Snow Running

The snow fell all weekend--actually it had been falling off and on the past few days. It is a very light, very pretty snow--the kind that makes you want to go out and play a while. Or rather, the kind that you would want to go out and play in, had you not wiped yourself out the day before...

Saturday was my first of three 20 mile runs of the training series. Luckily, a friend at work invited me to be a guest of her running club's weekly group long run. I was happy to have some company on my 3+ hours of running, as well as a new route, pace groups and aid stations every few miles (a real luxury!). We were to meet at 7:15 and then head out according to our pace groups. We had a fair amount of snow friday night and the temps stayed in the low 20's--but luckily we did not have that much of a headwind (again, a luxury this time of the year).

Normally I wear my yaxtrax when it snows (for the non-winter types, yaxtrax are a type of coiled device you wear on the bottom of your shoes to give you traction on ice/snow), but my yaxtrax have a spring loose so I had to go without. The trail was covered with 5-6 inches of snow which made it a bit slow going on the way out, but not nearly half as slow as on the return trip. The packed snow gave way with every step, which made it hard to get a good foothold. You had to work twice as hard to go half as fast. Exhausting. It's about as tired as I've ever been after a long run. Maybe even more then marathon-tired.

Luckily this week is a much needed recovery week. Bring on some easy fun running!