Running Chick

I was completely surprised this morning to find that at least five inches of snow had fallen overnight and I had a plow ridge that was about double that.  So much for my run.  I did decide to put on my gps while I removed snow, just to see how much far I go.  It ended up being around 1.5 miles, but it would have been farther had Dorf not come home.  It is impossible to do snow when he's out there, we just get in each other's way.  So, while he was doing his snow thing, I killed time shoveling off my deck, digging out my a/c unit and a few other snow-related things before finally giving up and going for a walk around the block.  When I came back, he was still out there, so I gave up and went inside. I think I was outside for around 90 minutes in total.

I hope to make up for my missed run tomorrow, but we're under yet another lake effect snow warning tonight with 4"-6" expected so my run may not happen. I have mid-February levels of snow in my back yard, I really hope things taper down soon.

Here's my silly map from tonight.  All those squiggly lines are me going back and forth with my scoop.  I'm not sure why, but mapmyrun.com says I only went 1.87 miles, yet my Garmin said 2.00.  Oh well, whatever.

I discovered that some streets in my neck of the woods that exist on maps, don't really exist in the real world. Before I left for my run tonight, I had a nice little course mapped out using mapmyrun.com that wasn't just an out and back.  I hate out and back runs, I find them to be utterly boring.  This course went out, cut down, and wove it's way back to my place.  I was looking forward to it. 

So, I get to the spot where my cut-down street is supposed to be and there's nothing there but snow and trees. I thought maybe this was one of the streets that was too steep to keep open in winter - I discovered another one of them on one of my carefully planned out runs last year, which caused an major mid-run route adjustment (so annoying!) - but it actually turns out that there is no street there anymore.  It probably was there years ago..from the size of the trees, we're talking many years...but now it's just been reduced to a narrow path through the trees down to street below.  I suppose I could have taken the path, but getting to it would have required scaling the 3.5' snowbank in front of it.  No thank you.  So, it was just a boring out and back for me.

Besides disappearing streets, this run came with the extra challenge of some lake effect snow!  I don't mind if the snow hits me in the face, but I can't handle when it gets in my eyes.  I'm contemplating purchasing some sunglasses with a few different replaceable lenses.  They're pretty expensive though, so I dunno.  I guess I'll continue to contemplate.

Speaking of the weather, it hit 30 degrees today.  Since I dressed for 20 degree weather, I was sweating my butt off.  I'm going to have to start tracking gear vs. temperature now.  Grr.  The warm spell also caused some portions of the roads to be really soft and squishy, which means virtually no traction, even with my YakTraks on.  I love my Yaktraks, they work great, except in soft, squishy snow.  My quads were really burning when I got back.

Oh, and just in case I haven't bitched about enough things in this post already, I'm noticing that my little three week bout with the sinus thing really had an impact on my fitness level.  I'm seriously huffing and puffing my way through these measly little runs, unable to even come close to the pace I was running in November.  I know it'll come back in time, but it is rather frustrating.