Sunday, February 06, 2011

Wintery Mix

Last night we were treated to the full range of a wintery mix of weather: snow, sleet, freezing rain, and even some thunder and lightning.

Things had calmed down by sunrise, and temperatures were extremely warm this morning, hovering just above freezing. I set out at sunrise to take advantage of the road surfaces before it gets really messy. With a high of 40F expected, it'll likely be all slush and puddles later today.

Instead, I was treated to a relatively ideal mix of packed snow, some slush, and mostly pebbled ice which provided very good traction. My shoes didn't hit bare pavement once, and it was a good easy pace all things considered. Smart call getting out early rather than waiting.

Good cap to a solid training week. I ended up with 63.0 miles, with some quality workouts including a tempo run, 10 mile marathon-paced run, and a long run. Patting myself on the back a bit as it was all arranged nicely despite the obstacles thrown by Old Man Winter.

Looking ahead to next week, would like to get in some interval work and some skate skiing for cross training. I've purposely been keeping my eggs in the running basket lately and neglecting the skate skiing, as Boston is just a little over two months away now and I want to have a good showing there. Still, since next week is a slight step-down week, I think there'll be some room to ski the trails without much guilt.

Ran 6.6 miles @ 8:30/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 133/147
Paved roads coated in packed snow, pebbled ice, some slush.
Very hilly.
33 degrees, sunny, breezy.
Saucony Kinvara, long pants, windbreaker, short sleeved shirt, beanie, gloves.

1 comment:

Thomas said...

Extremely warm this morning, hovering just above freezing??? It's all a matter of perception, I suppose.

I think we just got the tail end of the storms you had recently.