the Way of the Turtle

6.5 Mi Snowshoe Run in the Pine Bush
Wednesday, February 21, 2007

OK, not exactly a long run, but moderately long for a snowshoe run, right?

My legs were still feeling the effects of the weekend's races and Mondays brief XC ski jaunt. Combined with some very uneven trails, this meant I spent the first 90 to 100 minutes pretty evenly split between walking and running. At that point I found my "groove" and managed some pretty consistent running for about 40 minutes or so.

Today's snow was a third type - crust. It's been warm enough that the top layers have melted and refrozen, leaving a hard icy layer over the powder underneath. The Pine Bush has also seen a lot of activity since the storm - skiing, snowshoeing, and just plain hiking and running. In some spots the track was good, in others it was a mess. The main trails have gotten enough use that there's a track packed fairly solid... that made for reasonably good running once I got warmed up. The most curious section was a trail across the "desert", where the lack of ground cover leads to lots of blowing and drifting snow... the XC track had been filled in by drift, but for some reason was fairly solid - but if I stepped even a bit to one side or the other, I'd break through the crust and sink up to my ankle or deeper.

One thing about crust is that it's not terribly forgiving if you don't lift your knees high enough... I caught the front of a shoe three times and did a near face-plant in the snow. On one my left calf went into a screaming cramp - no fun! On the plus side, it's much softer falling on snow this deep than on bare trails...

Had a nice clear night... saw Venus when I first set out, and Orion and one of the Dippers were prominent in the sky the whole time, as well as a very pretty waxing crescent moon.

So overall a mixed bag - started out feeling like my legs were made of concrete and ended with a decent stretch of running. Tomorrow is definitely a rest night, don't know about Friday yet... since I'm hoping to do the Greylock races Saturday and a long road run on Sunday, I may rest up Friday too.

JMH