Snow

I am having an unexpected day at home with my youngest today. Gotta love waking up to vomit in the morning! Being a mom is so glamourous some days.

We have gotten over a foot of snow in the last two days. The kids are loving it, and honestly, so am I! Normally snow on March 1st would make me sad, but we have not had much in the way on snow this year and it is pretty. I love where our house is, accross from a vacant field where the deer hang. Oh, and it is the perfect sledding hill. Joy all the way around. Last night we got to eat dinner watching the deer ripping bark off the trees, then start bedding down for the storm. Pretty cool.

Anyways, running. I am still running, but I am not loving it right now. I'm not sure why. January was a really low mileage month at 39, but I knew it would be. 39 isn't terrible considering I didn't run for 3 weeks, and had to come back slowly.

February came in at 110 miles. Not bad, but not really where I wanted it to be. Some of it was life happening, some of it was migraines happening, some of it was an unwillingness to push farther. I don't know. I am just not as proud of that 110 miles as I probably should be.

Yesterday's run was an adventure. There was 8-10" of new snow, plowed in places and not in others. I wore my Yaktraks which worked well if the snow wasn't too deep. It felt like an obstacle course, leaping over piles of snow and running with high knees in the deep drifts. I had forgotten that snow is tough on the legs for any distance. 7 miles felt very long. I made a questionable choice to take the trail home, knowing it would be pretty. I figured it would be slow, but I had time. I thought. Except, no one had been on that trail at all yet. And the snow was over a foot deep because of the snow drifts. And it is all uphill. Whew. it was a very long 2 miles home, and I discovered my nifty Yaktraks don't work so well in deep snow. The snow was actually pushing the chain up and over the top of my toes. After stopping to correct it a few times, I just took them off and slipped and slid my way home. The miscalculations on time left me hauling up the BIG hill to my house since it was most direct, and needing to drive to the preschool in dripping running clothes. (They probably think I don't own real clothes since this is often the case)

Lessons learned? Snow slows you down-a lot. Plan for that next time. It is a lot of fun, but hard work. maybe cutting it a little shorter would have been good.

I have to admit, I kind of like the strange looks I get from people running in the more extreme conditions. It makes me feel bada@#. I have been feeling rather down lately, so it is nice to have that pick me up.