Less Than Ideal

We woke up to howling winds. My immediate thought was, "shit, the long run is going to be tough." It was. I checked the weather reports just before leaving and they all reported winds 20 mph with gusts of 35 mph out of the E/NE. Of Course!! For those that don't already know, Duluth will have several days during the months to come where we will have crazy winds out of the NE. A NE wind is what us "marathoners" dream for come Grandma's Marathon. That would mean a tailwind for twenty-five miles. Of course what usually happens is a week or two prior to Grandma's the winds switch and they become westerly. Not good, that becomes a headwind. I'm keeping good vibes to the weather gods and hoping for a NE year.

The run this morning, as you know, was windy so I decided to stay 'local' and run a series of loops. After thinking of the winds and my possible loop options I chose to head up Woodland to Martin RD and home via Vermilion. This gave me equal winds along with a series of hills that worked several muscles groups instead of pounding out the legs on a flat course.  HERE is a link to the course and profile. (you may need to click on the box at the bottom to get the profile)

Splits are as follows:

first loop: 54:51    7.6 mi. (HR 136  7:11)

second loop: 53:40  7.6  (HR 138   7:04)

add on loop:  6:43  .95  (HR 142  7:05)

Total: 1:55:15   16.2  (HR 137  7:07)

Weeks Total: 70 miles

Years Total: 500.3 miles