I haven’t done a site running post since the 23rd! I have run in that period and tweeted about the runs but haven’t put anything up here on the site. Time to rectify that!
On the 24th (Christmas Eve), I did a late morning run of 6.37 miles – I had planned to do 10 or maybe even 13.1 but it was very slippery and in the end I cut the run short. I could feel the extra pressure the uneven slippery surfaces were putting on my right knee (which I had trouble with a week or so ago). I decided it was better to avoid an injury than do those few extra miles. That was a tough decision though as the weather was very nice temperature wise and I knew the cold was coming back – it would have been nice to get that one more decent outdoor run in. But that didn’t pan out.
On Christmas Day I did a quick 2.25 mile run on the treadmill to help work through the turkey calories and stretch out the legs a bit. It was a decent run and my knee felt good so it reinforced that shortening the run the day before was the right thing to do.
On the 27th, I went out for a run in my Hoka One One Cliftons – I got in 2 steady paced laps around the neighborhood for a total of 8.85 miles. The times to complete each lap were within 5 seconds of each other – definitely evenly paced. It was pretty cold but not too bad all things considered. I could have gone longer but had to force myself to respect the taper.
On the 28th (today), I did another 2 lap run around the neighborhood this morning for 8.85 miles. I saw my tracks in a few places from yesterday’s run and it was interesting to see that my footprints in the snow from each lap lined up really well – not only was my pacing solid for each lap but so was my stride length. Pretty cool to see. And speaking of cool…holy crap it was cold today! Approx -36 C (-33 F) with the windchill – I had multiple layers on but I could tell that I probably should have one more layer on my thigh and knee areas – the cold was biting there. All in all it was a solid run despite the cold and I could have kept going but after my right eyelashes froze together (and limiting my vision on my right side) I figured that it was probably smarter to call it and get inside and warmed up. (I am writing this about an hour after I finished and I still am having a few shivering episodes).
After the run was completed I realized that I had crossed the 1960 mile point for the year (1960.709) – last year I did 1400 miles so today’s run brings me to the point where I have had a 40% increase in mileage this year over last. Nice! …no wonder I’m tired.
It is 10 days today until my travel day for the Dopey Challenge and from the looks of my schedule I have 5 runs left in the taper – all of them pretty easy runs that will happen on the treadmill. So that means today marks my last outdoor run before Dopey Challenge. Which means I can do laundry and start packing!…might be a bit too soon but I don’t care.
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