A Mess of a Run

Friday Workout: short hike, 45 minutes

Saturday Workout: a mess of a 5 miles

Okay, okay, I concede-when there's more than a little bit of snow on the ground, I can't run wherever I want. There are limits, and right now those limits seem to be "no running on anything but sanctioned sidewalks that have been shoveled." A frustrating limit and one I will likely continue to ignore, but at least I've accepted it that it may need to be accepted, right? Right?!

Heading out for today's run (which was supposed to be 9 miles), I thought my biggest concern would be the beer sloshing around in my belly. But alas (or perhaps fortunately, since "beer sloshing around in my belly" is one of the worst running feelings ever), this was not the case. Since I needed to go to the airport, I decided to hit up the nearby Coastal Trail to say hello (I'm friends with trails-deal with it). Within a few minutes, I knew there was a problem. This snow was not packed down. My feet were moving all over the place each and every step (think running through sand). My Yaktrax had to be constantly readjusted because they were kept being forced over to odd parts of my foot.

After a little more than a mile and a half, I started walking and decided I needed to reevaluate things. Not my life (chill out!), just my run. I started crunching numbers and trying to figure out in the most complicated way possible how to get my desired mileage in without doing 9 miles today. I won't bore you with the details, but I figured I'd leave it at 3 today and do my 9- and 5-milers sometime before Wednesday.

At least the views were nice:

Downtown Anchorage is the prettiest. Someday I'll take a picture with a real camera.

This isn't a view, just my dumb splits

I got back to my car, realized I wasn't that tired, and decided to do two more on the treadmill at home. My life is TOO EXCITING.

This is much nicer than where I run. I run in a windowless basement.

So we can slap a big fat FAIL on this run. And before you ask, yes, I'm okay and no, I don't actually feel like a failure. I feel great! I know you were worried. So it was less of a "fastest and easiest 9 miles ever!" kinda day and more of a "shit, well, I'll do a couple here, a couple there, stop for a bit and take a half hour break to drive home" kinda day. Who cares? Not I.

Let's take a look at yesterday's fun. I couldn't resist doing my morning walk with the dog up a bit higher than usual to enjoy the fresh snow. It was short, but so very nice and peaceful.

You suck, MiPhone-there were delightful mountains back there.

Last week's totals came to 19 miles, a half CORE, and some pseudo-hiking. A success!