Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Take On The Elements

Living in the northland can provide many opportunities for outdoor fitness enthusiasts. The trouble is, I am a runner first, then I begin to dabble in many other activities but none provide the "burn" I desire. On Monday I had the opportunity to go out and snowshoe in some fresh "pow", as the ski bums call it, but I laced up the running shoes, attached my Yak Traks and made my way out on the snowy streets.

Monday's run felt decent despite the weather and streets terrible conditions. I attempted to run away from town on a rural roadway but it offered no better traction. Too much for the Yak's. I would have hated to try without them. Into the headwind for twenty-five minutes and back made my Monday's run. I fell a bit short on running time but at that point I was just happy to get a run logged.

This morning I was going to hit the treadmill for my hour plus run with some added short 'uptempo' segments added but the way I was feeling I just didn't have it in me to lace up and hit the treadmill. That and fully knowing that there was clear pavement on Skyline made the decision an easy one. What I wasn't prepared for and found out as soon as I gazed out the back window was the horrific winds! I am not sure what the gusts were but they were enough to put a thought into your head of not wanting to run outside. It was a good thing my wife woke up and hit the treadmill before I could change my mind and that made my decision an easy one.

It wasn't as bad as it looked and in the end I am very happy I hit the roads. I found a nice flat, dry section of roadway to do my 6 X 300 meter repeats. I followed them with 100 meter recovery and ran at an effort of around 5k pace. (5:15-5:20 pace for now) These types of runs are really starting to feel good when I do them. (I like that they are progressing in the right fashion) Again, I fell a bit short on total time, but with the wind conditions I had all I could do just to get home and warm up. So far a great start to the new week. Tomorrow is hump day!!

Monday: 50:30 6 miles easy in snow

Tuesday: 1:02:00 8.5 miles
6 X 300 meters at 5K pace, 100 meter rest

2 comments:

Julie said...

Hi Gregg,
Are you planning on running in Grandma's half or full? Tomorrow is when I get to attempt to win the lotto on the half. Let me know if you are. Good job on your workouts so far this week:)

Gregg said...

I will be running the full marathon at Grandma's. As a build up I may be doing the Fargo Half marathon.