spring equinox

can hardly believe that spring has arrived, especially since the weather leading up to the vernal equinox was anything but spring-like. in fact, the last two days have been incredibly tough, weather-wise, to get in my training runs. yesterday was a water-logged mess and today was something akin to wind tunnel conditions - sustained winds of 20+ mph, with gusts well over 30 mph!! oh well, did i mention that spring has arrived ;)


on top of the weather mess, tuesday night i inexplicably developed a nasty, hacking cough that persisted through the night. i woke up with the cough subdued - but replaced by a raw, sore throat. it seemed like a case of strep - ugh. but aside from losing my voice, my throat got better and the mysterious affliction vanished in the mist - or should i say rain.


it rained all day yesterday. i waited by the door for it to let-up a little. when it slowed to a drizzle, i started out - hoping for 8 miles, but willing to settle for whatever i could get in. ran almost a mile before the rain returned to full strength. by the end of 2 miles, i was soaked - to the point my running shoes squished. time to head back and leave it at 4 miles. but it calmed back down to a drizzle soon enough and i decided to go for 6.


after 5 miles, it started raining heavily again - and the though of going for the full 8 quickly disappeared. waterlogged and all, i got in 6 miles, in 46:35, a 7:46 pace. since this was short of my target of 8 miles, i'd go back out again later for some extra mileage. i didn't realize that it would be 10 pm when in went back out again! but instead of rain, it was just a light mist and high humidity. i ran 4 more miles in 32:19, an 8:05 pace. that made 10 for the day, and 33 miles, cumulatively, for the week.


today, i opted for a different course - a hilly, beastly route. it's one that i usually run on weekends as part of a long run. as a follow-up to the hilly wurtsboro course, this route would provide some challenging elevation gain - in anticipation of the 10,000 feet of elevation gain over the 50k of trails in the h.a.t. run. i didn't mind the hills - but mile after mile into the wind was demoralizing. it was in the high 40's and sunny - but the wind chill made it feel like it was below freezing!


it took 1:23:09, an 8:19 pace, to run those 10 miles. i pushed the pace the entire way! it was so hard to run head down into the wind that i lost count of how many uphills made me want to drop down into a walk, or a crawl! at the start of mile 7, i was cold enough to put on gloves. but my hands had gotten so numb at that point that, even with the gloves on, my fingers wouldn't warm up. but when it was over, 10 more miles were done, 43 for the week.

theme song for today, easily, is bob weir singing "black-throated wind" :D