A Little Break from Winter

Monday, January 18, 2010

The cold temps finally broke and we’ve been above freezing for a couple days now, even reaching the 50s during the day.  A goose froze into the ice the day before the thaw started so he was only trapped for a little over 24 hours.  I couldn’t believe that happened - I thought geese were supposed to know better than that (plus it was a Canadian Goose).  Oh well, nobody could do anything about it because the ice wasn’t thick enough everywhere to be sure a person could walk out there but it was too thick everywhere to get a canoe or something out there.  I guess that goose belongs in the Darwin Awards.  There are still spots on the lake and on the small feeder ponds around the lake that look kind of like a soda pop with ice in it or maybe like a slushie that’s mostly melted, but the trail is thawed and has turned from ankle-twisting ice ruts to some good ole-fashioned mud.  I prefer the mud.

Last week, I ran long and it went pretty well.  I got in a tad over 38 miles in a little under 4 hours and 39 minutes.  I finished with 30 minutes on the elliptical, so that got me over the 5 hour mark.  I’ll go long again this week and then take a break next week.  I’ll keep inching toward getting over the 6 hour mark in order to be good for a 50 miler.  Well, I got in 103 miles running last week plus 3 hours and 20 minutes of elliptical time, which converts roughly to 27 miles of running equivalent miles.  I’m actually not bothered much by the amount - at least not physically - but the time crunch it creates is tough.  I do most of my elliptical time in the evening while my husband is watching ESPN or something so we talk and such while I get my time in.  Plus, by getting the evening time in on the elliptical, it doesn’t matter that it’s dark and cold out already by then.  The elliptical time is about 3.5 hours and the running time is about 13 hours, so that’s a lot of time eaten up with training.  I get up early to get the running in and then I get in the elliptical time in the evening.  It all works out somehow usually, but sometimes life gets in the way.  Lately, it’s been working in my favor. 

I had the chance to go running with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while this weekend and that was soooo fun!  Plus, I ran on a cross country loop that I haven’t run on in a long time and it was great to run that trail loop.  And, the weather here was fantastic on Saturday (Sunday actually wasn’t bad, but it rained pretty much all day).  And, when I got home, the goose was free from the ice.  Not a bad weekend.

Okay, back to work for me.  It’s that time crunch thing, you know!

Happy muddy but thawed trails!

Missy