Emma was uncertain about doing the Bradbury Squall snowshoe race in two weeks so she wanted a guided tour of the course. Since we haven't done much trail running together over the past few weeks I wasn't about to turn down an invitation from her to run at Bradbury. After a miserable nights sleep (I rarely sleep well the night after an ultra) and a sluggish start to the morning we got to Bradbury a little after 12:00 and set off at a very crippled looking pace. The first mile is all up hill so it's not surprising that it was pretty slow, not to mention that the single track of Krista's can be hard to follow when there is a dusting of snow on the ground. For the most part conditions were pretty good, a little snow cover here and there, but not much ice.
Once we got to the Tote Road the running was easier but the pace didn't reflect it. Lucky for me Emma was having some stomach problems so she was happy to go at my recovery pace. The downhill on the back side of the mountain helped to loosen things up for me, but some of the steepest parts were covered in ice which forced our pace to be very cautious.
Once we got back on to the Northern Loop trail for the last half mile we were both feeling a lot better and cruised along at a blistering 10 minute pace. By the time we finished the 3.5 mile race course we felt sufficiently warmed up to take another spin around. This time Emma lead the way to see how well she paid attention on the first lap, and not surprisingly she pushed the pace more than on the first lap. That's not to say we were going hard, just that everything seemed to be in good working order for both of us and a slightly quicker pace felt good.
Despite some pretty significant elevation this was just what I needed to loosen up my tight legs. Snow is in the forecast for later in the week but I don't know if it will be enough for the snowshoe race. Ryan has decided to hold the race regardless of the snow conditions which I think is the right decision. If we don't have snow it will be a trail race.
time: 1:20:14
distance: 7.14 miles
pace: 11:14
weather: upper 30's, sunny
No comments:
Post a Comment