New Year’s Eve – December 31, 2007

Monday, December 31, 2007
Another perfect running day. 28 degrees, mostly cloudy, breeze from the west (the direction I usually go out). A leisurely stretch and I’m out the door by 3:30. Today is an open day – run what I feel, as long as it’s easy. It had been snowing most of the day, beginning promptly at midnight, so the roads were in ideal conditions: well packed and mostly firm, with some icy spots just to keep you alert. Unlike yesterday, when I was still tired from the long run Saturday, my legs felt fresh and happy to be out on the roads, so I went past the normal turnaround at 1.4 miles and down the same steeply downhill road taken on November 18. The nastiest part of the hill is the second half of the third mile, which I was conveniently able to avoid by taking a new road. It’s New Year’s Eve, I feel good, I’ve got an hour to kill before dark – time to explore! And a very pleasant loop it is too, a gradual downhill access road, a nice whoop-de-doop very low density development loop, access road up, each between .6 and .8 miles. Not a single car for over three miles. I felt strong and ran easy throughout the run, and ran the last 1.6 miles in 13:30 (8:26 pace), then added on a bit at the end to take it up to an hour. I figure the distance at 6.5 miles. I’ll gmaps-ped it later. I’m pleased that one day was adequate rest after Saturday.

December by the numbers. 131.4 meq total, 88.2 miles running, 43.2 meq swimming. 3 dnr. 3 weeks sick. No injuries.

It was a totally fun run. It wasn’t snowing, not from the sky. Most parts of the roads I run are heavily treed, mixed hardwood and pine, mostly pine. The pine trees really hold a LOT of snow up in their boughs, especially if there’s not much wind as the snow falls. As there wasn’t today. Just around 3:30, however, the wind began to pick up, and ahead of me up the road I saw random areas seemingly buffeted by snow squalls. Actually, they were avalanches of snow, starting at the top of the pines and gathering strength and speed in some sort of swarm mentality. By the time I reached one which had been visible from about 300 m, it was gone and the sun was shining brightly near the horizon in the distance, the only sign of a squall one minute earlier being the new hatched miniature snow drifts frozen in their gradual trek across the road. I got caught in the next squall, though, and it was, to understate things, robust. Within about 10 seconds, I was coated with about ¼ inch of snow. Seriously, I couldn’t see! My face was completely covered. Totally cool – I couldn’t help laughing. Most runs are fun, but this one was especially so. It sure was one fun run.