Thursday, December 30, 2010

Winter Fun in Maine

Morning
I awoke this morning feeling the effects of yesterday's skate ski session. My gluts, hammies and quads were all pretty sore. It felt as if I ran a 15 miler hard and I began to question my plan of skiing again today and following it up with a trail run, but wanted to take advantage of the skiing before it thaws out with the upcoming wave of warmth and I still need to get my running in. So, I compromised and told myself I'd take it easy on both. 

I started out on the Joe Buzzell trail at Harris Farm and noticed the trails were much more packed down and firm. No doubt getting into the single digits last night helped with that some. Much faster than yesterday. I soon noticed I was skiing much more efficiently and moving faster with greater ease, which was awesome. Probably took half the amount of breaks as yesterday also. The trail conditions no doubt helped with that some, but I also think I kicked off a lot of rust yesterday. Despite sore legs, I felt comfortable and was moving great (for me). 

I had planned on maybe getting in five or six kilometers today but got in about the same as yesterday, which was close to ten, since I was feeling so comfortable out there. Was really, really happy with how I did today. Feels like I'm at the point I was towards the end of the season last year, which is good news as I have the whole season to build on. Hopefully, we'll get some more snow soon though. Looks like the trails could be unskiable by the weekend the way the weather forecast is looking. 

Skate skied 9.8 kilometers @ 11.0 kph/avg. 
AHR/MHR - 148/163
Trails, packed and moderately fast. 
Moderately hilly. 
Lower 20s to lower 30s, sunny. 
Long pants, windbreaker (shed halfway), long sleeved shirt, short sleeved shirt, beanie, gloves. 



Afternoon
I came home, ate lunch, and rested a bit before heading out on the snowmobile trails in the woods out back about an hour or so later. The snowmobiles had packed the trails down a good amount overall, but it was still pretty soft though it could have been much worse. Run went well. Kept the pace easy and just enjoyed being out in the woods.

Converted my Adidas Adizero XT trail shoes to screw shoes last night. Ran in these puppies today and they did great. Granted, it was more snowy and not a lot of ice which is where screw shoes really shine, but they did their job and performed nicely.



Ran 5.6 miles @ 9:47/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 142/159
Snowmobile trails, moderately soft snow pack.
Very hilly.
Upper 30s, sunny.
Adidas Adizero XT (screwed), long pants, windbreaker, long sleeved shirt, short sleeved shirt, beanie, gloves (shed halfway).

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