Shocking, I know. Snow in April? Yep, it happens and it did last week! I ventured out for my long run before I left for Boston and it was a winter wonderland. I must say that it was so beautiful and reminded me once again why living in Colorado is paradise.
Fast forward to the run where my good friend Bobby came down to join me. It was nice to have a little bit of company for a change! I wanted to hit the trails even though it was snowing (hard!) so we strapped up and headed out. The first 30 minutes were mostly on dirt road with a layer of snow on top so it wasn't too bad. Then we hit the singletrack! Talk about a workout! We were running in about 3 inches of fresh snow (sometimes up to our knees!) and while it did feel like running on clouds because of the lower impact, it was tough picking up the feet. It was the type of terrain and weather conditions where we probably should have had snowshoes but hey, we were trail running that day!
We got to a fork in the trail and decided to take a different route so we could actually run a bit (we did a lot of powerwalking up the first part of the singletrack) which was a good decision. There were a few times where both of us would fall into bushes going downhill since we couldn't stop on the snowy trail but we came out unscathed. My feet were slipping around quite a bit in my shoes and I ended up getting a blister on my heel about halfway through the run. Needless to say, this did not make the second half of the run much fun. I was focusing on how I could change my gait to minimize the heel rub (there was no skin on the blister any longer) and just sucked it up and kept moving forward. I mean, what choice did I have, right? Trail running teaches you many things and one of them is how to run in pain. I've experienced much worse than running with blisters in the past few years so while it did hurt, it wasn't that big of a deal.
The snowy terrain proved to be good medicine for my achilles though. This was my first run in a week as I wanted to give my achilles a little time to heal so I spent most of my time training on my PowerCranks and bike. I have to say that it feels much better today. I have also rigged a heel lift that I put in my shoe which is taking some of the pressure off of it while I am standing.
Two and a half hours later, we arrived back at my house and reveled in what a great time we had. Granted, we only covered about 12 miles in the 2.5 hours (a bit sad but based on the conditions and our unusually slow pace, I would take it!) but still got some good time on the feet to log in the training bank.
Unfortunately, the heel blister has set me back a few days but I'm not stressed about it. I am airing it out and should be able to run in the next day or two. My 50-miler is coming up soon (May 3) so this weekend will be a big one. I plan on spending a good 4-5 hours on the trails. None of this running at dark this weekend. I have to be in my element on singletrack to get my legs and mind prepared.
Because I knew we wouldn't be on the run too long, I didn't load with sodium citrate but will before my run this weekend so I will give another update on how it does with a little more altitude and climbing thrown in the mix.
Until next time...
Coach Bob
coachbob@fuel4mance.com
