Two for the price of one, this time with this post.

Yesterday I went to Augusta to run. It is something that I am doing at least once a week. To break up the monotony of running so much around the house over almost the past year. Yeah, it has nearly been a year since we put ourselves into lock-down.

I drove over to Cony High School and figured that I would do 6-8 depending on how I felt. It was still chilly, and the wind was blowing pretty good, but the sun was out brightly—a lovely Winter’s day.

This run was supposed to be little more than a recovery run pace, but nothing too hard. After getting up the hill in front of the school, I got over by Piggery Road and decided to go ahead and cut the run to six miles.

Once I got past the gate, Piggery was pretty much frozen over, and I just went along at a nice pace, but without pushing off too hard. I also watched how I was landing to ensure that I didn’t suddenly meet the road with my arse.

It was sure pretty looking over to the Viles Arboretum, and when I got down to Cony Road and turned North, I found out how strong those winds were. Pretty much a wind tunnel, and it did slow me down and make me work a little harder than I wanted to. I did the second part of the old 5K course that I have run more than a few times, bringing back a few memories of those races.

Coming back into Cony, I did pick up the pace a little, but nothing crazy. It was a good run and an honest 10K, with a few hills and bumps to make you work a bit harder than you want to.

I know that the Nike React Milers are comfortable running shoes, but they aren’t fast ones. Every time I tried to pick it up, they are like an old rocking chair and lulled me right back into that comfortable pace.

2/22/21

This morning I had initially planned on doing a little speed work, primarily 200s, with plenty of rest between them. I was looking more for some distance and knocking a little rust off the legs. Originally, I was going to wear my Pacer 2s, but while walking Bennie around the snowmobile trail, I figured out that speed work with the temps in the mid-20s, and a cold wind wasn’t going to work.

So I decided to do a tougher 5.0 miles and throw in a couple of surges. I ended up wearing the Meraki’s so I wouldn’t be tempted to do too much speed work.

I didn’t have to worry, and the legs were kind of tired from yesterday’s run and the walk on the snowmobile trail beforehand. Plus, running into that breeze didn’t help either.

The planned surges didn’t happen, and I ran according to how I felt at the moment. There wasn’t a lot of rhyme or reason to this run. However, I did make it up Philbrick Hill – slowly, but I made it. Then I picked it up a little for the last mile finishing beside the Big Pine down-back. I did have to slow down on the white ice. Well, at least it felt like I was slowing down a lot.

Not the run I planned, but I have to be ready to change up a workout on the fly when the conditions are not what I had prepared for. Running fast in cold, windy weather at this point in my life is an invitation to strains or pulls. I prefer to avoid either, so I kept patient and will run faster on a different day.

I did learn that wearing my thicker merino wool socks is not the best way to go with the Meraki v1’s. It is just slightly too tight on the Tailor’s Bunionette, and while it is not anything terrible, it is a distraction and would turn into something if I had to run a longer distance or if I was using the Meraki all the time. Like I had done previously. I love how the Meraki feel underfoot but need just a touch more room in the forefoot for winter socks. Thin socks seem to work just fine.

A decent run where I got the miles in and beat the snow. We got another 2-3 inches again this afternoon. No biggie, more of a pain in the butt than anything.