Saturday, March 1

Saturday, March 1, 2008
Ran 63 minutes in light snow during the late afternoon. Most of the state received over a foot, but here in mountains we got totally gypped. For the second time in less than a week, as downstate received another foot earlier in the week when we barely got 6 inches. This time we didn’t even get that – only about 3 inches, but it was pretty enough to run in, and easy enough on the legs. For the second day in a row I ran to the high school. There is a one mile long access road which is kept smoothly graded with snow all winter. It’s a great run, my track kids run it a lot in spring as we wait for the fields to dry out. It is very nearly arrow straight, with a gentle v shaped profile – down and up in either direction. There are also trails all around the school, and they’re graded too, and tracked for cross country skiing. Not so great for running, though, so I took another trail which, though it went out into the middle of nowhere, was smoothly graded about 10 feet wide. So I took it, and after a quarter mile or so I ran into a logger running a skidder. I hope he’s clearing land for the new track complex! As I passed by the athletic fields, still covered with 25 inches of old snow despite being shortchanged this last week, I called out “30 days! You’ve got 30 days to get clear! Track starts in 4 weeks and 2 days!” Actually, I did it several times. There are mountains of snow 12 feet high surrounding the parking lot. There are windows in some of the first floor rooms covered to the top with snowdrifts – at least 8 feet high. I anticipate a banner mud season this year.

It’s been awhile since I’ve kept my training log, but I have been doing maintenance training – a fairly long run or swim every 2-3 days. I haven’t been to the pool since last Saturday, and probably won’t go back for a little while. I don’t know if the pool was causing it or just aggravating it, but swimming was absolutely killing my sinuses. Maybe it was just the last remnant of that stupid cold from earlier this year, but it seemed that every time I swam my sinuses would go through a week of hell. I really feel bad for people who suffer from chronic sinusitus – I felt as if my head were going to explode. Even the neti pot didn’t seem to help. They finally cleared up yesterday, maybe the day before.

Yesterday I ran to the school and back also, leaving out the extra trail near the school but adding a little trail foray closer to home. It was close to six miles, and I figure today was close to 7. I yelled at the fields yesterday also. Maybe they’re putting up a dome with in indoor 200 meter track. Oh, I’ll bet you anything that’s what the logging in back of the school is all about. Clearing land for the dome. Yup.