Monday it was really cold again, so I bundled up for an 8 mile loop into Hamilton just for some variety. My regular loop is mostly in Wenham. I discovered that the Wenham sidewalks are much better, but I was so tunnel vision with my hood up and paying careful attention to every footfall on the snow and ice that I missed my turn and ended up running an extra mile or so.
Yesterday was also right around zero in the morning, so I decided to go short twice. I did a little under 5 miles in the morning, staying mostly in the neighborhoods. At lunch, I met Alex at his office and we did our almost-six-mile loop at 7:40/mi. or so.
Today was the Great Warmup and I had an idea of doing a long run before we get another big snowfall tomorrow. I didn't get out when I had anticipated because Grace was home sick from school and Heather had to work at the church, so it was almost 11:30 when I left the house. It was in the mid-20's by then, which is the warmest it has been in over a week. The sun was shining and there wasn't much wind. I laced up my new Mizunos (Wave Riders) and headed out of the grove. I mapped out a route that would allow me to take another crack at Colton Gale's "Larch Row Bump" Strava CR about 2 miles into a 16-mile loop. I looked on the map a little more closely at where it was, since I had only a vague idea when I tried for it last week. It's a short enough segment that I had to hammer pretty hard and I worked too much to not get it last time.
I was right around 12:30 for the two-mile split, and then I roared up the Larch Row Bump with confidence. I ended up running it in 59 seconds, and the old mark was 65, so hopefully if Colton ever comes back to the North Shore he can give it another go. :) Then I tried to settle back in to the pace I had been running and carry on like it was no big deal. I was running barely above 6:00 pace and feeling ok, so I just kept letting it happen.
I was able to let my mind wander a little more than I have been lately - today was the first day that I didn't feel like I owed every driver a "thanks for not running me over" wave - but I was pretty focused just to keep the pace up. I was a little overdressed, probably because I had forgotten what sunny and 25 feels like, but I was working, too.
I headed down Larch Row into Hamilton where it becomes Essex St. and then Route 22 all the way into Essex. I hopped onto the Essex Turkey Trot course for a brief climb and then angled my way into Ipswich. There were some ok hills, and even through 12 miles I was keeping the pace at or just under 6. The last four were a bit more work, I slowed a little, but it was really good to test things out and feel depleted.
Did a little snowshoe training this afternoon with Grace and Emma to hopefully get them ready for the snowshoe shuffle in Wolfeboro in a couple weeks.
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