Can't Get Enough

Back to Bradbury again today for another run, this time almost 10 miles. I feel pretty lucky to be running pain free right now without anything holding me back. After a stretch of low mileage in late December and January I'm finally getting back into a steady routine of solid runs. The weird this in I don't have any big race plans coming up this spring to focus my training on. After getting into running ultras two years ago it's feels strange not to have a big race to prepare for, but I'm still planning to put in a lot of long runs over the next few months, and I'm having a lot of fun.

I guess my spring goals will be to try to do well at a few "shorter" distance trail races, the Merrimack River 10 miler, Muddy Moose and 7 Sisters, and then look for something longer in the early summer.

As for today's run I met Jim, Danielle and Ryan at Bradbury without a specific plan. We eventually agreed upon an out and back to the powerlines to the northeast of the park. I seem to remember that it used to be 5 miles to the turnaround point, but this year I always come up a little short. I suppose it's possible the snowmobiles are taking a slightly shorter route this year, or maybe the Garmin is a little off. Either way, when we came to the powerlines and my watch said 4.8 miles I didn't feel like adding on to bring it up to 5, nor did anyone else so we turned there and headed back.

Trail conditions were pretty soft today and a few early rising snowmobilers actually seemed to fluff up the snow rather than pack it down.


I've departed from Emma's 50 mile training schedule, that I had been following for a while, by adding 10 miles onto one of the runs. Oops. This brings me up to a little over 50 miles for the week which is more than I've done in quite a while, but like I said, I'm feeling good so why hold back?

I'm definitely going to take it easy this week so I'm well rested for the TMR Fat Ass 50k next Saturday. 50k is a big step up for my long run, but as long as the pace is conservative I should be able to get through it okay. The big unknown for this event that will effect everyone's run is what kind of condition the trails are going to be in. Since we are dependant on snowmobiles to groom the trails for us any last minute snowfall could have a major effect on running conditions. Currently there is rain forecast for Friday night which may not be such a bad thing, as long as it's not too warm overnight the trails could be nice and firm first thing in the morning. I can't wait!

time: 1:38:12
distance: 9.72 miles
pace: 10:06

weather: 15-25 degrees, overcast, calm

conditions: loose packed snow

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 315 with screws, wools socks, tights, 2x long sleeve tops, gloves, mittens, buff