January Freeze and Winter Bliss

Kari and I heading out for Saturdays snowshoe.

Lucas doing some tricks on his snowshoes.





The cold temperatures finally made their showing in Duluth this past week. We had a run of three or four days with temperatures in the negative digits. The put me running with some crazy, cool temps but manageable for the most part.

I gave myself a rest from the long run in order to rest my legs for what I hope a build-up in mileage over the next three weeks. Even with the break from a true "long run" I got in some decent "time" for the week. I am feeling very well and eager to crank up the volume and see what happens. I am ready for some tired legs and will need to remind myself of the fatigue and really keep getting my arse out of bed each morning. That is what is going to make this build up a success!

Here is the week in review:

Monday:
Following a really good weekend of running I was ready for an easy road loop and that is what I did. Out to Martin and back via Vermilion. Doing great!
Total: 1:02:00   ~8 miles

Tuesday:
Very cool morning. It was below zero without the windchill and I got lucky with the wind direction on my out and back from Brighton Beach. The wind was at my shoulder the entire run and that made it tolerable. A headwind would have been sub 20F below zero! I added some uptempo time that was a "steady state" effort but my pace was off because of the cold and blustery wind. The effort was there and I was happy with bumping this workout to 40 minutes. Another 10 minutes will be added this week plus another shorter effort later in the week.
Total: 1:24:11    12 miles
          40 minutes at SS at ~6:15 pace

Wednesday:
Recovery style run in Morley Park area and UMD. Decent run but cold once again.
Total: 52:00  ~7 miles

Thursday:
Too cold. The wind chill outside was -40F!! No way. I hit the treadmill and did a nice warm up of 30 minutes and then proceeded to add 2 minutes hill segments at 6% grade each mile just to break up the monotony. I felt really good and will more than likely be running the treadmill more often for specific workouts.
Total: 1:20:00  ~11 miles
          6 X 2 minute Hills at 6% each mile

Friday:
0 rest day

Saturday:
No real long run so to speak rather a long effort on snowshoes. There was some running and some real hard ass walking in powder up past my knees for a few miles. The goal of this workout was to keep the heart rate up and keep moving for over 90 minutes. I accomplished this very well. After the effort I was surprised how wiped out I was.
Total: 1:45:00  time on snowshoes

Sunday:
I ran the entire time and got in some strength work. The legs felt good after yesterdays long hike/jog. The temperature was a bit higher today and my feet had no problem staying warm. Overall a really good day and weekend of snowshoeing.
Total: 53:00

Weeks Total: 38 miles running  (7.4 hours total)
Years Total: 150.2+ miles