Saturday Long Run

I decided to bag my weekend snowshoe double header. I figured snow cover would be thin at best making for poor racing conditions. I was half right, or wrong depending how you look at it. Reports out of Merrimack NH were generally positive with only a few unlucky racers busting cleats at The Horse Hill 7K. The Kingman Farm Race didn’t fare as well since it was a night race giving Mother Nature plenty of time to melt any remaining snow with warm daytime temperatures. It ended up being a trail race. Snow racing in the North East has been pretty much a bust this season.

With snowshoe racing put on the back burner I headed over to Lynn Woods do get in a long four hour run. Just like my last run here I was surprised by the amount of snow on the trails. The dirt fire roads were sheets of ice but the less traveled single track was more runner friendly covered mostly with snow. In some sections it was fairly deep and made for some difficult running at times. I wore screw shoes but I would have had an easier time if I had worn my mirospikes.

I’m planning on doing a 55K training run on my 55th Birthday this weekend so I mapped out a route to would follow for my B-day run. I wanted it to be 17 miles so two loops would give me the 34 I needed for my 55K. I came up a little short at 16.5 miles but it was close enough. Not a bad estimation from just looking at a trail map and marking it up in five minutes. Of course I have no business attempting a 55K run on the limited training I’ve been doing the past three months. Then again, if it was easy, what would be the point of doing it?

Wish me luck. I’m going to need it…