Too Cold Tuesday

Today Katherine couldn't run due to other obligations, so, despite not wanting to at all I bundled up and headed for the hills.  Honestly, it was brutal.  My toes and fingers were totally frozen and painful.  Plus, after about about half a mile the trail was totally choppy and hardly runnable.  First I told myself I only had to run three miles, then at one mile in, I said to myself, "Self, this is why you wanted to take the winter off from race training.  GO HOME AND WORK OUT IN THE WARMTH!"  So, I did!  I ran two miles in the brutal cold and then went home and did a HIIT workout!  The HIIT workout was much more enjoyable if we're being honest.  

Yeah, it was cold.

I wasn't sorry I wore this mask I used to wear snowboarding.

I love my Kahtoola microspikes!

I love Corner Canyon, but I also love sweating!  Brr!

There were more deer tracks than human tracks!

It was so beautiful, but did I mention how cold it was?

It was a little rough going.

Then, home in my nice warm house I got nice and hot doing this lovely workout!  Yay for heaters!

2.07 miles

31 minutes

14:58 pace

A Beautiful [Bummer of a] Run

Today was the perfect day to run.  It was cool and beautiful.  I met up with Tricia and Tehra, whom I'd never run with before, but know through other friends.  We met at Bonneville Shoreline Trail at This is Place Heritage Park.  It was quite cool at first, but not too cold.  As the sun rose, it was just beautiful out!  I really enjoyed the company of these ladies.  Soon we soon spread out and each ran our own run, meeting up at intersections.  

Around mile nine, as we headed down into Memory Grove, my right knee started bugging me again.  This was not a happy thing.  It hurt the worst on the downhills, and we were heading straight down the mountain.  At the half way point, Tricia left us, continuing on through Memory Grove and on to her house and Tehra and I hoofed it back up onto the Shoreline Trail. 

I was a bit worried about my knee, but kept a comfortable pace.  I knew I was going to have to cut the run short.  I love the downhill on this run, and was forced to slow my pace considerably.  Other than my knee, I was feeling really great.  This was actually quite discouraging and I managed to get in a pretty good funk around mile 16.  I talked myself out of pouting and just did my best.  By the end of the run my knee was pretty darn sore.  

I've since iced it twice, taken my vitamins, fish oil, ibuprofen and am sitting with my leg up.  It already feels better than it did at the end of the run, but I know that the next 19 days need to consist of babying the hell out of it.  The taper is on!

Blurry Tricia and I hiking uphill.

Snow capped mountains.  

Heading down into Memory Grove.

I knew that Tricia, Tehra and I would get along when they told me they named this hill FTH (fuck that hill.)  Yes.  A very fitting name.

Tehra spotted this guy crawling across the trail.  He was the biggest spider I'e ever seen! 

I was feeling pretty crappy at this point, so I decided to take a couple pictures and regroup.

The final stretch to the trailhead.  

It wasn't the 24 miles I had planned, but I do not need an injury this close to race day!  I thoroughly enjoyed the company of these two ladies and hope we can get out on the trails together again soon!  Now on to rest!  Rest!  Rest!  Taper!  Taper!  Taper!

18.85 miles

4:31

14:22 pace