Spring is a Tease

I remember this game. Watch the snow melt in town, grow increasingly anxious to run trails and post-hole through mercilessly crusty blood-drawing snow. It seems that the season for good skiing is winding down and the temperatures are now above freezing during the daytime more often than not. Last year we had what seemed like a late melt, so I should be grateful that things seem to be starting a little earlier. On Saturday I set out to run 20 miles in Herron Park. Sure, I knew there was a ton of snow, but for some reason I figured it would work out. Sure enough, the first 6 miles were glorious! I was able to run on top of the deep snow, which was compacted and formed the perfect running surface -- sort of like one of those rubbery tracks. However, as the day wore on (I got a pretty late start) and the temperatures rose, my magical trail turned to slush and soft but sharp and icy knee deep post-holing near-injuries one after another.
Early in the run when I was loving life and feeling cheerful, this is how far my foot sunk into the snow. I didn't even bother with pictures later because I was cranky.

I was reminded of how much I love Herron Park and how it's really my happy place. Nearby, accessisble, early to melt (lower elevation), and grizzly-bear free. It was exciting to be up there running, even if it really isn't "time" yet.

Sonja was driving me nuts with her hardwired trail-following instincts. Closer to the parking area the trail is well used and it was absolutely ankle-break boobietrap city. All holey and awful. It was much better to posthole in the unstomped snow. However, Sonja cannot bear to be off-trail where she perceives that there is a trail. I couldn't understand it because she was visibly frustrated too. Dogs are funny.

I ended up with only 13 miles -- and I was out for 3:45. Oh well. I figure I should be doing 5-7 hour long runs right now. Today I did 14 miles on road with the group, which took us about 2:30. The total for the weekend is not too shabby, though not awesome. Next weekend I will make it a top priority to run 7 hours or 30 miles or so on Saturday, with a mid-long run Sunday. The following weekend I will cutback and then the next weekend is Diablo 50!!! If I survive Diablo I will try to maintain fitness and get a few more long runs in. If I find that I have a lot of work to do to get into shape for WS, I will do a lot of work and probably panic a lot!

Relatedly, I am appreciating the fact that I need to really commit to good nutrition for the next few months before WS. It really makes a tremendous difference and good grief -- if I can't treat my nutrition as a serious component of my training for all of a few months, what chance have I? It's not like I have terrible eating habits but I have been slacking on the veggie intake. I need to work on more veggies less junk. I need to remember to bring good snackage to work -- as Cheryl says, "to fail to plan is to plan to fail." On that note, I'm going to go hard-boil some eggs.