Back to Powerline

ANOTHER BEAUTIMOUS DAY (yes, that's a Honey Boo Boo reference-I'm all over that show, leave me alone).

Who am I? I'm supposed to be a bitter harpy. Mean Jean. I guess it was just Puke York. Maybe I'm not such a downer after all!

Like I said, today rocked. I pulled out my trusty running shoes (Merrell Pace Gloves, which have largely replaced my beloved but slightly less practical Run Amocs. I'll talk about them some other day. By the way, I'm not trying to sell you Pace Gloves or anything, I just figured you'd wanna know what they look like. Stylish as hell, that's what) and headed over to Powerline.

On Monday and Wednesday I'm finished with work/school at 2:15, so they're good days to head over to Flattop for some more intense, or at least time-consuming, workouts. I wasn't expecting snow since it had all melted down where I live, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a fair amount of the white stuff. It was nice, too, not wet and sticky.

I had a very short-lived "shit" moment where I questioned my decision to wear my Pace Gloves. They're great shoes, but their kryptonite is water, or more specifically, wet rock. Sounds like a huge weakness, but it's actually not been much of an issue, even since I moved back to Alaska. I decided to give it a go and figured if I had any problems, I'd just stop and walk. Fortunately, it was smooth running! Wet rock is the biggest issue; wet everything else seems to be fine.

Oh, you'd like some pictures, you say? Try to contain your jealousy:

I could stare at this for hours. Well, I could if it wasn't mostly blocked by mist. But that's cool too.

I'll give you 1 fake internet dollar if you can spot the moose on the hill. I figured this was as good a turnaround point as any.

I headed out for 2.5 miles before turning back. It felt a lot harder than when I did it last Wednesday, probably because of the snow, and for a the first two miles or so I was struggling. In the end, I powered through, and on the way back I felt much better. I want to say part of my fatigue was due to the fact that it's slightly uphill heading out, but I wouldn't know because MY GARMIN IS A PIECE OF SHIT. Seriously, it's so ridiculously inaccurate when it comes to elevation. I present my evidence:

Last Wednesday's run. On a slightly unrelated note, couldn't Garmin adjust the axes JUST A SMIDGE so all my hard work doesn't look so pathetic?

Today's run.

These two runs WERE DONE ON THE EXACT SAME TRAIL. The only difference is, today I ran farther. Yet somehow I gained 300 fewer feet. Whatever. I don't need big elevation numbers to feel like a badass (yes, I do), I just think that $250 should get you consistent data.

I wanted to keep going, but a little voice started nagging me about not being an asshole and quitting while I was ahead. My goal is 15 miles this week, so I'm going to stick with it, maybe.

My splits, you ask?

197 feet my ass.

You know, slow as usual. But hey, 5 miles is 5 miles is 5 miles.

It was relatively clear when I started running, but the snow started coming down while I ran. The muffled silence of snow falling is so peaceful. It was amazing to run through. By the time I got back to the parking lot, it was pretty hazy.

Hazy. You don't get too many people when the weather's not perfect.

Hey Anchorage! It's down there, I swear.

Again, this run was awesome. It's precisely the reason I missed Alaska so much. And the snow was great on my skeleton! Nice and bouncy (and difficult, much more difficult).