I knew I'd have to train through the Colorado winter in order to reach my goal in New Orleans. But, usually that does involve sunshine, even if it's cold. Sunshine makes the cold temperatures bearable. Today is was about 20 degrees and cloudy for the long run with the club. Brrrr!!!
We met at the Arvada reservoir (or Blunn reservoir) to preview part of the route for the Ralston Creek half marathon in February. I won't be running in that event because it's just two weeks before the New Orleans race. Maybe I'll volunteer instead since it's a race in the neighborhood.
On the plan was 6 miles. The loop around the reservoir however was a little over 5 miles. We decided to see how we felt at the end of it and back track a half mile if we felt the need to get all 6 miles in. I'd never run the res before and had always wanted to so it was nice to get it done today. The start of the run was very cold. My fingers were freezing and felt a little painful even though I was wearing gloves. Luckily my sleeves on my jacket were long enough to wrap around my hands. That helped. Running more also helped. My feet were cold as well but at the time I couldn't tell if my laces were too tight or if it was the cold. I changed my laces last night so I wasn't sure if they were properly laced. After a while my feet started feeling a lot better so I guess it really was the cold.
I think it took at least 2 miles for us to warm up. Once we hit the bike path, which was totally clear of snow and ice, we trudged on and got into a groove. There are really nice views on this trail and the snow on the foothills and table mountains made things quite beautiful. And then we hit the uphill. I've often wondered what it would be like to run this stretch. I can see it when I commute on highway 93 and it looks quite intimidating. I was pleased to find out I could handle it. :-) I ran (slowly but, still ran) the whole way. Yay! According to my app, it's over half a mile of climbing.
On the downhill portion, we just tried to turn on the cruise control and coast the rest of the way. We weren't entirely sure of the route once it put us back on the road. That was too bad because we were ready to be done at that point. I think the long stop at the aid station killed my momentum a bit. My legs definitely felt stiff and sore when we started up again after getting Gatorade. But, knowing we were almost done was good.
I liked this run because most of it was on the bike path trail and not on the road running against traffic. That's starting to make me a little nervous, especially now that there is snow and ice on the shoulder. I also liked that I still felt strong even after taking about 2 weeks off because of birthdays and holidays. My hip did start to hurt in the last mile. I'm not sure I would have been happy running the 6th mile so I'm glad we didn't.
Next Sunday we will do at least 6 miles. There are hills planned. And I really must figure out how to get some maintenance miles in during the week.
13 weeks to go!
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