All Downhill From Here

Our winter finally came, as you’ve probably noticed over at Dawn’s place. Wednesday and Yesterday I had several errands to run, and I’ve cleaned snow off my car 12 times in the last 48 hours. For those of you in warmer climates, who might be unfamiliar with the conditions with which I’ve been dealing, I will attempt a description for you.

The stuff on my car has been like fluffy cold little feathers. It comes off easily, but I am careful to stay up wind from it as I brush it off, so I don’t get a melting wet faceful. The stuff on the roads is different: take a coke slurpee, mix it up with some soft vanilla ice cream, until it has the consistency of mashed potatoes. Now spread it ankle deep or deeper in every parking lot, and along the roadsides. Spread it thinner on the roads, and remember that the roads are smooth and cold. Now go out and take your kids to soccer, band practice, a doctor’s appointment, go to work, run an errand for your boss, and remember to keep your gas tank and windshield washer fluid topped up!

Not that I’m complaining. It’s really very, very beautiful, how the snow has coated the trees, fences, and all stationary structures. I can’t wait to go tobogganing!

Usually I run outside around the neighbourhood on Thursdays. Last night I decided that I would rather go out and drive through mashed potato snow than run in it (I’d been driving everywhere in it anyway), and took myself to the Oval to run inside instead. The Roadrunners assignment for the night was a ladder of 600m, 800m, 1000m, 1000m, 800m, and 600m. Between the warm up and cool down I did all but the second 1000m.

As usual on a Thursday, my legs felt like lead. What is it about Thursdays? Is the force of gravity stronger on Thursdays? Is my body heavier on Thursdays? It doesn’t seem to matter what I did or didn’t run on the weekends or Tuesdays, Thursdays is always a tough slog. Oh well, I did the workout anyway and tried not to be too disappointed in my splits.

Now I’m looking forward to Saturday. We have my absolute favourite XC race this weekend, the Weaselhead 8k. It goes through BIG ol’ trees, on a soft, roller-coaster path, where there is hardly any flat after the first 500m. Okay, there’s a little flat km of lasso-shaped loop at the end, before we all head back to the start/finish, but that’s it. It’s the prettiest course in the series, and I’ll have every reason to strap on the Yaktrax, with all this snow falling. I was not looking forward to doing this one with ice and mud. Now it’s going to be such FUN!