes from home.
Tuesday: 9.5 miles, 1:09 from Run'n'Fun. I took the opportunity to run with the Run'n'Fun folks. Turns out it was their race team, so they ran fast. You can read about it here.
Wednesday: Off. After the unexpected tempo run the night before (we came in at about 7:15 pace. Not terribly fast in general, but with 3 inches of new snow on the ground that's pretty quick), I opted to take a day to recover.
Thursday: 3 miles, 24 minutes. Easy from home. Still feeling Tuesday a bit.
Friday: 4 miles, 30 minutes. Easy from home. I actually felt pretty good on this one and maybe could have gone farther, but I was already looking at 10 miles over last week and decided to take it slow.
Saturday: 4 miles, 32 minutes. Easy(ish) from home. There is no "easy" in four inches of fresh snow.
Sunday: No running. 3+ miles and 1+ hours of snowshoeing. Wandered around the U of M Arboretum with some friends in the sun for an hour or two. Even at a wandering pace, snowshoeing an be some effort.
Totals: 24.5 miles, 3:06 running. 27.5 miles, 4:26 or so total.
The run on Tuesday showed me that I'm not in as bad of shape as I had thought. The mere fact that I could run that far was encouraging. The fact that I could run it at a decent clip in rather difficult conditions made me feel that much better.
I suffered for it for a few days, but that doesn't surprise me in the least. I just hope I didn't push it too hard, too soon. I have been doing a lot of running on pavement lately (well, all of it really), and my legs can tell. I had planned to run a trail Saturday morning, but the snow foiled those plans. Since I didn't know the trail at all in any case, I decided not to try it in fresh snow.
Since I have tomorrow off from work, I will try and hit the trail then. With any luck, I'll bring my phone along and grab some pictures on the way.
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