Meghan's Blog

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January 31, 2007

See You On The Other Side

Note #1:

Things added to my bags today:
12 cans of milk chocolate Ensure, the high protein kind
1 digital camera with about 1.5 gigs of memory storage
flip flops
a plethora of baggies and plastic bags
some casual clothing

Note #2:

I hurt my leg the other day! I fell like an old lady into the shower (in the Life-Alert-I've-Fallen-And-I-Can't-Get-Up style) and slammed my right tibia into the tub. Oh my god did I ever cry! And, this was after carefully tiptoeing/running around on the ice that seems to be present in abundance around here lately. I go run 8 miles across ice safely, then I can't even take a shower without killing myself. No worries, though, it's just a huge contusion; first it was purple, then pink and white, now purple again. Dramatics aside, I'm fine!

Note #3:

Thanks for all the well-wishes! After the race, we plan to spend about 10 days being tourists in Costa Rica. I may or may not have access to blogging for 3 weeks or so. I'll see you on the other side!

Posted by Meghan at 3:39 PM | Comments (6)

Contained Within My Packed Bags...

...For on my body during the race:
2 pairs Montrail Hardrock shoes
6 pairs of Wright double layer socks
All of the hot weather running clothes I own
1 ball cap
1 Camelbak with a 2 liter liquid capacity
2 20 ounce Nathan handheld water bottles
1 4 ounce Ultimate Direction gel flask with waist clip-on

...For in my body during the race:
26 ounces orange Hammer Gel
24 ounces of chocolate Gu
14 cookie dough Balance Bars
6 nut Mojo Bars
6 blueberry yogurt Luna Bars
2 Snickers Marathon Bars
1 cannister of salted cashews
Almost unlimited supply of citrus and lemon-lime Nuun tablets
Enough lemon-lime Accelerade powder to last in the jungle for a long time
1 cannister orange Gatorade powder

...For camping each night at the race:
1 REI Quarter Dome tent
1 fleece sleeping bag
1 sleeping pad
headlamp
earplugs

...For just a few more things:
Required emergency whistle
Tiny notepad for recording each day's events
Small body repair kit (a first aid kit, but I like the way "body repair" sounds)
Sunscreen
Bugspray
Bathing suit
Beach Towel

Posted by Meghan at 12:05 AM | Comments (5)

January 29, 2007

Week of January 29th

Monday- 1. 1:00 very easy and hilly, Old Gardiner Road; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Tuesday- Rest from running; 1. yoga 45 minutes
Wednesday- 1. 45 minutes very easy and hilly, in my neighborhood; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Thursday- rest from running
Friday- rest from running
Saturday- 30 minutes acclimation run in San Jose, CR
Sunday- begin racing (see race report in following entried)!

Thanks to everyone for all of the postive commentary on my blog lately. Your support has been fantastic!

This is a major taper week. I despise tapering, I really do. I'm not going to whine anymore about it, though. 25-30 miles of running, several days of rest, a massage, no CrossFit, some yoga, and some core work are the only things that lie between my and the beginning of this race on Sunday.

I was looking for an hour of running on Wednesday, but I just didn't have 15 more minutes to give. Wednesday was crazybusy. Off to Costa Rica!

(This week was finally finished some 3 weeks afterwards.)

Posted by Meghan at 6:41 PM | Comments (2)

January 28, 2007

Just A Little Gallop In The Woods

I spontaneously decided to do this race today. Well, spontaneously isn't quite the correct descriptor. More like, I wanted to do this race, but I hard time deciding whether I should, or not. You know, I'm supposed to be tapering and all.

My options were the following:
1) I could race my little heart out at the 10K distance and try to qualify for this.
2) I could race my little heart out at the non-qualifying 5K distance, a distance that might be a bit easier to recover from, to gain the snowshoe racing experience.
3) I could run the 10K distance at a moderate pace, and, if I qualify, then even better.

As I was driving to the race this morning (Yeah, I put off making the decision that long!), I decided on Option 3. I also decided that if a little effort was required to qualify, I'd put in a little effort. However, if a lot of effort was required, I'd save it for another year.

Turns out, not much effort was required to qualify. And it was so much fun. The race took place at a cross country skiing venue, so I expected to be running on groomed trails. However, the course was probably half groomed trails, half powder (In terms of time spent on each surface.). There was a lot of powder! I was glad for this because so much of my snowshoeing has been through powder. I finished with ease in 64 minutes, 3rd place. Someone asked me why I wasn't breathing hard when I crossed the finish line. I kind of felt bad... In any case, it was a lovely gallop in the woods.

As a sidenote, I don't know if I will actually go to this. I don't know if I can get the time off work. I don't know how I'll be feeling after racing in Costa Rica. I don't really have the time to appropriately train for the race. We'll see.

Posted by Meghan at 7:09 PM | Comments (9)

January 26, 2007

Where The Bison Roam

Well, I've been a little bit of a blog deviant lately. That is not to say that I haven't been a verbose writer here, because I believe this to still be true. However, I've been lacking in my attention to creative writing. I think exercising an average of 3 hours a day has put a damper on my time to write creatively. I think of ideas while I'm out there working out, but by the time I make it to this computer screen, I don't have the time to type them. It's much easier and faster to explode rather meaningless words upon a page than to put them together in a sorted series of creative thoughts. However, Thursday's inspirations must make it to written form, because the story is worth the time and effort in front of the computer.

Here in Mammoth, it's been above freezing for the last 2 or 3 days. Perhaps the mercury even rose to above 40 degrees F on Thursday. Because of this hot streak and the resulting melting snow, I had an inkling that one of the nearby trails might feature some exposed dirt. Was I ever wrong. Don't get me wrong, I had a great run out there today. However, I was running through snow, rather than on dirt.

Several weeks ago, we had a snowstorm that was accompanied by a lot of wind, which oh-so-nicely redistributed the falling snow into drifts. Since then, I've managed to plow through these drifts without too much issue while running. I think I found the biggest drift on Thursday. I was running along the Beaver Ponds Trail through shin deep snow, in my 1 technical shirt because it was so-danged warm, smiling at the cloudless, sunny sky, and just generally minding my own contented business. Without warning, right on the trail, I sank waist deep into a snow drift.

My situation was immediately funny. I could feel wet snow against the skin around my waist. I couldn't move in any direction, except for a few little wiggles. I sort of stood (hovered?) there, giggling at myself when I suddenly became aware that something was happening. Do you ever have that feeling? It's almost as if my subconscious mind was telling my conscious mind that something was going on, yet my conscious mind didn't yet have the sensory observations to back up this newfound knowledge. It was an eerie feeling.

The first thing I noticed was a vibration underfoot (undersnow?). Then, a barely audible rumbling noise began. As I stood there still waist deep in snow, wondering what was about to happen, a sudden movement caught my eye to the left. I turned and looked and saw several bison appear over a rise about 40 feet away. Soon more and more bison appeared over the rise, and it became a full herd.

Further, it wasn't just a bison herd, but it was a herd moving really fast and really close to me. Most of them were in full gallop, which is really rather cute as their rear ends buck up high when they run. Here is where I should point out that bison rarely move fast. They are giant grazers who move slowly, eating as they travel. When bison move fast, it's got to be for a good reason (I never did see the reason for their fast migration.). Not only was this herd on the move, but they were on the move in very close proximity to me and my snowdrift. I remained there in the snowdrift and watched the show of bison stampeding by me. It was a fast blur of brown fur, the foul scent of animals that roll in their own excretory deposits, and huffing and puffing and grunting. It was over almost as quickly as it began, the bison descending out of view over the next hill. Once the show was over I rolled over onto my side awkwardly to dislodge myself from the snow and continue running on.

What on earth does all of this mean? I couldn't help but wonder this while I finished my run. Would I have been stampeded had I not fallen in the snow drift and been otherwise occupied as the big guys and gals paraded by at full speed? Would I have missed the whole-danged thing if not impeded by snow? Was it a sign from somewhere out there? Eh, I don't know. Maybe it means nothing. I do know that I was a really good show, though.

Posted by Meghan at 6:21 PM | Comments (4)

January 24, 2007

Week of January 22nd

Monday- 1:45 easy and hilly, Horseshoe Canyon near Driggs, ID
Tuesday- 1:00 easy and rolling, forest service road next to Snake River, Swan Valley, ID
Wednesday- 1:00 easy and hilly, in my neighborhood
Thursday- 1. 1:00 easy and hilly, Beaver Ponds Trail; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. CrossFit workout; 4. core
Friday- 1. 1:30 easy and rolling snowshoe running, Blacktail Plateau Drive; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Saturday- 1. 1:00 easy and hilly, in my neighborhood; 2. yoga 45 minutes
Sunday- 1. 1:30-ish snowshoeing (15 minute warmup, 10K snowshoe race, 15 minute cooldown); 2. CrossFit workout; 3. yoga 45 minutes; 4. core

Let the tapering slowly begin. This week, I'm cutting back a bit. It won't seem too obvious until I get to the weekend and the volume isn't there. I'm already feeling the pangs of the mental mind gaming that occurs during taper time. Anyone have some sedatives I could borrow?

On Monday's run, my legs actually felt awesome. We climbed straight up an 800 foot hill, came down it, then climbed up a 500 foot hill, and came down that as well. My legs were solid underfoot the whole time. After 1:45, I wanted to continue running. On Tuesday, my legs were officially dead underfoot. I was running with my new in-person blogging friend and I was happy she didn't mind the slow pace!

Well, I found my legs again on Wednesday and Thursday. I feel sharp and fresh and rearing to go. Thursday's run was interesting in a unique way. See my entry devoted to just that run. Friday is a snowshoe day and I'm itching to snowshoe! Bring it! It's been warm lately, so I hope there's snow out there.

This week turned out fine, just fine. My legs feel rested and strong and I just want to run!

Posted by Meghan at 11:44 AM | Comments (8)

Modern-Age Marveling

One of the reasons I have this-here blog is so that I can interact with a community of runners that extends far beyond my local neighborhood. The technological marvel that is the blogging world allows us to share ideas with those willing to go public with their own and anyone willing to put up with our blog-drivel. Personally, I enjoy it. I live in the wilderness and there are very few runners around me. With the community of blogging runners that exists at my keyboard fingertips, I don't feel like the isolated runner in the wilderness anymore.

That said, I had the opportunity to meet a fellow running blogger yesterday. She's a regular commenter here on my blog, and I've been reading her blog for a while as well. We met up for a run in Swan Valley, Idaho, which seems to be the half-way point between where she lives and where my sweetie lives. We ran along a rolling, snow-packed forest service road next to the Snake River. It was a gorgeous morning: crisp, calm, and decidedly sunny. Our conversation flowed wildly among topics, and the run flew by most enjoyably.

I couldn't ask for a better way to pass the morning and I hope we get to do this again soon! Thanks to the blogging community, I've made a new running friend.

Posted by Meghan at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2007

You Gotta Watch This

This is what I'll be doing two weeks from now.

Posted by Meghan at 9:34 PM | Comments (2)

January 22, 2007

34 Smoothing Sailing Miles

It seems that good times were had by all at this race on Saturday.

We began Saturday at the god-awful hour of 3 am in Portland, OR (after getting off a plane around 9:30 pm). My sweetie, his dad, and I all went to the race. We were expecting the worst in terms of weather and trail conditions, but I was pleasantly surprised to find clear skies, just-under freezing temperatures, and just a bit of snow at the race start. I heard people talking about lots of new snow at the race's high point, Capitol Peak, and I wondered what we would find up there.

The route climbed for 6-ish miles from the start at Falls Camp to the top of Capitol Peak. First there was some climbing, then some contouring, then some more climbing. The top of Capitol Peak was pretty surreal with ice and fog, but beautiful in a mysterious kind of way. There was a fair bit of snow on Capitol Peak but it seems it had already been compacted by snowmobiles or something, so it was easy to navigate.

Next it was 5-ish rolling then descending miles from the top of Capitol Peak to Wedekind Camp. I saw someone take a big old wipeout here, but they got up and ran on just fine. In the upper portion of this section, the trees were gorgeous. They were coated with thick layers of frosty stuff. When the sun peaked out, everything glittered shiny.

The last section of the loop was 7-ish miles from Wedekind Camp back to Falls Camp. I loved this portion of the trail. It rolled along with the most perfect grade for running at a good clip. It was low-elevation so there was just a bit of snow. It was all I could do to hold myself back and not run hard, as I was going to do another loop. I also saw someone take a fall here (they were also fine), so I began to mind my own feet a little more.

I finished Loop 1, refilled my Camelbak, ditched a layer of clothing, made a brief pit stop at the outhouse, and headed up the trail again. There were some people milling about there, and they shouted encouraging words as I headed out again. I find it really cool that people are so inherently friendly out there, despite the fact that they don't know you.

I will be honest in saying that I enjoyed Loop 2 much more than Loop 1. The trails were all quiet, and I was alone for much of the run. The trail conditions had degraded since Loop 1 with more people trodding on the trail and the snow melting into mud. I think it made Loop 2 much more fun! Near the top of Capitol Peak, the sheriff that was manning the safety checkpoint/water station asked me if I was the last person coming up the trail. I nearly swallowed my tongue trying to figure out how to answer him. I sure hoped I wasn't the last one! I think I told him, "I'm not sure." The second time around, I found Capitol Peak to be rather sketchy. The peak had a number of huge antennas. In the wind and now above-freezing temperatures, big pieces of ice were hurling off of the towers towards the ground. I envisioned one of them stabbing me in the head. Nothing happened, but I was happy to get off the peak.

From Capitol Peak to Wedekind Camp, I never saw another person. It was a joyous and peaceful several miles. The once-frosty trees were all melting, the sun was shining, and the trail was full of mud puddles. I was splashing through it all like a little kid, smiling the whole way. I arrived at Wedekind Camp and hardly realized that 5 or so miles had passed.

From here, the only thing that remained were the lovely rolling miles back to Falls Camp. Here, the trail was much more muddy than it had been on Loop 1. During this portion of the run, I saw only one person. That is, until I met up with my sweetie about 2 miles from the finish. Even though he'd already run 34 miles, he came back out to run with me. He looked like he was running on fresh legs, I was most impressed! I finished in 6:52 (According to my watch, they didn't write down my time until a few minutes later, kind of weird.), the second girl.

It was a great day out there. The director did a fabulous job, for it being a race with virtually no entrance fee. People were miraculously friendly. The weather was perfect. The course was awesome. The only issue I had was a personal one. Nutrition-wise, I struggled somewhat, and wasn't able ingest enough calories. I've switched to drinking Nuun when I run. Nuun is a most excellent electrolyte replacer, but it has no calories. Previous to this, I would have obtained about 500 or so calories from my sports drink during the course of this run. This time around, I needed to consume more gels/food to make up for the defecit. I ate all my gels just fine, but I couldn't get the solid bars to go down. I would just chew and chew and it would take miles to get 200 solid calories into my body. I learned 2 things: 1) I need more practice at eating solids on the run; and 2) I need softer solids during cold weather because those bars were cold, hard, and, thus, more challenging to chew. I had a fun time, though, and I feel great after-the-fact.

The car ride back to Portalnd, OR seemed to last forever, despite the fact that was unconscious for much of it! We stopped to eat along the way, and I'm sure I consumed close to my own body weight in food. It was a very fast trip to the Pacific Northwest and back, but I had a great time.

Posted by Meghan at 10:25 AM | Comments (11)

January 18, 2007

This Weekend's Five Commandments

1. Thou shalt treat this weekend's race as a training race, and a training race only. (Thou shalt recall that there are many more miles to be raced in just two weeks, so killing oneself upon Capitol Peak is not an option.)

2. Thou shalt not audibly whine about the rain, sleet, snow, mud, and generally nasty conditions that are forecasted to be present during the race. (Thou shalt not say the following, "Hah, you schmucks. In two weeks, I'm going to be running in Costa Rica, where the weather is interminably beautiful." Alternatively, thou shalt have the freedom to whine silently and call upon Costa Rican dreams whenever neccesary during the race.)

3. Thou shalt wear Gore-tex, and lots of it. (Thou shalt dress accordingly for inclement weather. Thou shalt not covet thy co-racer's attire as a result of being innappropriately dressed.)

4. Thou shalt answer, "I'm having fun!" anytime co-racers ask how thou is faring. (Thou shalt not say what thou really thinks, "This is crazy. I cannot believe I flew to Washington to run 34 miles in this crap. You know what else is crazy? All of you people actually live in this kind of weather all the time. And you must like it. Now that's crazy.")

5. When the going gets tough, thou shalt freely recall (Despite the fact that Nietzsche used this quote in reference to philosophical ideas that rise far above a mere run through the woods.) Nietzsche's famous words, "Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger." (Thou shalt not crawl into a hypothermic ball upon the side of the trail after thou slips in mud or gets pelted in the eyes by sleet. Thou shalt just run, damnit.)

"See" you next week!

Posted by Meghan at 8:34 AM | Comments (5)

January 15, 2007

Week of January 15th

(Day 1, Sunday 1- 1:45 hilly and easy, in my neighborhood)
Monday- 1. 1:25 snowshoe running with 50 minutes tempo effort on rolling terrain, Upper Terraces Loop and the snowmobile road; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Tuesday- 1. 1:45 hilly and kinda-easy (see below), Old Gardiner Road; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. CrossFit workout
Wednesday- 1. 1:15 hilly and easy, around my neighborhood; 2. cross country skiing (Yeah, finally!) 1:30-ish hilly and very easy, Blacktail Plateau Drive; 3. core
Thursday- 1. 1:00 easy and hilly snowshoe running, Upper Terraces Loop and snowmobile road; 2. CrossFit workout
Friday- pure, joyous, unadulterated rest from running; 1. CrossFit; 2. core
Saturday- Capitol Peak Mega Fat Ass 34 mile race, 6:52
Sunday- 20 minute shake-out run, Victor, ID
(Day 9, Monday- 1:45 easy and hilly, Horseshoe Canyon near Driggs, ID)

This week is part of a 9-day block of training, the final training push. I'm going to list the whole 9-day she-bang here in this week so I can see how the 9 days pan out on "paper."

The 9-day schedule (all layed out because it's mostly unchangeable):
Sunday- 1:45 hilly and easy
Monday- 1. 1:30 hilly snowshoeing with 45 minute workout; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Tuesday- 1. 1:45 hours hilly and easy (snowshoeing or running); 2. CrossFit workout
Wednesday- 1. 1:15 hilly and easy; 2. cross country skiing (Hopefully! I'm trying to work this into the already tight schedule for the week. ); 3. yoga 45 minutes; 4. core
Thursday- 1. 1:00 hilly and easy; 2. CrossFit workout 3. yoga 45 minutes
Friday- rest running; 1. CrossFit workout; 2. core (fly to Portland, OR)
Saturday- 34 mile race in Olympia, WA
Sunday- 2-3 hour (depending on how I feel after racing) trail run in to be determined location in Portland, OR (fly home)
Monday- 1:45 hilly and easy

9-day hours on-trail goal: 17:00+
This week's hours-on-trail goal: 13:30+

Tuesday's run was supposed to be nice and easy through somewhat hilly terrain. This route has about 1500 feet elevation gain seperated into 1 long (about 40 minutes) and 1 short (12-ish minutes) climb. It's pretty snow-covered right now. As a result of the high winds last week, the snow has been sorted into huge snow drifts and bare patches of dirt. The snow drifts are knee-deep and exhausting to trudge through, but the bare dirt feels SO good underfoot. I tried my hardest not to push my pace on that bare dirt, even though my body really, really wanted to move. I let myself get amped up for a little while here and there, just to satiate the speed demons inside me. I did yoga today, too, because I feel pretty tight. It's amazing what that does for me.

Wednesday's Phrase of the Day: Feed Me! (I'm so hungry. Like, all the time.)

In the end of this week and this 9-day training stint, I didn't make it to my time goals. Our flights home from the race in Washington were majorly screwed up, so they prevented us from getting in Sunday's trail run. At the time, I was disappointed. My legs were feeling really good after Saturday's race, and I really wanted to test the legs out underfoot. Now, I'm slightly less disappointed, as I think the week turned out well and there is nothing I can really do about fubared airplane travel.

Posted by Meghan at 3:28 AM | Comments (3)

January 14, 2007

It's Okay To Laugh Now

It's a week later, I'm laughing. You can, too. This is my car, in the ditch!

Posted by Meghan at 5:10 AM | Comments (2)

January 13, 2007

Antsy Pants

During this recovery week, I've become all antsy. This sentiment is particularly obvious on the weekend days, which are usually my big running days of the week. Here it is on a Saturday evening, and I don't feel all tuckered and tired from a big day out. More like, I'm all jittery and rearing to go. Watch out bike trainer, as I suspect you will be my energy releasing mechanism in just a little while.

Right now, I am very fit. I think I am currently at my fittest. As in, fittest ever, in my whole life. This is a tough one to gauge, though, because the kind of fitness I have right now is quite different from that which I've previously experienced. I wouldn't say I'm particularly fast or strong, at all. More like, I can just run forever at a moderate clip. I'd also say that I could definitely be fitter.

I'm all antsy to begin next week. Next week is my last big training week before the taper begins. Actually, a last minute change has been made to my training schedule; my "hard week" begins tomorrow (instead of Monday) and ends the following Monday (instead of Sunday). So, that's 9 challenging days of training. Is it time to start yet?

Most excitingly (Is that a word?), it appears that plans have been finalized to run this race next weekend. I'm pretty psyched to log some mileage on some somewhat unsnowy single-track, which is decidedly few and far between in this part of the world right now (However, I have heard reports of this area received some snow last week. I hope it melts.).

So, is it tomorrow yet?

(P.S. Does anyone else find my weekly workout logs to be dreadfully boring? I'm bored just writing them; they must be god-awful to read.)

Posted by Meghan at 6:49 PM | Comments (4)

January 8, 2007

Week of January 8th

Monday- 1: 1:45 snowshoe running, Horseshoe Canyon near Driggs, ID; 2. CrossFit workout; 3. core
Tuesday- rest, total, complete, joyous rest
Wednesday- 1. 1:50 hilly and easy, Old Gardiner Road; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Thursday- 1. 50 minutes hilly and easy, Yellowstone River Trail; 2. yoga 45 minutes
Friday- 1. 1 hour hilly and easy, in my neighborhood; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. CrossFit workout
Saturday- 1. 1 hour hilly and easy, in my neighborhood; 2. 1 hour spinning easy on the bike trainer; 3. CrossFit workout; 4. core
Sunday- 1. 1:45 hilly and easy

This week's goals:
1. 9:15+ on trail running
2. yoga 3 times
3. core 3 times
4. CrossFit workout 3 times
5. take this week as a recovery week

I'm pretty happy with the way last week turned out (see below). Monday's run was a carryover from the weekend. My goal was to run 4 solid days in a row, Friday through Monday (today). This mission was accomplished.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday's runs were conducted in some violently cold weather. Additionally, Thursday's run also featured some incredibly cold wind. For the last three days, I've run in temperatures ranging between -13 and -25 degrees F, in the middle of the afternoon. It hasn't been even close to approaching zero since Wednesday. It's just plain dangerous to be out there for very long. Resultingly, my runs have been shortened by a bit each day, to make them, quite literally, survivable. I'm okay with it, though, as it's a recovery week. Besides, I feel pretty freaking tough being out there at all.

Well, this week panned out just fine, despite the debilitating weather we had for 3 days. I didn't reach my 9:15 running goal, but I also didn't wimp out on running outside in this season's coldest temperatures so far. I actually took a picture of a frosty me on the day I ran when it was -17 degrees F. But it is so far beyond ugly that I cannot and will not post it. I did all the requisite cross-training, which I'm elated about, and even added in a little extra time on the bike trainer to calm yesterday's anstiness.

On to bigger and better weeks!

Posted by Meghan at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

Weekend Happenings and Mishappenings

There is good news and bad news.

First the bad news: I dumped my car into a ditch on Saturday. I had no good excuse, really. We were returning from an afternoon of snowshoeing, and it was beautiful and clear. Alternatively, the more appropriate and explainable time to do this would have been on the drive out to the trailhead, as the snowstorm-of-the-day had not yet finished. Oh wow, what an idiot. There was about 8 inches of unplowed powder on the road. I successfully turned a corner, then became suddenly inattentive and drove off the road. The car nearly rolled over and most of it (including the exhaust pipe) was buried deep in snow. Resultingly, we had to stand outside in the bitter cold (in wet running clothes) for 2 hours until a tow truck came and yanked me out. My feet were so numb in wet running shoes and socks by the time I got home that I had begun to wonder about frostbite. My toes were really painful to warm up again, but they are just fine. Notably, the winter storm of the weekend dumped a ton of snow and my car was safely padded by several feet of snow when it ended up half on its side in the ditch. There was no damage, aside from a hefty tow bill!

That was good news, as was the rest of my weekend. The name of the game this weekend was powder. So much snow fell on the west side of the Teton Mountains this weekend that the possibility of running without snowshoes was negligible. So, we just embraced the snowstorm and snowshoe ran our way through the weekend. After a big weekend of snowshoe running, my muscles are way, way fatigued, but I don't feel any of the joint aches I normally would after so much time spent running.

A peek out the window on Saturday morning yielded a big surprise: lots of new snow and it was still falling. We headed out to a canyon on the west side of the Tetons called Darby Canyon. This canyon climbs gradually into the Tetons. When we arrived at the trailhead, no one was there and we had about 6 inches of untouched powder to ourselves. It was quite cold, so the fallen snow was light and fluffy, perfect for snowshoe running. As the afternoon progressed, a few snowmobilers and cross-country skiiers came out into the canyon, and we shared the trail. Everyone out there was supremely happy and friendly. Midway through our run, the snowstorm cleared, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful late afternoon. That is, until I drove into a ditch.

Sunday's snowshoe run was just plain insane. I do not recommend that anyone spend 4:15 running through powder on snowshoes. Okay, go run on a groomed trail as much as you want. But don't do this. This was excruciatingly difficult. I couldn't be more happier that it's over. In all seriousness, it was a pretty sweet but very challenging experience. The snow returned on Saturday night and it continued all day Sunday. We did Sunday's snowshoe run in another canyon on the west side of the Tetons called North Leigh Canyon. We never saw another soul out there all afternoon (Rightfully so, I guess, as there was a snowstorm in progress.) At the trailhead, there was probably 8 inches of untracked powder. As we climbed higher, I was up to my knees in powder. I'm not joking, at all.

We had intended to run for at least 4 hours, 2 hours out and 2 hours back. About an hour into the run, we realized that there was no way we could continue running in progressively deeper and deeper snow. So, we did 2 out-and-backs along our own snowshoe tracks. Interestingly, inches of snow fell into our tracks while we were gone, and so each time back-and-forth yielded a powdery snowshoe run on a packed base. I hit the proverbial wall-o-glycogen depletion at just over 3 hours into the run. This was the hardest part of the run for me. It took me about 15 minutes to get through that low point, and the rest was survivable. We arrived back at the trailhead just as it was getting dark, and I was elated to see the car.

In all, this weekend was an awesome training weekend. We got in all the time-on-feet that we wanted. I could do without driving into ditches and things of that sort. However, if I am to drive into a ditch, then the snowy, undamaging one that I ended up in was the perfect place to have it happen. Training-wise, my only concern is that I'm doing too much low-impact snowshoeing. I hope that I'm gaining more muscle strength from it, but I'm slightly worried that my body is becoming unaccustomed to the underfoot pounding of regular trail running. However, if I am to trail run in the winter around here, snowshoe running is the only way to do it.

Posted by Meghan at 10:22 AM | Comments (4)

January 3, 2007

Seeking Advice From Snowshoe Runners

I am very much a snowshoe running newbie, so I have a few questions for those who know about this sort of thing:

1) In snowshoe running, if I run faster, I glide over the snow more, and sink in less. Thus, the primary effort is cardiovascular, rather than muscular. However, the cardiovascular effort required to maintain the glide is rather high. In the example of last weekend's 3-hour snowshoe run, my heart rate stayed higher throughout the workout than what it would be for a 3-hour long run, so that I could maintain some semblance of gliding through the powder. Alternatively, if I run slower, I sink in more. The resulting effort is more muscular than cardiovascular. That is, my heart rate stays lower, but my leg muscles fatigue faster than what they would in the same amount of running. I'm having trouble finding a happy medium between the two. Does it exist? Do I just need more snowshoeing fitness? I'm (happily) limited to snowshoe running almost exclusively on powder, rather than a groomed surface, which I suspect contributes to this condundrum.

2). I'm experiencing tail drag syndrome. I can feel the snowshoe tails hitting the ground before my feet (and I see it when I look back at my tracks). They hit and drag until the rest of the snowshoe comes down. I have to significantly modify my gait to prevent any tail dragging (as in, super-high knees, like I'm doing a plyometric drill or something), which doesn't seem practical. I run in snowshoes with a spring-loading system and I recall one of the benefits of this loading is that it is supposed to prevent (reduce?) tail dragging. Is this just going to happen on some level no matter what, and I need to get used to it? It seems that the spring loading is working when I mess around with it; however, is there a chance it's not working right? (Maybe I should just call the store I bought my snowshoes from with this question, but I thought I'd ask some other runners also.)

Thanks, all!

Posted by Meghan at 7:16 PM | Comments (3)

January 2, 2007

Week of January 1st

Monday- 1. 45 minutes easy and flat, my neighborhood in the dark; 2. CrossFit workout; 3. yoga 45 minutes; 4. core
Tuesday- 1. 1:25 hilly and easy, Eagle Creek Road; 2. CrossFit
Wednesday- 1. 1:10 snowshoeing inclusive of about a 30 minute hill workout, Bunsen Peak Road; 2. core
Thursday- 1:10 combination of running and snowshoe running, Horseshoe Canyon near Driggs, ID
Friday- 1. 1:30 easy and flat, farm roads near Victor, ID; 2. yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Saturday- 2:30 hilly snowshoe running, Darby Canyon near Driggs, ID
Sunday- 4:10 hilly snowshoe running, North Leigh Canyon, near Driggs, ID

This week's goals:
1. between 11:30 and 12:15 on trail running, concentrated in a big weekend
2. yoga 3 times
3. core 3 times
4. CrossFit workout 3 times
5. manage still-healing leg appropriately

It's Tuesday and my leg is a happy camper! I think all it needed was to be home sweet home out on the the snow and trails again. I am so happy! I'm still going to be nice to it for another day or so, though. I'm moving my hill workout to later in the week to give my leg an extra few days to heal.

I didn't mean for Wednesday's snowshoe run to turn into a workout, but it did. The original plan was for a nice, easy, lovely, afternoon showshoe run. It's 3.5-ish miles and at least 1000 feet elevation gain from the trailhead that I began at to another trail junction. As soon as I started running, I just felt good. I think I subconsciously picked up the pace a little bit, and I still felt good. The first half mile of the trail is rolling, and then it just climbs. By the time I hit the full-on climbing, I was into a tempo effort. I just climbed, and climbed, and worked hard. It took me almost exactly 30 minutes from the bottom of the climb to reach the trail junction at the top, a distance of no more than 3 miles. Yes, I was snowshoe running (uphill) at 10 minute/mile pace, and it felt like a tempo effort. I can't tell if I should be embarassed or proud. Whatever the case, it was a hella workout. When I reached the top, I ran on for a bit longer, then turned around and ran back to the trailhead. By the time I reached my car, my legs were jelly, with the hard climb up and then the downhill pounding. I hope this has no negative affect on my leg, as I didn't mean to do a workout today.

Well, I accomplished most of this week's goals. I fell short on 1 CrossFit workout and 1 yoga workout. Aside from that, I accomplished everything, including the big weekend that was planned. The biggest accomplishment: 12:40 of running! For me, and including a bunch of slow snowshoe running, that's about an 85 mile week. I couldn't be more pleased.

Posted by Meghan at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 1, 2007

To Infinity and Beyond (Or Just to 2007)

My last run of 2006 was a 3:15 snowshoe run through the best powder I've seen so far this winter. Last time I did a 3 hour snowshoe run, we spent over half of it on a compacted snowshoe track. I'm learning that a good snowshoe track makes snowshoe running pretty easy. Yesterday, however, was a whole new experience. In some places, we ran through shin-high powder. In others, the powder was only 3 or so inches deep. In all cases, it made for a very challenging run. Also, it made for a very slow run. It took 3 hours and 15 minutes to cover 12 miles and about 1500 feet elevation gain and later descent. By the end, I felt happily exhausted.

Happy New Year! I am so excited for 2007! My running goals for this new year are still somewhat unorganized beyond the first 2 months of the year. However, I've decided that this will be a year of trail running and ultra racing. This year, I will confine myself to the shorter ultra distance events. I want my body to acclimate and get faster at the 50K distance.

The first 2 months of 2007 are well-organized and packed solid. For the next 3 weeks, I will be training intensely. I may (or may not, depending on available time and how I feel) do 2 races in January, using them as training and workouts.

Then, I will taper into my big goal race. I'm planning to race this race. One glimpse at this website and you will see that I have gotten in entirely over my head and you will also surmise that I must be crazy. I won't begin to argue that I'm well prepared in my previous training and racing experiences for something like this. In fact, it's a rather silly idea, given my lack of experience in this type of event. However, I couldn't be more excited to get out there and see what happens. Most likely, I'm going to spend 6 days chasing around professional athletes, trying hard not to get left entirely in the dust. Most likely, it's going to hurt like hell. And, most likely, I'm going to love it. Additionally, my sweetie will also be racing, and he might actually win, or something very close. That's going to be fun to watch (from my vantage point far behind).

After the race, I plan to spend much of the rest of February recovering and letting all of my body's aches and pains heal. That is, subsequent to torturing ourselves by running across a portion of Central America, we will lie in torpid stupors of fatigue, race recovery, and tiki drink haze on a plethora of Costa Rican beaches.

I don't yet have a plan for after recovering from this race, but I'll keep y'all posted! To infinity and beyond!

Posted by Meghan at 8:38 PM | Comments (3)