Christmas Weekend

Friday's run was pretty much a repeat of Thursday's difficult run through the sugary snow. It was made slightly easier by Rick and I snowshoeing most of the course on Spot's walk. The problem is that sugar doesn't really pack. I only ran 4.5 miles and won't even say how long it took.

Yesterday, after all the presents were opened and before the cooking, I headed out for a run. My calf was still tight from running in the snow and perhaps from favoring the knee. I decided not to run just fields. Instead, I headed out King Rd, sticking to the unpaved shoulders where I could. When I reached the Packard's field, I was happy to find the snowmobiles had been out. To my disappointment, the snowmobiles had no more success packing the snow than Rick and I did with the snowshoes. Still, I ran about a mile before heading back onto road. I was about a mile short of my intended distance when I reached the driveway. OK, I could do another mile in the field. It's amazing how high a heart rate can climb while going so slowly. Finished with 5.2 miles.

Heading to Bradbury this morning, I was a little worried about subjecting my calf to a long trail run. Luckily, the conditions there were way better than home. Some of the trails were actually packed well. Those that weren't at least had less snow and so there was less spinning of the wheels.

Randy and Nate were already in the lot when I pulled in. Ian, Emma, and Kip came next. Allen came just in time to join up. We did the start of the Scuffle up till the Ginn meets up with Snowmobile Trail, there we stayed on the Ginn, essentially doing the Bruiser start in reverse.

I stayed with the group for about a mile, but then dropped off the pace. I didn't want to stress the calf that much. They all waited for me at one spot, but I assured them I was fine by myself and not to wait any more. Here, Emma stayed with me for a mile or so. Then we hooked back up with the group, maybe Ian was stopping to de-ice Kip's paws; I'm not sure. Then Emma rejoined the faster people and Allen dropped back to run with me. It was nice to catch up; I haven't talked with Allen or Karen in a while.

Everyone was in the parking lot when we finished. Tammy informed Ian that Edna and Lucy's didn't open till 10 a.m. Rats! A hot cup of coffee and warm doughnut was in the back of my mind for most of the run. I joked we should run longer, but think my calf was happy with the 6 miles we did and didn't really want to do much more. Next week.