Saturday, December 11, 2004

Icy, Treacherous Run

It was a good workout for the knees and ankles, I must admit. We had a chinook blow through between 8:00 and 9:00 last night. According to Environment Canada, the temp at 8:00 was -4c, at 9:00 it was +10C, which is pretty typical. The temperatures started to fall off rapidly about 7:00 this morning, and during all that time it was raining nicely, after snowing late yesterday.

Because of the stiff west winds, I thought I'd go west into the forest, where the trees would cut most of it, and where an article on winter running I'd read in Runner's World said it was best to head into the wind at the start. Unfortunately the article said nothing about running on black ice. (And thanks for the subscription, Shane.)

Some parts were pretty good. There was a long, reasonably flat paved stretch, where the snow gave just enough traction to keep from slipping, but I could easily do the curler's slide if I wanted to (and I did, several times). Some parts were just bumpy and slippery, so I tried to keep to the foot-wide strip of crusty grass between the ice and the bush, when it existed.

There are twelve bridges to cross out that way in the park. I crossed eleven going out and the same back, as two bridges are parallel but on different sides of the park. All but one arc over the creek quite picturesquely, and the approaches tend to match the angles of the ends of the bridges. Say a ten degree slope, iced and polished. Almost every bridge, I had to run/climb down the side of the approach, then climb up on the bridge deck, then climb down the other side. A couple, however, I took slow and skated down the slope. A lot of fun, actually.

I really appreciate the morning excersizes I do, as every slip and slide was accompanied by a thrown arm or flying foot. Six months ago I would have been ripping muscle and tendon to shreds, but now I don't even notice. Sweet.

Today's run:
Distance: 12.4 km. Time: 1:26:21.14. Speed: 8.6 kph.
Rest distance: 1.88 km. Rest time: 21:00.
Total distance: 14.29 km. Total time: 1:47:21.

Weather: Light snow and -1C, with winds N 45 kph, gusting to 54 kph. The snow was pretty off and on the whole time, and the wind swung to the north west by the end.

The reason I only did 12 km was that I ran out of park. I think there was more path that headed north towards and along 37th Street, but I was getting a pretty good workout with the ice and snow and all.

And slushy puddles, did I mention slushy puddles? When you stomp in a slushy puddle, the foot you stomp with stays dry as the slush splooshes away like the ejecta from a meteor strike. It's the foot flying by at the time, getting into position for the next step that gets shlogged. I did this at least a half a dozen times and always stomping with the left foot. My right toes were cold and wet for most of the run.

All bitching aside, it was a fun time. All the achy parts got worked out by the third or forth interval, and only the knees complained occasionally when things got a bit slippy.

Oh, yeah, got myself a water bottle and holster thingy, and it made a big difference.

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