The but comes from a decent weekend of running in Lebanon Hills. The trails are still mostly snow covered but I can run on them with a bit of help on the shoes. Notice I said weekend, here are my totals for the week - Monday 5, Saturday 7.5, Sunday 16, do you see my problem, my motivation isn't quite here yet, maybe next week :-)
I ran Saturday with my Yak Trax and they slipped all over the place. The Yaks seem to work best in hard pack snow or ice. The snow is melting (yes) and that made the footing inconsistent which had my Yaks sliding on and around my shoes, a bit of a nuisance. So after that I decided to try screws in the shoes for my long run on Sunday. I had thought about doing this in the past but the Yaks had worked so I just hadn't bothered until now. So I googled "adding screws to shoes for running" and found a link that had the info needed, it was on the Skyrunner's web page which I have looked at before. It is actually Matt Carpenters webpage an ultra runner out of Colorado, take a look at his site.
On Sunday, I wanted to run between 15 and 17, the main point was to run for 3 and 1/2 hours give or take. I like to use my Nike+ to get an estimate of distance but many times on trails it seems to lose track so tend to run for time. I still like having it and for this run I listened to podcasts (Another Runner - Fit Talk Live (great new podcast from Adam Tinkoff and Dr. Monte (Fitness Rocks), Dave Ramsey, and a couple of Christian messages) for the entire run. Definitely different than music.
The screws worked fairly well, at least better than the Yaks. The trails are slippery, snow covered, wet and muddy but they beat the roads. I felt so-so at the start of the run and struggled for the first two hours. I added walk breaks on the uphills in snow or when the footing was a major issue. For fuel, I am still using Clif Shot Electrolyte Crisp Apple and I also had a couple of packets of Jelly Belly Sport Beans (Berry Blue) with. I took the first packet of beans about an hour and half in and they seemed to help or at least didn't hurt. I took the second packet of beans around 2 and 1/2 hours in and shortly there after finally kind of found my stride and pretty much ran the rest of the way in. The legs seemed better than I thought they would be and it was nice to have energy at the end. Outside of a few blisters, it was a real good day.
Which kind of gave me a thought that just maybe I could think about running the first Chippewa Moraine 50k on April 12th. I am not in good shape by any stretch but they have an 11 hour time limit and by my reckoning, I should be able to run 50k in under 8 with a bit of walking without major issues unless the course is extremely tough or completely snow packed. If I was in decent shape, I should be able to do in 6 or so, so 8 seems real doable. I have emailed the race director to find out how the course compares to other area trail locations. The race director is Wynn Davis who is a very good (meaning he wins races) ultra runner. Take a look at his blog for more info on Wynn.
So I will wait and see, I think I will go for 20 miles next weekend, if I can do that and if the course sounds ok and if the weather starts getting better and if the family doesn't have conflicts then just maybe I will try for my first 50k (I hope it all does as I would love to do it)..........................
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